Constantly changing interests / obsessions

Same here obsession about music, for10 being. Axl‘s fan, now that i got all of allegedly his diagnosis i dunno what to say anymore then computer games fanatic ~ u can join me at dragon city anytime

My music obsession ranges from Kylie, Madonna and Janet Jackson through Massive Attack, The Smiths and New Order to Sepultura, Amon Amarth and Slayer And I love the comment about ridiculous amount of subjects -- that's me! (Although sometimes I like talking about a particular subject on Monday but it will bore me on Wednesday.)

I do this too. i wanted to be a psychiatrist so i could help people, then i wanted to be a Bioengineer, then i wanted to do various other things Then i spent over 100$ in a weeks time, and then i wound up in the hospital. This was in 2011. but my interests still constantly change. I am personally Bipolar with Psychotic features, of course i can tell whats real and whats not, but i hear voices primarily when i am manic. I take geodon and Lexapro, however my reality checking is pretty good. even if i visually see something that is vivid like aliens or a demon, i know they arent really there. i saw aliens at the foot of my bed one time, and just rolled over and went back to sleep.

What a great post! I, too, have had the problem with ever-changing interests in my life. However, it seems to run in cycles (which makes it really hard to throw anything out because I know I'll pick the interest up again later down the road - if even 10 years later). So, I have a music studio in my living room, a MASSIVE music collection & bookshelves full of books ranging from the Anarchist Cookbook to metaphysics to JD Salinger to Astrology to geology to music theory to art history, etc...

Here's a question - has anyone gone through periods where they aren't interested in ANYTHING? I'm going through that now. All this lovely stuff to do and hear and read, but I'm just not in the mood for any of it.

Med doc just switched me to prozac to swing the pendulum the other way, so I hope I can snap out of it soon. I'm starting to bore myself silly.

darkroses wrote: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?

MadHatter1111 wrote:Here's a question - has anyone gone through periods where they aren't interested in ANYTHING? I'm going through that now. All this lovely stuff to do and hear and read, but I'm just not in the mood for any of it.

Rarely, but recently yes, I have. It's when I'm at the very bottom, the deepest of my depressive periods.

Actually, I can only think of two occasions when it has happened ... the first at the time I was hospitalized way back in 1985 and then his past year when I was in the dumps again ... times when I was asked by therapists and pDocs, "Tell me about a time you were happy" and I couldn't think of any ... not one.

Thankfully, I'm on my way back up [knock wood].

MadHatter1111 wrote:So, I have a music studio in my living room, a MASSIVE music collection & bookshelves full of books ranging from the Anarchist Cookbook to metaphysics to JD Salinger to Astrology to geology to music theory to art history, etc...

You could be describing my own bookshelf. I have a music studio too - writing electronic music is one of my recurring obsessions. I think you kind of have to be nuts to write it. lets face it, its an odd thing to do spending hours upon hours making weird noises with a computer.

MadHatter1111 wrote:Here's a question - has anyone gone through periods where they aren't interested in ANYTHING? I'm going through that now. All this lovely stuff to do and hear and read, but I'm just not in the mood for any of it.

Yes - its a pretty common part of my depressive phases. I used to solve this problem by obliterating myself with alcohol and watching $#%^ TV but would not recommend this behaviour either sort term or long term Exercise helps a lot - I'm currently doing about 2 hours a day and am feeling relatively sane.

-- Fri Mar 01, 2013 8:40 pm --

TheSnark wrote:I go through hobbies and men at an alarming rate

You should use this as your signature

I hear you on this topic.
I went mad last year with fish hobby at my worst i had over 40 tanks and fish worth a butt load of money then i just gave it all up.I also had problems with an online game i played for over a year and was always on it and spent so much money on it.All through my life i go on mad bouts of spending money.I went to Las vegas on a trip and blew 50k in 15 minutes my woman flipped and i was band from the casino for the rest of the week but i snook out at night to gamble i could not help myself at all.I now have 2 fish tanks and no more and i dont gamble or play online games at all.My lastest obbsession was my lady but i think i have managed to fcuk that up now so i am back to square one and have no clue what to do at this stage i am just ready to give up.

This decribes me all the way to perfection! I always thought i have ADHD or something. Lately i'veen hooked to music and making that stuf... Sometimes i impress my friends with my knowledge ( not joking)

I find it very odd that there seems to be so little literature / information on it as this pattern of behaviour seems so common across among people whose brains are somewhat wonky.

I did a few google searches and could find pretty much nothing.

Things I'm interested in:

1) What actually causes this? For me, when an obsession changes it kind of feels like something in my brain has been rearranged. There's this strange kind of epiphany: the new obsession seems so completely alive and fascinating and the old one retreats into a dark corner of my mind and is forgotten.

I'd be very interested as to what actual processes occur in the brain when this happens.

2) Are there particular triggers which cause this in different people? For me, I definitely experience changing obsessions during hypomania, but it can also be triggered by stress / anxiety.

3) Is it actually possible to change over to a new obsession by pure force of will, thus breaking the seemingly random cycle? I've tried this and have occasionally succeeded but its often been phenomenally difficult. Success seems dependent on how mentally stable I feel.

Note that perhaps the term obsession is wrong - addiction might be a more accurate term. When I'm interested by something I become completely addicted to finding any new information I can about it. I can spend hour upon hours on the internet poring over articles and forums and because its so fascinating to me I suck all the information in. This can be paired by great anxiety however. I often do this when I'm under huge pressure to do something else - perhaps studying for an exam or finishing a deadline in work. It seems for me, in some ways, to be a (extremely bad and unhelpful) coping mechanism for dealing with stress.

To me it's a feeling of mastery.
I master one thing to the point where I'm sufficiently skilled to "play with the big boys".
And then find another one.
But there are the rare ones that stay with me.
Like mountainbiking. I will NEVER give that up.
Neither skiing nor bouldering. The adrenaline junkie bit trumps everything else.
And nothing gives me a better high than nailing a double or outriding an avalanche.
Personally I'd even venture as far as to say it's as much fun as I can possibly have.
With or without clothes..