Spontaneously losing special interest

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Hello folks!

One of my special interests has always been video games. I was good at them, I played a broad variety, and I think during the past 15 or so years, I guess I could count the days on both hands where I have not touched a video game. About a month ago, I came home from college, and thought about playing some games on PC, but when I sat down after turning on my PC, I suddenly feld like: "Nah, not today!", and switched it back off. Now one month has passed, and I haven't played even one second, and I do not miss it. I think it has something to do with the fact that I am rather busy doing college stuff at the moment. Then again, I have been before, and always took my time for some playing. I just don't feel like it anymore. The day before I decided not to play, I was as "fanatic" about gaming like all the time before. Suddenly, I feel like I have played enough. I don't want to play anymore. The thought of it makes me feel... I don't know, empty and sad, like it has never given me any joy. It also cut off a part of my social network, since I used to play online alot with people I knew from the net. I don't feel like I wanna talk to them or play with them, either. I don't wanna have anything to do with gaming anymore. I am still very into news about gaming in general, like what games are released, or reviews, or about new consoles, but not in actively doing it anymore.
Has this ever happened to you that in your special interest, you've reached a point where you thought you just had enough, and quit it? It feels kinda weird.

Yes, I've been into things like philosophy and tax policy, and now public health.

The fact that you like news about games is a positive. Potentially, you're operating at a higher level and maybe could give very good advice to those still actively into gaming and appreciate what they're doing, rather like a coach.

In general, you want to 'dance' new interests without pushing yourself too hard. You might also 'dance' coming back to gaming in new diagonal directions.

This has happened to me.

I will get really into something, and then lose most of my interest in it.

My special interests can also be cyclical in that I am into them for a while, lose some interest, and then get back into it again.

Dare I say it?

Maybe it means you're growing up.
I apologize if I sound like your parents.
Lol!

Or just growing as person. Lets put it that way.

Playing video games, may not be worth the time they eat up for you anymore because youve moved on to other things. But staying up on news about them might help you know which video system to bet on when playing the stock market- a more sociall acceptable game for adults to play.

Or maybe you might go into game design or computer programming or some other relaed field.

So I agree thats not totally inane to keep up on news about videogames.

I tend to switch obsessions once I feel as though I have acquired all of the information I need. I'll then find a new obsession until it raises a question about a topic I know a lot about, so I have to go back and figure it out.

My main special interest is the movies that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have done together, specifically Edward Scissorhands, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I would add Dark Shadows to the list, but it's not even in theaters yet. Sometimes I'm happy with this interest, but other times it feels like I'm tired of it and secretly want something else to replace it. I've had this interest for the past 2 years, and given the fact that my special interests typically don't last any longer than 3 years, I shouldn't be surprised that my passion for it is starting to wind down.

But for some reason I'm very emotionally attached to this interest, and so I'm having trouble letting it go. It's like my brain is saying, "This is boring, time for a new obsession", while my heart is saying, "It doesn't matter that I've lost my passion for you! We can make this work!" The fact that a love of Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movies is one of the only things that my best friend and I have in common makes it even more difficult.

I dread the thought of my interests fading away, and hate the feeling of inevitability it brings. I sometimes think all the hard work and effort I put into learning about them will have been a waste of time, but it doesn't have to be that way. Just because we move onto other interests and stuff doesn't mean we have to lose all our knowledge of previous ones, and over time we can build up a sort of database in our minds, which is always useful for ourselves and others.

It sucks when the passion goes, but the love is always still there to some degree. The emotional attachment never really fades. And special interests can always re-occur. My dinosaur interest went when I was about 10 (before that I was massively into them) and it just jumped back into my life last summer, and I know just as much now as I did back then, maybe even more. It's really come back full-force.

It still scares me though when I think it might fade away again though, especially when there is nothing to fill the void (which has happened to me before), usually though my interests slowly merge into something related, which I don't mind so much. Occasionally they will just jump from one subject to another at random, but again, as long as I'm occupied, I don't mind. Just try to fill 'the void' and you should hopefully have no regrets.

As much as I love apes, I do go through moments when I don't really look them up and just wait for something interesting to come along to me instead. Such as now, I do worry that I'll lose it altogether. Though all I always love my interests once they're old and when I come across them in day to day life my ears always prick up. I know I'll never get bored of live apes though, I love seeing them irl (even though only in zoos for the time being) and I still squee when I see a picture of one. I like related things such as human behaviour and evolution and that keeps it alive, I tend to read up on that more often. I do think obsessions with live animals are good if you want something that lasts, you may know all the facts about the species/genus/family as a whole but you can always learn more about individuals and follow their personal lives. I have liked loads of pages from primate sanctuaries so I get updates on the animals like birthdays and stuff.

I do dread when my main interests take the back seat but I know I'll never fully lose my love for them.

A question, if you ever spend a long time looking up something that strays from your special interest do you ever feel like you're cheating on them? I recently spend a couple of weeks going crazy over birds that mimic speech and people picked up on it and I felt guilty.

I felt a bit guilty for Parasaurolophi when I started to look up Plesiosaurs, but I've learned practically everything I could about Paras now, so it's natural and healthy to move on. But my love for them hasn't dwindled at all, it's just that I'm not studying like crazy at the moment. I still love to collect them though. But I like to learn new things and Plesiosaur studies help with that.

They're both awesome.

There's something called a Dvorak keyboard in which most of the vowels are under the fingers, unlike a regular, 'normal' QWERTY keyboard. I remember reading years ago in my psychology textbook that there was positive transfer, that if someone got fast at a regular keyboard, he or she could get faster quicker and have a head start on a Dvorak keyboard, and vice versa.

This convinced me that about anything has positive transfer! You get good at one topic, it helps you get good at other topics, sometimes in straightforward ways, and sometimes in roundabout ways.

Yes. I often struggle with this. During the days when I was more passionate about Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movies, I would feel guilty about enjoying any other movies or TV shows. That's why my budding interest in different things I enjoyed were stopped suddenly - because I was worried that my passion for them was beginning to eclipse my passion for my primary special interest. However, the feelings of cheating have begun to lessen the more I begin to accept that my special interest in Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movies is fading. For example, I used to feel guilty about enjoying the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movies, but I have recently started to get back into them.

Feelings of guilt/cheating on special interests used to be even worse when I was younger. Between '06 and '09 when the two anime series Hellsing and Trinity Blood were my special interests, I refused to watch any other movies, TV shows or anime because I was so afraid of finding something better than them.

I've never suddenly lost a true special interest. I have tiers of obsession. I did completely lose my interest in Taylor Lautner in a split second, but that obsession was bottom level.

Sure, I've gotten burnout. I loved the band Fall Out Boy, but after a while, I can't stand to listen to their music anymore. I do go back to listening to them tho. Today I started my third cycle of FOB fandom.

Sometimes what I am interested in changes. For instance, I used to obsessively watch tv. But after several of my favorite shows were canceled and the type of shows that were on the air were very annoying to me, I only watched it a few hours a day.

Once I found out the boy I had a crush on did drugs. All of my interest in him suddenly vanished.

All of these things felt weird.

Yup.

My special interest has been film since I was old enough to know what a movie was. This has never changed. However, I've had obsessions with in this interest, mostly with particular actors, that have become quite intense, in that I sought out and purchased every single movie the particular actor was in (even the BAD ones), collected pictures of the person and read everything I could about them. Each and every time I had one of these obsessions, I could never picture not being obsessed with that person. Every time I'd say: "This one is for real. I'll always be obsessed with this person." Of course, a couple months later, I'd stop talking about the person, stop watching their movies and no longer look at their pictures. It'd be over, for good.

Currently, I'm very into Michael Fassbender. However, I'm 'keeping my distance.' I don't have the time or energy these days to put time into something that will eventually fade away.

I could never fall out of love with film in general, though. I'd be lost without it.

Eeyup. I've went from psychology to criminology to robotics over the course of the year pretty quickly, heh.

Exact same thing happened to me with video games. I don't play them anymore (except sometimes I play silly online games), but I still follow the market and the pro gaming scene. Takes up a lot less time, and I still feel "connected" to that world.

From my experience, video games tend to get less exciting and appealing the older you get(though liking games doesn't make you "immature" in any way). That's true with many things.