If it's worth doing it's worth overdoing

[Jumpback]

I've always done this a lot.

When I was a teenager I went crazy in spending all my money I had saved from years of mowing lawns on photography equipment, when I became interested in weightlifting at 18-19, I worked out so much I hurt a tendon in my wrist and my knee. Buy stuff to resell and overdo it. Etc

In the moment it's like I'm high on the euphoria of doing something and I don't see that I have gone too far. I end up hurting myself by getting in over my head or just hurting myself physically (the weightlifting), or possibly not realizing that I am affecting other people with this.

I just don't realize in the moment that I am doing it.

I'd say like maybe it's just a little bit like bipolar disorder, but it's not that.

This sounds like an ASD trait, but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. Do other people, if you want to share, do things like this? I was just curious if it was ASD or a personality trait if anyone wants to share. And how do you stop yourself from doing this is it an ASD trait outside of a spouse yelling at you?

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

That's me in a nutshell.

 

[Jumpback]

That's me in a nutshell.

Thank you. Since figuring out I probably have this a short time ago, I'm going through all kinds of things to try to make sure it's ASD and to try to fix things

Stupid thing is since I don't come across as overly ASD and I have a history of traumatic sounding things that psychs tend to assume is the real problem, it seems like I better have a strong case going to a psych with this to convince them, or just solve it myself

Somehow everything I kind of ask 'is this AS' ends up having people on here who have similar issues, so it almost just has to be this.

I'm slightly afraid that if I described the over doing it thing, I might get diagnosed with being bipolar which would make 5 disorders I have been diagnosed with plus other things.

 

[Giraffes]

Yes i relate, doing a thing to excess and ignoring other things that matter but are invisible due to my extreme ability to spend huge amounts of time on the thing i like is i feel Autism, i bought loads and loads of clothes of a 'type' (vintage) at times they were the wrong size, not fit for my life-style (my thing was sparkly, fancy evening wear) they remained in my closet and i still love them, but as often the case for me i found 'the happy closet' book about the psychology behind my shopping, and now love vintage shopping but feel more control within that interest, my ex boyfriend is film obsessed... over 600 films, and watches....... the brand, technology, history, often my boyfriends have Autism and these 'special interests' have always been part of the relationship, like yourself fitness and weight training has been one of mine i've dipped in and out of for 30 years, during corona19 i made my own home gym and made a program to run from 0- 20 minutes, i now can run 50 minutes but as i know 'when i'm on it' i get obsessed i made sure i warmed up and cooled down as i've injured myself in the passed,binge watching films, tv programs till 'silly O'clock' is also part of me, i think transitions are hard for me, my advice is build your awareness maybe schedule the time you spend doing the thing?, i hope some or any of the above helps.

 

[menander]

Something odd I noticed, too. I often wondered why the brain wants more than the body can handle. It happens to NTs too . Think addiction. The whole problem with OD is that the brain just wants more and more even if the body will die. Anything the brain gets hold of is the same. Truly, it's a black hole. I can't figure out why the brain, once it finds something, just has no sense about it. That is why humans developed a Will. Because the brain can't control itself. They say the more you do something, the more you will want to do it. The brain is child. Treat it accordingly.

 

[Rasputin]

I can relate to this also. I do everything to excess. For example, a few years ago I got fed up paying high prices for multi-blade razor blades. So. I went back to using a double edged razor. In shopping for blades I found a good deal and purchased a five year supply of razor blades. When a towel bar became loose I ended up tearing down drywall, adding 2x4 boards to support the towel bar, then repairing and refinishing the wall before reinstalling the towel bar. Because of these habits my wife does not like for me to go shopping or to work on home projects.

 

[Jumpback]

Something odd I noticed, too. I often wondered why the brain wants more than the body can handle. It happens to NTs too . Think addiction. The whole problem with OD is that the brain just wants more and more even if the body will die. Anything the brain gets hold of is the same. Truly, it's a black hole. I can't figure out why the brain, once it finds something, just has no sense about it. That is why humans developed a Will. Because the brain can't control itself. They say the more you do something, the more you will want to do it. The brain is child. Treat it accordingly.

I looked and executive function things are an issue with addictions

I think that my brain starts going along one direction and forgets other directions. Sometimes it's good because I can become a semi expert in things pretty fast, but then I lose site of other things like I was supposed to be doing something else. Researching the history of watches instead of sleeping or something.

When I look things up, my issues are consistently in the executive functioning direction. I think that not exactly looking the part, but having actual things I am struggling with ends up with me getting diagnosed with an endless string of things that half fit.

Like consistently overdoing it might be OCD or various other things, having trouble being organized might be ADHD, getting stressed out when needing to multi task might be an anxiety disorder and so on.

Thanks for responses, trying to figure out how exactly to solve the problem, but to solve the problem you first have to figure out what it is.

 

[Progster]

So. I went back to using a double edged razor. In shopping for blades I found a good deal and purchased a five year supply of razor blades.

I do stuff like this, too. There's a special offer on cheese, and I buy far more than will fit in the fridge. Luckily we have two fridges!

Also, music: I have over 14,000 albums in one form or another, collected over a lifetime. I like a band, and listen to that band every single available moment of the day until the fad passes. Right now I'm spending all my spare money on music. I don't care about new clothes, or eating out or jewelry or make-up, only music

 

[Raggamuffin]

I overspend on a few select interests. PC builds, photography equipment, cars and performance modifications for cars. However, if I need anything in general I often spend far too much than what would be considered "necessary."

Other than that my main outgoing is excessive spending on food and collecting music. I'm not a big fan of cooking, so it's expensive to get meals and wholefoods as opposed to ingredients to make meals.

With regards to music, my hard drive failed last year and I lost 15 years worth of collecting music. Started off as a metalhead in my teen years and then it expanded into a collection of over 50k songs spanning hundreds of genres. Unfortunately this is the 2nd time I've lost my entire music collection. So now I'm ensuring a backup is kept.

Not sure I'll ever stop collecting - especially after 2 huge setbacks. Speaking of, I spent half the day collecting a further 192 albums. Takes time to work through the backlog though. Most I ever managed was over 1000 new songs rated and categorised in one day. Felt like my head was going to explode afterwards. Thankfully I know what I like and what I don't and it doesn't take the full song to know if it's a "yay" or "nay"

Ed

 

[Nitro]

Always remember kids, No good deed goes unpunished

 

[Progster]

With regards to music, my hard drive failed last year and I lost 15 years worth of collecting music. Started off as a metalhead in my teen years and then it expanded into a collection of over 50k songs spanning hundreds of genres. Unfortunately this is the 2nd time I've lost my entire music collection. So now I'm ensuring a backup is kept.

This happened to me once and I lost about half of the collection - that half that I hadn't got round to backing up yet. Luckily, I was able to recover most of it, but never again! I'm now much more dilligent about remembering to back it up.

 

[menander]

I do stuff like this, too. There's a special offer on cheese, and I buy far more than will fit in the fridge. Luckily we have two fridges!

Also, music: I have over 14,000 albums in one form or another, collected over a lifetime. I like a band, and listen to that band every single available moment of the day until the fad passes. Right now I'm spending all my spare money on music. I don't care about new clothes, or eating out or jewelry or make-up, only music

I am assuming you like Pink Floyd with your icon? Do you have 14,000 PF albums? PS . In the pandemic, I am finding music to be incredibly soothing. I bet you are loving your music library now.

 

[menander]

I overspend on a few select interests. PC builds, photography equipment, cars and performance modifications for cars. However, if I need anything in general I often spend far too much than what would be considered "necessary."

Other than that my main outgoing is excessive spending on food and collecting music. I'm not a big fan of cooking, so it's expensive to get meals and wholefoods as opposed to ingredients to make meals.

With regards to music, my hard drive failed last year and I lost 15 years worth of collecting music. Started off as a metalhead in my teen years and then it expanded into a collection of over 50k songs spanning hundreds of genres. Unfortunately this is the 2nd time I've lost my entire music collection. So now I'm ensuring a backup is kept.

Not sure I'll ever stop collecting - especially after 2 huge setbacks. Speaking of, I spent half the day collecting a further 192 albums. Takes time to work through the backlog though. Most I ever managed was over 1000 new songs rated and categorised in one day. Felt like my head was going to explode afterwards. Thankfully I know what I like and what I don't and it doesn't take the full song to know if it's a "yay" or "nay"

Ed

Do you have bands to which you are especially partial? I would like to know since you have so much! I like music, too, but not many contraptions. How do you store all that and is it on the phone?

 

[Progster]

I am assuming you like Pink Floyd with your icon? Do you have 14,000 PF albums? PS . In the pandemic, I am finding music to be incredibly soothing. I bet you are loving your music library now.

No, I don't have that many PF albums lol I have mainly prog rock, but also folk rock, metal and 'classic' rock.

 

[Raggamuffin]

Do you have bands to which you are especially partial? I would like to know since you have so much! I like music, too, but not many contraptions. How do you store all that and is it on the phone?

Too many bands unfortunately to pick and choose. Personally I tend to steer clear from mainstream music. I prefer electronic genres of music and lean more towards instrumental tracks, or those which use samples from film or TV quotes etc. As opposed to vocal tracks. I still have thousands of songs with lyrics along with more traditional genres of music, but my preference lies with genres which usually have 1 person and a computer to make the music.

I'm uploading loads of tunes to my Youtube channel so I can do a complete A-Z playlist of my all time favourite songs. I started the playlist today and it should end up being over 1000 songs. Provided Youtube doesn't have a song limit to a playlist.

Here's what I've got so far:

A-Z All time favourites - YouTube

Ed