Changing special interests?

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Anyone else feel a slight sense of melancholy when one interest is 'abandoned' for another?

I seem to only be able to have one, primary, all-consuming obsessive interest, and a few 'secondary' interests (which are still considered intense by most people's standards). My primary/obsessive interest has been psychopharmacology for three years now. But, almost overnight, it's changed to rats.
I don't mind it because I love rats. But I can't help but feel a slight sense of unhappyness - I knew SO much about psychopharmacology, and I felt like it was useful and doing something for society. Now I'm going to have to start from 'beginner' again in rat knowledge, and I don't feel like a knowledge of rats is going to be very useful to others. :/ I'm still going to do it though. Because they make me so warm and happy inside, and they've become all I can think about. <3

My interests are changing, albeit very slowly. I didn't really notice it until this week, when I started questioning why I have nothing to do. While I hate no longer finding pleasure in what I have always enjoyed, video games, my other interests have been slowly taking over, which is a really good thing, being that my other interests are science and technology related. The only time I ever play video games anymore is with friends. Other than that, it just gets kinda boring. 5 years ago, I never thought I would be saying that.

Yes, there is a sense of melancholy when you abandon your special interest. My two primary special interests are dogs and piano, but in the past two weeks I haven't been doing as much research on either. I know piano and dogs will come back; they always do. It's a cyclical pattern that I seem to follow. It's very predictable and I have no control over it. It just "happens."

You know, rats still fit because scientists do alot of research on rats before they test medications out on people.

I was cynical when my interest changed from the 60s to the 70s, after a friendship between a trusted friend and I broke off by the other person's choice.

I went from the 70s back to the 60s after forgiving both my dad and that person and I was elated when that happened. I was very happy to the point of Insomnia.

I feel very sad knowing that my obsession with Tim Burton's movies is dying off. I haven't watched any of them in months. When I do try to watch them, I find that I lack the warm feeling of giddy, girlish excitement I used to get while watching Johnny Depp do his schtick, as well as the resulting subconscious smile that spread across my face from the moment I laid eyes on his character and that stayed there until the credits rolled.

Not only have I grown tired of watching the movies, but I also never research them on the Internet anymore. This is partially because I have learned all there is to learn about them, and partially because of my waning level of interest.

I understand how the OP feels about having to start at a "beginner" level of knowledge on a new special interest. My new special interests are sci-fi movies and television shows - Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who and Red Dwarf. Each of them (except for perhaps Red Dwarf) has an intricately-detailed fictional universe surrounding it, and although I would love to become an expert on each of them, I find the task daunting.

I know the feeling. I used to be all about rabbits, everything about rabbits interested me. This is my special interest for over 8 years. My Mom told me I taught myself to read so I could read about rabbits. I used to make posters with facts and pictures of rabbits just for fun. I was about twelve when my rabbit got stolen from it's cage in our garage. After that, I stopped wanted to know about rabbits because I missed Hoppie so much. I even made "Lost Rabbit" posters.

Then, a month ago my Aunt found an essay I wrote about jackrabbits being killed in my town. I don't know, it was a weird feeling. ):

I don't really change or acquire new interests as much as I cycle between a handful of interests I already have. I guess the good thing about my interests are that they are very broad, and there is always something to learn about them, so I don't know that I'll ever reach a point where I feel I have exhausted them or learned everything there is to know about them.

I know the feeling. It's like being in a state of waiting for the next obsession to come along. Then I'll research it to death online and possibly buy books on it and feel really happy while doing so but then I reach saturation point with it and the interest wanes and I'm left feeling a bit despondant again.

Short-lived interests are usually more intense than long terms ones which I return to on and off.

Ugh, yes, so many brilliant unfinished projects abandoned... I get these amazing ideas and throw myself into them for weeks or months, and I usually get anywhere between 10 and 80 percent of the way done with them, and then suddenly I'm just not interested anymore. I usually go back to them eventually, but it often takes years before I even want to look at it again, and most of the time by then I've forgotten much of my original idea, or my idea has changed so much over time that it no longer fits with the original project and I have to start over.

The worst thing, though, is when my obsessions with people change. I go from feeling head over heels in love with someone for ages, talking and thinking about no one else, to hardly giving them a second thought. And I'm not talking about idols and movie stars, I mean people in my own personal real life. I met someone a few years ago and we clicked immediately and he became my best friend. Suddenly in recent months I'm just not interested in him anymore. He's become boring to me. I know everything about him and there's never anything new. I wonder how I could ever have found him so fascinating. But he still considers me to be his best friend and doesn't understand why I no longer want to spend all my time with him. I don't want to hurt his feelings, but I also can't pretend to be excited to see him, I just don't have it in me.

It makes me worry about romantic relationships. I've been single for 5 years and I'm getting really lonely. There are several guys that I'm interested in at the moment, but what if these strong feelings are really just another obsession? And what if one of them actually ends up being interested in me and we start a relationship, and then a few months or years from now I just get bored and never want to see him again? That would be horrible.

Yes it wasn't helped back in the day it was the only SI (gaming) and it it felt like that medium had reached a creative ennui *, so yes it exacerbated my already severe anxiety issues what would I move on to I thought. Lucky I've moved on to other special interests.

*where talking mid 90's here where every game felt just like the other with a different pix elated character. PlayStation was just what that world needed ie gave it a kick up the backside though that has been a double edged sword I think we've had it far to good in the last 10 years and storm clouds are emerging, I mean really do I want to see 30 hours of cut scenes "no" I'm not in to movies hence one of my favourite games at the monet is "Vanquish " * hooray Sega and coming from them comes with the deliriously camp voice overs and dialogue.

Also these "party games' and rhythm games are very very concerning to me, who plays that crap people with friend s I suppose


*interestingly the dude and dudette at EB loves Sega and Vanquish was one of the 1 st games they've completed to the end in a long time , they "get" Sega I don't know why it was criminally so ignored back in the day , I wish they where still in hardware,

Also their aren't that many dudettes who are into Sega are their ? that EB was the 1st they tend to be in to boring platforms like Nintendo even their most ardent supporters must admit the Pee is full of shovelware , I think you need to sift through the merde to get to the truffle yeah?

Does it really matter rat information is not useful info to other people ? or that special interest is not "productive" what does it matter go with the heart.

By the way I love all animals * especially so rats , a friend of my Mother has 2 of them decided to get rid of them as they became "to noisy and messy' who does this sort of thing especially so after forming a bond with them.

So that same person goes out and buys a cockatiel and as I expected it ended in tears, I now have that bird and she's now happy and well adjusted .

really people are idiots.

* I even like cane toads why must people use them as golf balls a national past time in of the red neck demographic.

Wow, they actually have the full episodes on the official Star Trek website? I'm such an idiot.

In the past six months, I have shifted from batteries, to birds, to 3D platforming games. So I change quite often.