Do you have intense interests that you can't escape from?

[Thales]

I have certain interests that I can't escape from, some are academic, such as histories of particular cultures, medical knowledge, psychology, etc. I find I have intense compulsions to study these subjects even when I should be focusing on school work. Beyond these interests, after a seemingly random, initial thought, I will become entranced in thought to the point where I neglect more pressing concerns. I don't know, I've always wondered if I was autistic. Can anyone else here relate?

 

[warryer]

Ah yea I've been there. It's gotten to the point where I have to reign myself in and force myself to work on whats most important at the time. Luckily I find that once I get into my work I can really get into it and focus on it.

Once I find an interesting thread I keep following until I realize; oh shit, 3 hours have gone by.

 

[Jah]

Yeah, that happens.


I'll be reading on one field, then I get intensely interested in other, usually more complicated, fields, and I'll be compulsively trying to learn them as quickly as possible.



Then I'll suddenly find myself on another thread, then another, then I break down and go play games instead for an hour or a few.

Before I return to the original subject and go "OK, time to get this out of the way". (starting the loop all over again, but with a slight shuffle to the other subjects.)

Usually the subjects are Medicine/health, Physics (especially quantum physics, because it's considered "hard"/"Impossible to understand"), Psychology and sometimes chemistry.

 

[Puffy]

Hmm, it could be procrastination, perhaps? I find I can dedicate lots of time to something as long as it's not the thing I should be focusing my attention on.

 

[A22]

Yeah, a girl

 

[EyeSeeCold]

^Good one

Typology

If only my obsession could be applied to Business/Education/Computer Science...

 

[Essence]

Yep. I'll do my science homework, and then halfway through, I'll start googleing answers that i want to know more about. Then I start researching random things. Usually neurology, chemistry or astronomy. An hour goes by, and i hear a song that i don't like on Pandora, and then i'll realize that i was supposed to be doing homework.


Blehh

 

[magicMount]

The library is totally black hole to me.I had planned to have my homework done there.But once I persuaded myself to have a little break and get some light reading for time killing,I would lose control.
So many books on the shelf,each appeared delightful,fascinating.And then I'd hold a pile of books back to my seat and spent almost all the afternoon on them,completely forgetting my homework.

 

[magicMount]

I find I can dedicate lots of time to something as long as it's not the thing I should be focusing my attention on.

yep,exactly!
Is that kind of OCD?

 

[Words]

I know two reasons why I do the same thing.

1. I prefer to follow present motivations.
2. I prefer to be self-directed.

 

[Lydia]

I do very much relate, though it got very hard for me. I more or less began to cope with things. And it was not such a pleasant sight to be seeing in my head. Nor feeling, in fact coping in this situation makes you feel emotionless.

Perhaps you need to learn having a balance, between the things you idealise in and the things which are logically important.

 

[Polaris]

Yeah, usually the stuff that should not interest me at the time as I should really be focussing on something entirely different.

I seem to have a preference for rocks, chemistry, literature and music.

Anything that involves some kind of system or intricate connections.

 

[EnigmaticSoutherner]

I prefer reading inane Wikipedia articles on obscure Russian composers to doing the work I should be doing for my clients (49 year old lawyer here) I also have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to determine if the American Water Spaniel and the Boykin Spaniel are in fact the same breed of dog, geographically removed from one another..... and organizing a heiarchy or nobility of trees in my mind... I am sure they can be ranked and sorted in some meaningful order... whether my Manx ancestry makes me essentially Norse or Gaelic or Celtic or English ? et al et al
The good news is that I understand and appreciate the impending deadline and having pissed away so much time thinking about "unproductive" matters, I have no choice but to focus intently and complete the task in short order, often just before the deadline...
I suspect in time you will (if you havent already) develop an understanding for your abilities and will play a similar game....and that without fail, you will always accomplish your objective.
Of course I spend an inordinate amount of my time thereafter wondering/thinking.... Hmmmm... I performed pretty well... say 8 out of 10 on this task.... surely I would have performed even better had I not spent the last hour and half reading articles about obscure Russian composers .... I suppose I will never really know...and in the end I think Id rather get the job "done" (probably better than 75% of my peers) and still have the time to explore weird topics and concepts that I find interesting and important at the moment...
On the other hand I could be completely full of shite... who knows ?

 

[MsAnthropy_Indefatigably]

It's called Geek-dom

 

[Otherside]

I have certain interests that I can't escape from, some are academic, such as histories of particular cultures, medical knowledge, psychology, etc. I find I have intense compulsions to study these subjects even when I should be focusing on school work. Beyond these interests, after a seemingly random, initial thought, I will become entranced in thought to the point where I neglect more pressing concerns. I don't know, I've always wondered if I was autistic. Can anyone else here relate?

Absolutely. I have the same interests and I never seem to stop reading (unless I'm posting somewhere).

 

[the_s_rabbit]

Math. I'll be reading something that mentions a mathematical concept, like "The Golden Ratio." Then, I'll write a program or script to verify that the golden ratio exists and that it is what wikipedia says it is. And then, I'll go measure the coverings on the light switches, and sure as hell, their dimensions clearly satisfy the golden ratio!