Getting overwhelmed from special interests

Post Reply New Topic

Does anyone else sometimes get excited/happy to the point of being outright overwhelmed when they go to do something relating to their special interests?

This doesn't happen often now that I'm an adult, but the other day when I went to play a game that was an old special interest it happened for the first time in awhile. I'm able to get over the feeling now, but it made me remember that when I was a child and younger teenager it used to actually deter me from partaking in things, since that feeling messes with my sensory issues.

It's kind of funny that something can overwhelm me so easily, but it was also really confusing until I got better at recognizing my emotions and realized what was happening. Now that I know what's going on I'm wondering if other people get actually overwhelmed from their special interests? Has it ever deterred you from doing things relating to them?

Yes! And I'm 56 years old.

There are bands that I love so much that their music makes me feel too overwhelmed sometimes. There are certain songs that I know I shouldn't listen to at a particular moment because of how I will feel when I do.

A few years ago I actually abandoned listening to a band that I loved because it was just too much.

I feel "crazy" and bit embarrassed even writing this, because it seems so over the top. It's hard to explain. I don't know if it's the same thing you are describing.

But I also relate to going back to an old interest and have it be overwhelming because it's new and exciting again, after having stayed away from it.

Well it's kinda crazy.. I had serious issues with my last special interest, which I was forced to completely let go. It caused me anxiety, a feeling of being lost and anger when I heard people talking about it or even by just thinking about it. If someone was talking about it, I had to leave the room. I have to prevent myself to get that old special interest to the surface again, cause it's pure toxicity and addiction.

I do. I tend to go overboard myself whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I simply notice how much my mind gravitates toward said interests -- fill with ideas, theories, things to try and look at in ways others don't...
The intensity makes me feel alive in joy and/or despair.

Passion is much harder to contain, but also easier to kill which can cascade into anxiety when not done properly...


Yes. It does steal bits of processing power just like sensory issues do.
Sometimes it did made me neglect work. Even more so if said interests are hidden from plain sight.
Away from any eyes and ears because making the practice of special interests a secret costs a bit extra which can easily grow an extra layer of anxiety if mishandled.


Fortunately I'm very accustomed to keeping special interests and obsessions a secret.
In fact, keeping secrets is sort of a meta-obsession of mine..
I blame it on my upbringing for not giving me any secured boundaries growing up.

Which saved me a lot of embarrassment, yet at the same time also kept me closed off from certain social opportunities and expressions.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

Certain things make me feel really really strong emotions but nothing to the point where it's too overwhelming

I relate to this, but not in the sense that it deters me from partaking in something related to said interest - I just get overwhelmed with excitement/positive energy(?) that I may not even actively do the thing I'm excited about. For example, I love to knit and sew; I love the textile experience, the productivity when I engage in working on projects, the finished projects, the fact that I can make clothes I'm truly comfortable in, etc. But I also love to *look* at knitting and sewing related content. I can waste more than an hour looking at other people's finished sewing projects, new knitting patterns, etc. and it makes me so excited I will flap my hands or rock back and forth in my chair and so on, but I won't actually do any knitting. This has been an issue for me recently, where the idea of making new things excites me, but I find difficulty in starting because I get overwhelmed (this may have more to do with executive functionality than excitement). I guess my point is, the excitement I have in the prospect of these interests alone, not necessarily just the partaking in them, can make me so worked up that I feel tired once I've left that mental space.

Maybe this is a separate thing, but this has been my way since I was a child. My first 'special interest' was anime and manga, and I would simply *look* at art that I liked for hours and hours, saving even the smallest, most amateur fan-art for things, if I liked it, on a desktop folder on my family's computer. I would then just go through and look at the pictures I saved. I would get "How to Draw Anime/Manga" books from the library, and even though I was an okay artist, I would mostly just stare at the art in those books rather than do any learning. This, like the knitting/sewing issue I stated above, would make me so excited I would flap my hands and get really worked up, then feel exhausted afterwards, haha.

I wouldn't call any of this negative, only in the sense that it prevents me from truly being productive sometimes. Still, that's how special interests/feeling overwhelmed works for me. Sorry if this wasn't exactly what you were getting at - and I'm sorry that some SI's have been ruined for you by association with being so overwhelmed by them. Best of luck in the future, since I think you mentioned you were getting better about this particular issue?

I don't actually know if I've ever had a real special interest, but I can definitely relate to feeling overwhelming excitement from an interest. I think that's why I flap my hands, rock back and forth and do a whole body tension stim thing (I haven't figured out how do describe that specific stim yet lol) when I get so excited, because it's a way to release all that energy and sort of bring me back down. That whole body stim I've always done when I've been creating art. Like I'll maybe start to draw and when I've done a part of it I stop and look at it while stimming and then I keep drawing and than I stop and stim again haha. I've found that the stimming can actually be quite annoying when I'm trying to finish a drawing, because I feel the need to stim in the process. Another thing I've realised is that the overwhelming excitement actually feels very very similar to anxiety.