your obsessions/fascinations-how long do they last?

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"According to the E-S theory the child may simply be focusing on the tiny details in the system - how fast the water flows when the tap is turned to different angles, or which lights go on when different switches are in the up or down position - using their intelligence to work out the underlying rules that govern the system. The characteristic approach they take is to home in on a topic or area of knowledge, and comb it for every detail, until they feel they've covered most if not all of the information available. The "obsession" might last weeks, months, or even years. And then typically, they move on to a new area to master. "

Simon Baron-Cohen

Is this you ?

That's partially me. I used to be a lot like then when I was younger, though as I grew older I sort of lost interest in all the minute details of things. I still have obsessions, however, so I don't know if "focusing on all the details" is primarily the reason for such profound interests. I believe there is a neurological process at work here, because with my primary obsessions ... I just can't explain the reasoning behind them. They just strike a chord within me, like a surge of adrenaline that is a bit similar to the feeling of going down a hill on a rollercoaster, when an obsession strike. After a while, the intensity subsides but never completely goes away. Once it subsided, a chance to gain a new interest starts to form, though that has changed a lot. Now my primary interest heavily revolve around two areas. I also have secondary interests that I can become heavily involved in. I consider myself a research fanatic, because I research lots of stuff quite often.

- Ray M -

yeah this i sme i learn somthing rote style then move onto another stopic of interest.

i have a linear approach to laerningso i start at the start and bulldoze my way through it until i complete all knowledge then move on.

Yeah this is pretty much me, I like to learn mostly to totally everything about something that takes my interest and cannot move on really until I do so. I naturally go through things with a fine toothcomb anyhow, sometimes I overanalyse stuff too much, particularly when it comes to people. But hey, not far off the mark for being me.

Thanks for your answers. Glad its not just me then.

I've always done this. Become interested, get very good at it (if its something like photography or jiu jitsu) annoy people who have been doing that subject for years because I become better than them then ,move on.

The fascinations can randomly occur but its usually because of something I have seen or read. Only twice have I had to learn something because I had to. This was drumming (my mates started a band and needed one) and tropical fish keeping - my girlfriend came home with a massive fish tank and said what do you know about this ?

I am usually "into it" for a year or so then I can get up one morning and not be into it anymore. People I know think this is strange but there are so many interesting things to get interested in. However my one primary interest that has always been with me is natural history in its many forms. Apart from that its pretty much anything goes.

That's me, too. I obsess sooooooo much with something, learn everything FAST (I learned how to speak almost fluent Japanese in 1.5 months lol), and then one day, just wake up and I'm not obsessed anymore. However with me, there's ALWAYS an obsession lol. Like, I don't just stop with one and then I'm not obsessed anymore...something always replaces the other obsession.

Like, I've been obsessed with something for 8 years now, and when people make fun of me for it (especially because I'm an adult now), and when they ask why I just don't stop, they don't seem to understand that it's kinda not under my control and I can't just stop it, and it tends to really upset me when people can't see that I can't just stop it and forget about it just like that, because they make fun of me for liking the things I'm obsessed with a lot. But then when I start doing stuff involved with what I'm obsessed with after being upset, I feel so much better lol

Very rarely does an obsession pass away forever when it comes to me personally: like someone said before, my obsession may die down and then come back up later. But usually, they don't last a few days or few weeks... probably a few months, at the very least. Some minor ones, however, can pass in a few weeks, yes. But major ones stay a very long time.

In my case, my major obsession has lasted fifteen years and counting. (I will be sixteen in September.) Somehow, I can't see it ending soon.

I have had minor obsessions come and go, though. Typically these last anywhere from eighteen months to three or four years, and most of the time they come round again in a while.

Yes I get an idea into my head...and like a poster said: a surge of Adrenelin and off I go...singlemindedly into a task etc. One time it was learning about Bruce Lee I watched anything to do with Bruce Lee/Brandon Lee and read book after book and tidied my room to read the books. Another time it was the holocaust, I would force myself to read book after book, taking notes etc. Sometimes it lasts for a week and other for months maybe a year, then onto something else once I feel i've learnt my "fill".

hikarukagaya, i really understand when you say: "when i start doing stuff involved with what I'm obsessed with after being upset, i feel so much better"

My obsessions have ranged at their most intense from three months to seven-plus years (E.G my current Pokemon obsession). Some seem to die down but not be completely gone (very few of my obsessions get *totally* dropped) some seem to disappear only to resurface wuth a vengeance sometimes many years later.

Yes, i can wake up and suddenly yesterday's obsession (sometimes years long) just doesn't seem to matter so much, but only rarely does it not matter any more. And sometimes I can have one primary and two or more secondary obsessions going on at the same time, although sometimes one or mote may relate to the primary obsession.

For example, my current "primary" is Pokemon, but I am also still interested-in fact fascinated by-genetics and genetic conditions. I still love dinosaurs and hearing dinosaur news. I collect stufkeyrings and Poikemon stuff at the moment. AS and the autistic suff, since I becgan suspecting, has bheebn growing more demanding of my time. And I'm getting an urge to start reading dictionaries (from A and working my way throught to Z) again. I'm 32 and I last did this (to my mother's astonishment) at seven.

Does this sort of thing sound familiar to anybody?

Julie

Tigers has been my lasting obession. I will always be obessed with tigers. My next obessions are novel writing, sound tracks of every movie that I've ever watched, all things Final Fantasy series.