Special interests and identity

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How much of your identity do you build around your special interests/obsessions? To what extent do your obsessions make up who you are?

For the majority of my childhood/adolescence, I built my identity almost completely around the fact that I loved anime and Japanese culture. I didn't think I was capable of obsessing over anything else. I made sure everyone online knew how much I loved it, no matter where I went. When it came time for my birthday and Christmas, everyone always knew to buy me something that had to do with Japan, and they often asked me about which anime series I liked at a given time. When my obsession with anime/Japan finally came to a close earlier this year, my younger brother accused me of "not being true to [myself]" by looking for something else to be interested in. Indeed, in the transition period between my anime obsession and my Alice in Wonderland obsession, I felt like a part of me had "died". Now I'm beginning to re-invent myself with a different identity, chiefly as a fan of Alice in Wonderland, and I'm starting to feel better about myself. My brother pointed out that in a couple of years, I will grow tired of this too. But when that time comes, I'll be ready to find another niche.

Since my obsessions tend to do also play a part in my plans for the future (my interest in money drives most things, in fact), I think they do play a big part of my identity.

How I introduce myself:
"My name's Rachel
and I'm a musician."

My obsessions make up the biggest part of who I am.

I have too many minor obsessions for them all to be completely and totally integral to me as a person, but I wouldn't really feel right if any of them spontaneously went missing.

Well, during most of my schooldays I followed everything to do with the space program and things got so bad that my nickname at school was 'spaceman'. After the space program started to wind down after Apollo my interests changed to electronics and computers but I was still 'me', I just spent my spare time on other things. Friends, relatives would still recognize Mr Slice even now.

Vanilla_Slice

My special interest is a big part of my identity. I'm a Kinks Fan and a drummer. One of the male staff asked me, if I was going to join baseball practice. I told him, "I'm a musician, not an athlete," That's also true. I can't even run to first base, without a kink acting up, in my body, or to home base, without huffing and puffing.

I am only able of doing electronics, this limits
me in job. I stunk so badly at other things
that I got fired from fast food, customer stuff,
janitor/mainteninse stuff, librarien stuff,
and construction.

My latest obsesshen is pbx phone systems,
we just installed one at home here for our
business and it is working very well handling
all our calls.

It's just something I like obsessively and exclusively.

I have my own personality away from such.

My special interests define me a lot. The reason I grow apart from so many friends is because, if I don't talk to somebody in depth at least once a week, I feel as though the person doesn't know me. And this is because the person misses out on my special interest news. For example, my current primary obsession started in April of '09, a month before I graduated college. My good college friends haven't really kept in contact with me since graduation, so they have no conception of my current special interest, and thus, I feel as though I can't relate to them anymore. If people don't seem interested in my special interest news or they don't talk to me often enough to hear it, I can't be close to that person. That is why my mom and my best friend are my two favorite people- they listen to my special interest ramblings no matter what, and they are genuinely interested in them.

Also, I am very competitive with my knowledge of my biggest special interests. Since they define me, I don't deal well with other people saying that they're just as big of a fan as I am. I get defensive and have a need to show that I know more.
-OddDuckNash99-

They are a huge part of my identity.

You know how they say that people with Borderline Personality Disorder feel like they don't have much of an identity, so they define themselves by their relationship with other people? I feel kind of like that with my special interests, to be honest.

Yes to a fair extent I am my special interests....take those away and I don't know that there's much left of me. Though my recently-acquired small circle of musician friends is my main special interest at the moment, so there's no conflict between my obsessions and my social life. It's helping me to realise who I am, as measured by what happens when I interact with others. I guess it's a weird game for an Aspie to be playing, but I just get too lonely with the plethora of solo practical obsessions I've spent so much of my life fixated on. I've achieved some remarkable goals on my own and I will do again, but I'm kind of addicted to people.

When I was younger, I built my identity around my obsessions. My self-worth was centered around whether or not I was successful in my field of interest. Needless to say, such a mindset became a problem and led to my development of low self esteem.

As a child and teenager, I was completely overwhelmed by a need to succeed at my obsessions. When I made mistakes or failed in any way with my obsessions, I became devastated. My mind treated minor setbacks as complete failures and I often got to the point of serious depression.

As I've grown, I've learned to develop an internally based view of my self worth. Consequently, I find self-esteem without the need for external validation. However, there is always a bit of insecurity remaining from my childhood and I am not sure how to get rid of it.

-Alex

I definitely identify with this one... When I was 9 or 10, I got obsessed with the technology of TV sets and electronics. I started reading technical manuals on the theory of engineering of TV and broadcasting, and I started getting old TV sets from the trash, and from garage sales, and learned to repair TVs. I got a job part-time after school at a TV repair shop when I was 13, and I wound up working there full time after high school. My main interest was in antique TV sets, and vacuum tube technology. I began to collect antique TV sets, and by age 20-ish, I owned about 300 of them ! I still have a passion for antique electronics, but I have also branched out into other, even more weird interests. The weirdest being that I collect and restore Cold War era air raid sirens. I don't mean the little hand-crank ones that were issued to field troops to whip out and crank; I mean the big 1200-lb ones that are mounted atop utility poles to warn of tornadoes today. I was obsessed with getting one for several years, and when I found one (well, actually it was a pair of them), I jumped in the truck and drove 6000 miles round trip from Los Angeles to Milwaukee to get them! I restored and installed one of them on the pool deck out back of our house, and I sound it every last Friday of the month at noon. Just as they did in Los Angeles during the Cold War. And you think that's a bit obsessive??? I also petitioned the County of Ventura, CA, to rename the private road on which we live, to represent the fact that there is a Cold War siren located here. It's official and recorded on the maps! The neighbors just shake their heads, I guess. The entire city hears my siren every last Friday.

I won't say what happened to my back yard when I obsessed with having a (well, not "a" but several... Well, OK, it was actually fourteen), Toyota cars & trucks with the rare Diesel engine option. That's left for another thread

Charles

My Federal Thunderbolt siren, installed on the pool deck at our house
[img][650:600]http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/kx250racer/Fire8-30-09.jpg[/img]

These are BIG! 130 decibels at 100 feet... LOUD.
[img][650:600]http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/kx250racer/IMG_0465.jpg[/img]

2 Sirens from Milwaukee loaded in the truck (or should I say piled into the truck), on way back to Los Angeles in '07

Those sirens are cool looking. I do like the sound
of a siren when it is used for any scene that activates
Felitron and Electrocat when they save a kittypuss.

That is also cool when u can put your siren up there.

What I have always wondered most is why people have the special interests they have. But my special interests are a huge part of my identity. It's like they make me an individual.