Constantly changing interests / obsessions

Hi,

I'm pretty sure I have Bipolar II although haven't been diagnosed yet. Had a recent very intense hypomanic episode which makes it very likely.

A dominant force in my life has been that my interests continually change. I'll go from being completely obsessed with music to wanting to spend all my time wanting to read about technology. A particular obsession lasts normally weeks / months and then is instantly replaced by something else. Its made having a normal life quite difficult as anything I've done in college I've ended up being uninterested in it quite quickly and I've never ended up doing well in exams as a result (depression + anxiety hasn't helped either). I'm generally bored within a job within a few months too.

I was just wondering if people related to this and if this was common in Bipolar disorder?

darkroses wrote:...A dominant force in my life has been that my interests continually change. I'll go from being completely obsessed with music to wanting to spend all my time wanting to read about technology. A particular obsession lasts normally weeks / months and then is instantly replaced by something else....

...I'm generally bored within a job within a few months too.

I was just wondering if people related to this and if this was common in Bipolar disorder?

Well, I can't speak to whether it's common in bipolar (though I suspect it is, big time ), but I can tell you that I very much relate to what you're saying here.

Some subject will catch my interest and suddenly I find myself obsessed, reading about it, watching videos about it, subscribing to magazines and buying more and more books about it (many of which I never do get around to reading, because by then I've moved on to something else. For a period of time -- days, weeks, sometimes months -- I'm all about that subject. It defines me and I'm fixated on it. Then I simply lose interest in it and soon after move on to something else. Recently, I've bounced from learning Esperanto to becoming a raw vegan, to Buddhism, to mindfulness meditation, to atheism, to ... insert the next thing here: _____________.

It's not so bad when it comes to just interesting subjects or hobbies, but, like you, it has affected my work life, too. In the past when I've gotten a new job, I'm all about it ... excited, wanting to learn all about the field, doing all sorts of extra things so that I'm more involved, imagining myself having a fruitful, successful career in that line of work, yadda, yadda, yadda. Weeks (or months) later, I'm over it and work has become drudgery, something to be avoided at all costs because it's stifling me and I'd much rather be doing something else.

Yeah, I can relate.

I can definitely relate to that!

I think usually my obsessions last about the same time as yours, but occasionally it'll be a lot shorter - even only a day. For example just the other day I became totally obsessed with physics (again) and picked up a book by Leonard Susskind. I'm still interested in it, but not to the extent I was on the day I picked it up. It has happened to me with paintball, snowboarding, music, etc.

In regards to music, I've been drumming for over ten years, but since I got sick, it's only when I'm feeling "up" that I go play them and become totally obsessed again. Same went for DJing, and I went out and spent $600+ on a DJ controller, only to lose interest after a couple weeks. Snowboarding - a few years ago I went and spent $2000 on all new gear and went out every week that winter and that was it. Since that winter I can count on one hand the amount of times I've been out.

It just gets frustrating because when I become interested in something, my family and friends say "here we go again" and don't believe I'll stick with it. It upsets me quite a bit that I can never stay interested in something I've started.

As for it being common in bipolar disorder, I can't comment on that.

Great topic. It got me thinking about how this is a big issue with me and I should mention it to my CBT therapist.

Nupy

Yes, I'm bipolar and I do have changing obsessions. However, they tend to recur, so I've learned to NOT get rid of my notes and books(for research type obsessions) or supplies(for art related obsessions).

Also, I've learned to create projects based off of my obsessions to work on during my dry spells of depression. It at least keeps me busy during those times.

I go through hobbies and men at an alarming rate...

At any given time I may be knitting, painting, sculpting, crafting, writing music, playing piano, reading obsessively, drawing, cooking, learning a new language, etc etc etc...

Also, I don't tend to keep boyfriends for long periods of time unless they really spark my interesting. This latter problem could also be related to my Borderline Personality Disorder Dx... but either way, I get bored and move on...

It's important to kind of wrangle things like this...
My changing interests in hobbies isn't too bad, because I always have leftover supplies from the last time I binged out on them and just stopped... but I've managed to keep the same job for about 7 years... which was important, because I needed the pay... Sometimes you just have to suck it up. I just kept asking for new things to do, because I would get bored, and since I learned new stuff I would end up with a promotion and a raise, as well as something new to do.

hi

yeah I believe this is a common thing in BP. I certainly recognise it within my myself and others with the disorder. At times I find it frustrating but it also can be fun and produce some interesting results and outcomes in life. You are def not alone

Cracked

I agree this seems a common thing. For me they tend to return as well. I get obsessed about really wanting to do something (pyrography for instance), then I get the tools and all materials I need, then I do it for a few days and I'm over it -- BUT I wouldn't get rid of the tools because that's a guarantee the obsession will be back within a week.

I am aware of myself doing that and so when a new obsession comes in, I tend to wait a while before I declare it to the world. It took a proper course until I actually admitted to myself I was properly in love with blacksmithing, rather than taking a passing interest in it. I've now been doing it for over a year and it doesn't seem to be going away. I wish there was an easier way, though, to predict which interest will last a week and which will last properly.

Thanks so much for replying everyone - its good to know I'm not the only one

At Kate1111 - yeah mine recur too, although in a completely unpredictable way.

Now that I'm in my mid-30's I'm finally starting to get pretty good at a few things but its taken a long time as I've constantly flitted between so many obsessions. They can often be completely useless - e.g. researching classic computer games, models of camera lenses - but its nice when its something people actually appreciate and are interested by - e.g. art, music, the lives of composers etc.

On a positive note I can talk at length about a ridiculous number of subjects at this stage

What I'm curious about is whether its actually possible to change this pattern of behavior and what actually causes it. I'm on prozac at the moment which is supposed to be good for OCD behavior but it sure as hell isn't helping. Has anyone actually any tips on conquering this or would you actually want to? It can be fun but also utterly exasperating sometimes.

darkroses wrote:On a positive note I can talk at length about a ridiculous number of subjects at this stage

It can make you one hell of a Trival Pursuit player.

ChuckM wrote:Some subject will catch my interest and suddenly I find myself obsessed, reading about it, watching videos about it, subscribing to magazines and buying more and more books about it (many of which I never do get around to reading, because by then I've moved on to something else. For a period of time -- days, weeks, sometimes months -- I'm all about that subject. It defines me and I'm fixated on it. Then I simply lose interest in it and soon after move on to something else. Recently, I've bounced from learning Esperanto to becoming a raw vegan, to Buddhism, to mindfulness meditation, to atheism, to ... insert the next thing here: _____________.

Thanks for posting, was very funny reading this - as you described my own behaviour so accurately. Just went though a mindfulness / meditation phase myself

-- Thu Feb 28, 2013 5:00 pm --

ChuckM wrote:

darkroses wrote:On a positive note I can talk at length about a ridiculous number of subjects at this stage

It can make you one hell of a Trival Pursuit player.

I am more into games like chess / poker. I spent the entire time I was supposed to be doing my undergraduate thesis studying chess and playing 5 hours a day on the internet. I spent about 6 months reading every book I could find on poker and watching probably hundreds of hours of videos of past poker tournaments. Poker is a good obsession as there's a huge abundance of material about it on the internet - you never run out.

Trival Pursuit is lots of fun though