Feel my special interest taking over

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Can you all feel when your special interest is getting too intense.

My special interest, if anything about it rubs me wrong i cannot stop thinking about it and i get anxiety just knowing i need to stop thinking about it but i cant. I have to work it all out in my head before moving on.

Its maddening because i feel it building and i just know im gonna be obsessed for the next week or few days.

That happened to me once. I was obsessed with Smallville, their version of Clark Kent before he became superman. I watched it so many times. In college summers i would stay up all night watching smallville in the school computer lab, and sleep outside and in school buildings during the day. My love for that show made my life wacked.

My special interest in Doctor Who and Torchwood has become VERY intense over the years. I sometimes feel like I've lost myself because all I know, think about, and can talk about with people are those shows. Everybody knows me as "The Whovian Fangirl" and sometimes I think that that is holding me back, but most of the time it's okay and I don't mind. Sometimes it gives me extreme anxiety, but most of that isn't related to the interest itself, but other people that I share the interest with (if that makes sense). Most of the time, I find watching the shows calming.

I remember smallville. I was way into that show. It ruled my life in HS!

My current obession is kpop/korea. And when things are out of wack in that world, it affects me way too much. I luckily was distrated by it today by real life stuff, which is good. If i had no distractions, id still be walking around trying to sort it all out.

That seems to be leaning out of 'traditional' special interest and more into a very focused obsession.

Sometimes if a movie/show/podcast overlooks a missed opportunity for (what I consider) a perfectly placed joke/observation, I might go over this in my mind wondering how they could have possibly missed it.

'Special interest' (for me) is needing to learn every possible bit of info on something and being unable to concentrate or think about anything else when I'm away from that subject.

They seem related, but different. Maybe that's just me.

The last few days i have been researching a topic non stop, it is interfering with functioning, sleep and school. I get anxious when I am not looking up or thinking about it. I am very focused on psychology, and specific aspects of certain disorders, pretty much anything pertaining to it, from the neurology, psychology, sociological impact, to treatments. I am more anxious because I know I should be doing other things and can't, than anything. I wonder how to break this cycle.

Depression did it for me, but then you realize just how valuable special interests are.
Fortunately you may not have to think about other things completely. If you can integrate your SI into the other tasks you need to focus on (or vice versa), it might make it easier branch out a bit.

I was thinking about that yesterday, if I could just get really interested in what I was doing (consciously pick what to be interested in, even if I find it boring). I have found I have certain OCD tendencies as well, and they are helpful, if I consciously control what aspect needs to stay the same, I am more detail oriented when doing things, so I can achieve quality, the only problem is the trial and error process so I don't take forever doing a task, and getting to that point can take a while. But efficiency is a transferrable skill, one that is not as efficient when obsessing however, lol. I don't see SI as the same as OCD, but in that it can be both a good and bad thing. I am fortunate that most aspects of psychology I find very interesting, which is a huge field, and can be transferable almost anywhere, I am taking anatomy and physiology, which can certainly be linked to psychology, just not the specific topics we are studying, like bone form, and cellular regeneration. Don't get me wrong, that is interesting, I like SI's because you chose the format you learn in, and the aspects of the topic to focus on, school is kind of narrow. And if I get really into it, I will spend too much time researching aspects I want to learn, not what they want me to learn. I think I will try that though, that would be an invaluable skill to learn.

Interesting point. The 'obsession' I was having the other day was related to my special interest, but it wasn't it exactly, it kind of interfered with my special interest in a way I guess, and that's what made it problematic.

I think that's the downside with being drawn to details; there's always another little something threatening to redirect you from your intended focus.