Hobbies/obsessions?

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Hobbies/obsessions? People say its good to have a hobby, a special interest, but if you really enjoy your hobby and do it a lot, do you find peoples attitude changes and your told you are "obsessed". I find people can be very critical about these things. Any opinions.....?

obsessed is a word which is used too much i think.
i prefer the term 'deeply interested' or something.
i get deeply interested in certain people, but only because they are interesting people.
like devendra banhart is my latest craze. i feel the need to know every single detail of his life, where he was born, what are his interests, where he travels, who does he know, who does he look upto, and i read and read and read tons of interviews and reviews and yeah.
the obession doesnt turn into stalking or anything.

yeah i gotta go
bye

I use the term 'focus'. Obsession makes it seem like I'm unable to pay attention to anything else.
As for the critical, that usually comes up when I've failed to notice that the person is no longer interested in listening or participating.

I too use the term 'focus'. I think that it is good that some people are critical of my time consuming interests. I don't like to be criticized and this allows me to identify the critics. If my interest bothers some then that is good as it will keep them away. I need to be friends with those that can tolerate my peculiarities. There are times when I do need to be told that the Earth is still turning. I have trouble completeing daily tasks when I get really involved with something I find interesting.

Most people who are actively involved with me day to day say things like, "We're done talking about x for now. Let's please talk about this instead." but there are a select few who can't grasp that I really need to be directly asked to change the subject. Unfortunately it's not friends, it's family. Why family has a harder time figuring out how to 'handle' me than friends, I don't know.
On the other hand there are times I've started talking about things knowing that it will earn me some quiet time.

LOL, I can relate. From my Mom:

"Stop talking about Donald Trump!"

From my little bro:

"Will you not talk about Stephen King, I know I know..."

Awww, no trouble, X obsession's gonna cycle in a little while anyway.

I used to have a problem with the word "obsession". It struck me as dirty, like the way a stalker is obsessed. But, you know, I wanted to claim the word back for myself. It's a powerful word and can be applied positively.

Some do, some don't. For a few months I obsessively made these very expensive dolls and made a decent amount of money doing it, I loved it. Then one day I had just made all the dolls I wanted to and haven't done it since. Although I guess I would if someone still wanted to buy one. $300 is nothing to sneeze at.
Others have faded in importance but are still pretty there, like my orchids. I don't go on and on about them like I used to but I still am active in learning how to care for them properly and such.
Thankfully I do have one friend who will listen to me babble on about anything as long as I want. I have no idea how that doesn't get on her nerves.

I use to have thousands of lego technics pieces that I would build complex things out of. But most of those were sold at a rummage sale so I don't have those anymore. Boy did I cry when I saw them get sold out from under me by my parents. Punishment for my "bad" behavior at school...

Now my hobby/obessesion is video. I'm going to being starting the second half of my college career as I work towards my B.A. in T.V. broadcasting.
At home I have P4 1.6ghz machine that I use for my digital video projects.

My obsession though would to be to get my hands on one of these..... http://www.ev1.pair.com/colorTV/myTK41_2.html

That's a good way to put it. For me, it's like I have these asynchronous loops that fade in and out over time. Some of them are relatively short, taking only a matter of weeks. Others are longer, reaching back to when I was just a child, but are coming back.

It's important to have a friend there for you to listen. I'd hate to think how much knowledge people have that they try to share and it just isn't being heard by the *right* people who will really resonate with it.

Yes, I find that these days most people don't really want to listen. Their lives are so hurried and pressured and they just can't fit everything in so they don't really have time for us and our consuming interests in various topics and interests.

Well, as far as obsessions, I didn't have a familial modal that didn't include obsessions so to me they were normal.

Examples...

My Aunt was obsessed with the musician, Prince and had delusions of him marrying her. (She's bi-polar or schitzophrenic)

My brother, now 21, had a rather deep interest with Ghostbusters when he was little, cars, model and real, and women as he got older.

My grandmother has an overwhelming interest with knick knacks. They cover just about all available space, especially black figurines and glass art.

My grandfather has a little over a hundred baseball caps and about a thousand videos. He's an avid movie bluff who can tell you about what actor played which caracter, when the movie was released, who directed it, ect.

My mother's also a movie bluff.(Runs in the family) Also has hundreds of tapes and DVDs. She also has an obsession with God in which any discussion unrelated eventually leads to some Biblical concept, to my chagrin.

My other aunt, yet another movie bluff.(I told you it runs in the family)

My late great-grandfather collected hundreds of coffee mugs.

My 17 year old sister was obsessed with Alicia Keys or more accurately, being like Alicia Keys and would try to play the piano, got the Alicia braids and even thought she could sing. She even sang the National Anthem at one of her basketball tournaments she was playing in. Thank god someone else was singing along with her.

My 7 year old brother, up to the time he was four, would watch the same movie, "Toy Story" several times a day every single day without fail. He's now absorbed with video games.

Me.....I've collected 151 beanie babies and 10 beanie buddies, once even camping out at the store to get one of the rare ones. I've collected about 200 CDs in the space of about two years. I can play computer games and be on the Internet for 12 strait hours. I once was obsessed with my former pastor from the age of 13 to 26. He was all I could think of and I'd do anything to be near him. I'm obsessed with decorating, spirituality and lately, emigrating to Australia.

So you see, I've always seen obsessions as a normal part of life. They weren't abnormal in a serial killer sort of way, just things you really were interested in and as long as it didn't hurt anyone, nobody's interest bothered me.

I don't currently have an obsession at the moment (which is actually making me slightly depressed). However when I do, I drive everyone crazy with it.

It is a focus.. that you are putting your time in. A hobby is not an obession.

I don't have a problem with the term "obsession" I think it is accurate. When I am obsessed with something I am always thinking about it...And to answer the original question, yes. My family was always very encouraging when I was interested in something...asking questions about it, etc. and then somehow I would step over this invisible line and all of a sudden they'd be telling me to just shut up about it! The encouragement stopped after my dx Also, my mother used to be down on me before my diagnosis because I was not able to stay interested in anything for more than a year...sometimes not more than a couple hours, LOL!! Now I think she still looks down on me for my obsessions, but she doesn't say anything.
Also, some of my obsessions cycle, and keep coming up over and over again...relationships, certain books of the Bible in depth, Amy Grant....some are always there on some level but "flare" up now and then..like Jane Austen/Regency Period/Napoleonic Wars and cooking, and some come and go and never come again, like native fish or the "house" series on PBS

Last edited by Mockingbird on 09 Jul 2005, 11:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

For about three years, I was insanely obsessed with LotR, the books. That's pretty much all I'd talk about and all of my friends would try and change the subject when we were talking. I still really like LotR, but I'm not as crazy now.

My problem with different activities is that I will start working on one of my hobbies (writing, teaching myself how to cross stich, calligraphy, internt) and then forget about everything else that has to get done.

Used to have hobbies bordering on obesessions, but no longer. I learnt to control that tendency of my personality, although at great cost mentally.

My father would tell me off when I younger when I was obsessed with something.