Length

[Chris]

How long do your obsessions seem to last?

Even though I'm not diagnosed, I do have obsessions that change every 3-4 months or so, for no apparant reason...

Has anyone had a continuous obsession that they've had their whole life, or something similar?

 

[mikeg26843]

for me it depends on what interests me, i have always liked making stuff, ever since i was a young child but when i get obbsessive about other stuff it lasts for a good while

 

[Kit]

Chris, are you sure you don't have AS?



Mine can last a couple years. I have been obsessed with AS for ten years now. I was obsessed with Benny and Joon for seven years before I went back to my old obsession. This. What I have in my avatar. I have had short term obsessions too.

 

[Calvert]

Throughout my childhood I was obsessed with diggers and construction vehicles. I used to buy a new die-cast model every Saturday and make little life-like scenes using toy houses, signs, gravel and so-on. I have a mountain of them still stored in the loft, a lot complete with original boxes. Then in my teens, my obsession turned towards computers and technology. I'd always liked computers but just not on a huge level. So my computer interest gradually got bigger and I realised I was too old to play with diggers so a change in my obsession was born. I also like photography and am getting more and more interested in it too.

Coincidentally, construction, computers and photography all run in the family. I had relatives who owned their own construction company, an uncle who is a top computer teacher in the UK and another uncle who is a professional photographer. 




So, to recap: Childhood it was diggers, teenage years it's computers/technology - who knows what's coming next? Photography?

 

[Wayne]

How long do your obsessions seem to last?

Not long enough to finish anything! :wtf2:

 

[felix]

Not being diagnosed, i still have (had) my obsessions:

When i was 5 i started ripping old electronic devices i`d get from the local junk yard to bits, just to see what`s inside.
With 10 i started focusing on computers and by the age of 12 i had build my own working PC from a pile of junk, without any external aid.
Was an hopelessly overclocked AMD-K6 CPU running @ 500 mhz + 128 MB SDRAM @133 mhz... I still have it somewhere.
Then there was a rather short period of batch scripting and customizing WIN XP setup CDs (nlite). After that, i was 14 then, i got into reverse code engineering/malware analysis and VB.NET programming. This is were i am now. C++ programming is in coming now... we`ll see...

f.

 

[Wayne]

Not being diagnosed, i still have (had) my obsessions:

When i was 5 i started ripping old electronic devices i`d get from the local junk yard to bits, just to see what`s inside.
With 10 i started focusing on computers and by the age of 12 i had build my own working PC from a pile of junk, without any external aid.
Was an hopelessly overclocked AMD-K6 CPU running @ 500 mhz + 128 MB SDRAM @133 mhz... I still have it somewhere.
Then there was a rather short period of batch scripting and customizing WIN XP setup CDs (nlite). After that, i was 14 then, i got into reverse code engineering/malware analysis and VB.NET programming. This is were i am now. C++ programming is in coming now... we`ll see...

f.

I have a serious love/hate relationship with C++. I'm intermittently working on a language to replace it with, that I can have a love/love relationship with. I was obsessed with that for a while, but it fizzled out and I'm trying to jump-start it again.

 

[Chris]

Chris, are you sure you don't have AS?

No. :whistle:

:lol:

 

[mikkyh]

Well some change every now and then but one of mine has lasted since I was 5 or 6 - IT. So yeah I don't know. But the shortest amount of time I've had a particular obsession was about 3 months.

 

[Willow]

My obsession with certain bands and collection all their merchendise lasted about 4 years. My obsession with buying CD's and DVD's (not a huge one, but it's still there) has been ongoing since I was about 13. Photography is still going strong, that started a couple of years ago. I don't get majorly obsessed with things (I don't think). At the moment I don't seem to have any really strong obsessions. Although I seem to be developing a weird one for fruit juice, mainly orange. When I was younger I was obsessed with pens, pencils and erasers which had the names of various locations I had visited on them, and also postcards. That was pretty serious. I had LOADS. Couldn't visit somewhere without getting one of the above. I still struggle when I go places, I always feel the urge to at least buy a pen..

 

[142857]

Dinosaurs has lasted 40+ years so far, although not a full-blown obsession any more. But I still get that feeling of excitement when a new dinosaur documentary or movie comes out. WWII aircraft almost that long, although also not a full-blown obsession any more. Fishing has lasted about 10 or 15 years on and off, same as cooking.

 

[Ruby_Aspergic]

My obsessions usually last anywhere from 1-5 years. Sometimes I have more than one, but there is usually one that dominates. I don't think I have a lifelong obsession that I can think of, I suspect I'll probably develop something sooner or later that will last forever.

 

[Chris]

Fairly long then.

I wonder why mine tend to last much shorter lengths of time. I wish they lasted longer - so I have time to finish any projects i undertake whilst i'm interested, rather than ditching them when I gain a different obsession.

 

[Emor]

I think my obsessions all fall under bigger categories that I've been interested in...

TBH, I'm really apathetic today so it's a pretty plain diagram with no where near enough in it, but yeah. If you were to look at my other incomplete diagram you'd be able to tell from the incomplete psychology branch alone that it's pretty vast.
But yeah, basically, the 5 or so main branches I'm always obsessed with but the sub-branches tend to last a couple of months and then I might go back to them later.
EMZ=]

 

[Ruby_Aspergic]

"I wonder why mine tend to last much shorter lengths of time. I wish they lasted longer - so I have time to finish any projects i undertake whilst i'm interested, rather than ditching them when I gain a different obsession."

My obsessions are never anything productive, if it makes you feel any better. Usually people, or certain movies, or for a while it was hockey. For example, from like 6th grade to 10th grade it was this musical Newsies, I memorized every line of the movie and could recite it or watch it in my head, and I kept a catalog of every picture and article I could find, and it went so far in depth it even held similar folders for each project each actor had also been in. When it was hockey I could tell different hockey players on my favorite team apart by their skates, and I learned all the spelling and pronunciation conventions of all the different countries in the national hockey league so i could learn how to properly pronounce and spell their names. That at least turned out to be an awesome skill, I can now recognize what nationality a name is from by it's spelling conventions and know how to pronounce it, with a few exceptions since many countries arent represented in the NHL.

 

[Chris]

Thinking about it - a lot of my interests are based on learning something or progression - certain languages of code, photoshop, ice skating, whatever - certain skill sets.. I've only had a few interests that haven't directly benefited me in one way or another.