Outgrowing what you used to love, outgrowing imagination

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Tonight I had a rather lengthy discussion with my mom about how my special interests have become tiresome and why I still haven't gotten a new one even though I have tried out so many different things over the past couple of months (as you can see if you look back through my posts over the past couple of months, this struggle has been ongoing throughout this year and possibly last year as well).

We came to the conclusion that I'm getting older and more mature; that I am no longer able to connect with the types of things that used to spark my imagination when I was younger. Basically, I've outgrown all of the whimsical animated series (My Little Pony, anime, everything I used to watch when I was a child) and teenage movies (Tim Burton movies, Johnny Depp movies) that used to bring me so much joy and send me on fantastic adventures in my imaginary world. My mom also says that she can tell that there's a part of me that wants to be part of the real world now.

Since all of my previous obsessions basically revolved around daydreaming up new adventures for my favorite fictional characters, my mom has suggested that I try creating my own characters to daydream about. After all, nobody knows what kind of characters would make me the happiest besides myself. That's not a bad idea - and in fact, I had considered it myself before, so her suggestion merely confirms what I have been thinking myself.

I guess I'm just very sad that my previous obsessions have come to an end. I swore I would never grow up; that I would always love the types of movies and shows that younger people loved and that I'd have an imaginary world and imaginary friends till the day I died. As a teenager, it was one of my biggest fears that one day I'd wake up and my imagination would disappear, and now it seems that my fears have been realized. I feel like a part of me has died and I cry almost every night because of this.

I'm not looking for answers. But it would be nice to know that I'm not the only one who has mourned over their loss of childhood and the ability to live in an imaginary world.

TL;DR: Did you used to have an imaginary world when you were younger, but have lost that ability as you got older? Have you outgrown the types of things that you once loved dearly when you were younger, and if so, did you mourn over it?

I used to think I lost my power of imagination when I stopped writing fan fiction and stopped gaming for a while. but now that I've returned to gaming and have an idea for a fan fiction I think it's just me thinking that I needed to grow up and start maturing rather than me growing out of things. I regret stopping these things.

as a child i was lucky because my dad was in the airforce so ive travelled all around australia. i want allowed much time for imagination until i was about 12 and from there i think its gotten more and more powerful. i dream constantly. i think i have more imagination now then ive ever had in the past.

I've lost interest in a lot of things that brought me joy, although I would attribute that to depression rather than me "outgrowing" them. I could be wrong, I dunno. I'm not exactly the best judge of myself.

For me, I would change special interests every now and then and indeed every now and then there would be an empty gap.
Yes, it feels weird and sad, but just till the new inspirations comes with full power and give wings to your imagonation again.

Still have imaginary world when older, but just don`t have time for it, too many responsibilities. Seems imagination is not welcome with a lot of people too.

My interests have gotten a little less imaginative as I have grown older. I used to be able to conceptualize plenty of new ideas and incorporate them into the cars I would design on paper. I now tend to be more practical and realistic in what I devise as the idealism of youth has been replaced by the pragmatism of adulthood. I miss my creative side, but it is still there. It's just become more realistic and based upon what I can actually hope to accomplish with the resources available to me.

I do miss being able to immerse myself completely in a secret place. I didn't have a chance to find something to replace it, so I feel diminished somehow.

I haven't really mourned over it. My mind has matured as I've gotten older so part of me doesn't want to do half the things I used to love doing as a child. I do miss my childhood, but being an adult doing all those things I used to do won't be the same anyway.

I haven't lost this world, I can still access it through some of the interests that I used to have before. But I wanted to become more realistic at one point and started having other interests, and these have stuck with me. But they are connected to my imaginary world, it wouldn't be the same without it. The difference is that I wanted to try something else, as my old interests wasn't necessarily the best for me, and I get more out of doing the new things I enjoy in this state of my life than doing the former. It probably has something to do with age, or time, because you realize other things now than you did before.. other things come up in your life. The world expands.

I still enjoy the things I've always anjoyed (Cars, Disney movies, animation, stuffed animals, etc) and still consider myself pretty imaginative...I also still have imaginary friends to some extent. I think the only thing that's changed is that either I'm losing the ability to fully encapsulate myself in my imaginary worlds, or that the real world has gotten better at forcing its way in.

I'm a bit sad that I can't completely immerse myself in my imaginary world at will anymore and I've definitely outgrown being in it ALL THE TIME the way I was as a child and into my teenage years. Now the only times I really can daydream and be in my imaginary world are when I'm swimming (exercising) or sometimes at night when I'm trying to sleep. Anyways I read fantasy novels and I think reading the novels themselves is how I escape and dream now for the most part (although while I swim I can still daydream). I do miss being able to be completely lost in my own world, although I haven't exactly mourned the loss.... but like you said it's a part of growing up and becoming part of the real world. I'm just growing up extremely s l o w l y. I still watch cartoons and I collect frog stuffed animals and read teen fantasy novels (some adult series too though) and still enjoy...haven't outgrown these things yet.

Your mother sounds like a saint. Really.

Basically, all that I think is happening is, you're growing up. That's all. Most kids imagine things and whatnot, but most kids stop at a fairly early age when they or others decide for them, that they must face "The Real World." You on the other hand, because partially of your neurology, and partially because your parents haven't pushed you out of it, stayed in it for a while, and now you're naturally becoming more focused on "the real world."

In my case, I got pushed out of such things at an early age, and I feel like my life is in constant catchup just to get back to a state of happiness of that early age. As I got older, I was around people less, and I could be more, myself. So I started listening, to say, 90s eurodance or something, because it was something I was denied as a kid. What happened with me is, I couldn't, you know, stay a child long enough. I had to "toughen up" fairly quickly. Girls have it a little easier in that regard in that there's less societal pressure to "toughen up." So if you leave the childish things too early, it's not good, you'll eventually come back to them later in life.

If you wanna leave them, then do it. It doesn't have to be a black or white all or nothing thing, either. Just spend less time doing the old things, and more time doing your new hobbies/interests. I kinda "quit" Gundam models when I was like 16 or so, but I still do Gundam models, just not as much as I used to. It went from huge hobby to little hobby, it could become a big hobby again, but there were other things I decided to put my resources toward. The only caveat is, you do have to learn to stick with things in life, even when they momentarily stop being "fun" or for that matter easy. Doing that is what separates amateurs from professionals at things. But at the same time, sometimes you do gotta quit things to make your life overall better. It's a hard balance.

I think the main thing you have to do is make the transition as seemless as possible. You don't want to abruptly stop your hobbies you've invested in, and start a bunch of new ones and go "all in" with those, either. Just relax, do what you want, if it's MLP or teenage movies, or...something else. However, make sure it's actually YOU that wants to do it, and not other people's opinions influencing you.

As far as loss of creativity... I can relate a lot. As a kid, I'd just be in my yard by myself walking around my acre yard, making my own stories up in my head talking to myself, maybe swinging a stick or something to go with it. I'd do this for hours and hours a day. I also drew a lot. I got OKish at drawing, but I wasn't great. It was hard for me to draw well (now I know due to my NVLD, yay) but I got OK. But, I had my loss of creativity at a tad before your age, I don't know if it was due to "depression" or more just people forcing me to stop it. Spending too much time listening to others, I guess. When I was a kid, I was a lot more emotional, too. With the loss of creativity, came the loss of, well, emotion. And since I have NVLD/AS, my emotional part of my brain isn't very good, and those types of things were my only emotional outlet I had. Now, as an adult, I'm regaining some emotions back through a new Godsend of an emotional outlet, figure skating. It's the only place I can really enter into the "inner world" and turn it into something. But now, due to lack of money, worse health, and time, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to withdraw from it, too. I'm trying not to, but just things like, I got new boots, were $700 new, I got them for 160 used on ebay. Had to wait like 3-4 months after I got them to get blades for them for $80, now I've waited about two weeks to get my blades mounted for $35, and I'll probably be waiting longer. It's tough. And I've messed my sleep schedule up, stressed myself out, so I end up missing ice time, it's not good, but I wish to stick to it.

I dunno, sorry for my rambling. Good luck in your life.