Can diary writing be an obsession?

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While thinking over all the obsessions I've had, it occurred to me that for about eleven years, from sixteen to twenty-seven, I wrote down every single detail of anything that happened to me, what I did, read, watched on TV, the conversations I had, etc., in my diary. (I've been keeping a diary since age fourteen, but haven't written a lot in it these last few years.) I wonder whether this is an Aspie thing or not - it reminds me of all the Internet users today who keep blogs. Are they obsessed or merely seeking attention?

I kept a diary all my life. Since I can remember actually, and I usually carry a notebook in my purse with me at all times, in case I get an idea I like, although not so much lately. When I was a kid my Dad would always try to steal my diary and read it when I wasn't looking, so I had to find really good hiding places... he would find it, and hide it in another place (bizarre family, yes) what’s funny about Diaries though, for me, is that when I'm writing them I usually am quite serious and think I'm being very literary and making a lot of sense... but then when I randomly open an old diary, even from just one or two years ago (and I'm 29 now) they always seem so silly and childish, like I can't believe I sound so silly.

I now have a big box of notebooks and another big box of diaries in storage, and in my room. I usually write notes, story ideas, quotes etc... in my spiral notebooks which are usually thrown away ultimately, But I like writing down my thoughts about life in decent prose in a good hardcover diary, every night.

I don't write down specific details so much, just what was important or interesting to me, or confusing, or story-like, or emotional reactions sometimes. I think Diary writing is just a good way to keep in touch with the narrative of your life, and work through the problems that arise as they come up and get to know what you really think about them. Sometimes I don't know how I really feel or think about something clearly, until I write down the situation and my thoughts - its the same with story writing or art, ideas come to you when you put pen to paper. Its a good way to access the hidden storehouses of your own consciousness which can really know things, also its a good way to continually define yourself and discover and shape who you are.

Which is why I try, nowadays, to keep diaries positive. Like instead of writing down bad things - try to focus on the good, because it effects your thoughts and your future encounters with the world. I try to write down at least three good things a day, or three things I am grateful for... even if its just that the rain sounds so beautiful, or that someone I like was on a talk show and said something funny, or something like that.

I just saw the movie, "Becoming Jane" about Jane Austen, and there was a funny line in it where Jane is supposed to be entertaining a suitor and his aristocratic aunt, but instead starts writing in her book. "What is she doing!?" Says the aunt alarmed, "Writing" says her mother. "well, can anything be done about it?" the aunt asks.

So, I think its just a writer thing, not an aspie thing, because Oprah says she's always done the same thing, and actually has hers in big binders that line her bookshelves, tons of them since she was a child. same with Glenn Beck, self-proclaimed diary writing addict, he says it helps him a lot and swears by it.

I don't know about internet users who blog. Until recently I barely used much email, and was more of a book person, not into the internet at all. The idea of a public diary seems kind of odd to me, I could never do it. I think it says something about how our culture is obsessed with being public, like the whole reality tv generations... like nothing is real unless it is on public display.

then again what am i doing right now? I've written way too much and you've probobly stopped reading... I should switch to decaf and go back to my neglected diary...

Yes! Yes it can!

You should SEE some of the notebooks I kept while in the psych. ward. If my therapist would have glanced at one for even a second I'd have a hoard of new dx's thrown at me I'm sure. Not only did I alternate colored gel pens in beautifully obsessive ways, with perfect printing- every little detail of every little thing had to be written down.

Yeah, my online blog was definitely one of my obsessions for a few years. One of the very few long-term obsessions I've had. I was constantly thinking in terms of how I would write about whatever I was experiencing at the moment. I documented a lot of my life in very in-depth ways.

When I had a kid I stopped having the time to do that.

I'll share the remnants of my obsession (and this is only one blog out of about 10 more filled with just as much) with you, though. www.probablyacircle.co.nr

Oh yes it can be an obsession!

When I was aged 11-14 I kept I diary. I wrote an entry every single night. By age 14 and had 6 diaries all for different "subjects". This certainly was an obsession of mine.
I had a "contents" page on the first page of each diary with a list of what was on each page in some diaries and numbered each page...while others I used for random rants lol.

One night I ran away from home and forgot to bring my diaries with me. [big mistake!]
My mother called the police when she couldn't find me and they searched my room, found my diaries and this is how I was introduced to the word "therapy" haha. Lets just say that all of my thoughts now stay in my head [or on the computer] and AWAY from paper.

I think it can be an obsession, and contagious at that I used to never express how I feel, but lately I pour my soul into what I think. Sure, it can be embarrassing to look back on your past insecurities/doubts, but still very necessary at the same time.

I wish I had that obsession. I don't remeber stressful times i've been through, or how I got through them. Everything feels like the first time it's ever happened... then my mom will be like "You've been through this before." and I'll be like "Really?".

During the Olympics, I used to keep a record of the day's events and medal winners. I used to keep a journal during college, but don't now. The Internet serves as my daily recording of events on WP and the Siamese site.

I keep a diary. My day to day life is pretty mundane, so I usually just write about interesting thoughts and ideas I have (in other words, my obsessions) and the way I feel about certain things. I started writing back in the fall, and now I've filled up half of one notebook.

I think diary writing can be an obsession, but it wasn't one that I could do personally. Despite needing an outlet for all the internalization, the knowledge that some other person is going to read it -whether I let them or some stickybeak does it without permission- completely puts me off from writing. Some days I still wish I could bare my soul on paper without the risk of other people finding it and judging me.

When I was 17 I would write in my journal a lot. It wasn't exactly a diary, just a random thought deposit book. I would get a bit obsessive over it and take it virtually everywhere with me. It was where I'd jot down every thought I felt needed jotting down, in order to "clean" my head.

Writing a lot can be called "hypergraphia", but extent to which it's considered a good or bad thing is subjective. Starting around age 12, I kept off & on (fragmented) diary. From age 16 onwards, I kept huge journals stuffed full of material (written, drawn, collaged, scrapbooked and pasted in).

Yes & no (see below).

Yes & no.
Meaning there's no single answer that applies to all cases/persons, no matter the label that person carries. Peopple do things for multiple simultaneous reasons, so just one motivation isn't sufficient to explain someone's action/choice/mode of expression.

Have huge pile/stack of volumes now, am on #28 currently (vol. 1 was in 1990, just before I turned 17). What seemed important at the time (for whatever reason) was what I recorded there. Some old entries are uncomfortably embarrassing, some entries are as fascinating & informative (or even more so) than they seemed at the time. My diaries served so many purposes I can't list them all-as a way to work through hard times & unmanageable feelings, an activity with which to occupy self when there's no one around (for me to communicate with), as a project into which to pour my creative energy/effort-and so on.
Wrote more in past, but "writer's cramp", wrist/finger problems, slow me down/wear out my hand. Easier to type now (didn't have a computer 'til 4 years ago)-though I don't have a blog, I often write essays for myself (offline) using the computer & then print them out.

I've never kept a diary. I would, but I can't get one.

I did keep diaries and write blogs for a time but I stopped for three reasons:

a) when I read them back to myself they were the most unremittingly tedious shite I've ever read
b) it took a lot of time to think and publish said unremittingly tedious site and
c) what good does it do me to have my thoughts down in paper or blog?

I'm a photographer anyway so I record any important events through that.