# How absorbed do you get into newfound interests? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 3, 2008, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-absorbed-do-you-get-into-newfound-interests/461789 "2008-09-03T01:25:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AllWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@AllWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllWalker)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-absorbed-do-you-get-into-newfound-interests/461789/21 "2008-09-05T13:13:45Z")
Well, isn’t this interesting. A number of people (myself included) mentioned a _Doctor Who_ fixation. I wonder if there is a statistically meaningful link between obsessive behaviour and watching Who. Which, now that I think about all the Whovians I’ve known over the years, I would guess there would be. Could it be the style of old Who that draws us in, where a single plot could take several episodes to wrap up (not to mention the larger arcs)? Or perhaps only people like us understande and appreciate the technobabble? Just out of curiousity, how many of you follow anime/manga? Oh, and on the music topic, I can listen to certain songs on a continuous loop for _hours_. Not kidding. And I’m still not bored of the song at the end - in fact, when I finally stop, it just feels… weird. _sigh_ I have problems. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![freekalette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-absorbed-do-you-get-into-newfound-interests/461789/22 "2008-09-05T13:27:10Z")
> [@AllWalker](#): > > Well, isn’t this interesting. A number of people (myself included) mentioned a _Doctor Who_ fixation. I wonder if there is a statistically meaningful link between obsessive behaviour and watching Who. Which, now that I think about all the Whovians I’ve known over the years, I would guess there would be. > > Could it be the style of old Who that draws us in, where a single plot could take several episodes to wrap up (not to mention the larger arcs)? Or perhaps only people like us understande and appreciate the technobabble? > > Just out of curiousity, how many of you follow anime/manga? > > Oh, and on the music topic, I can listen to certain songs on a continuous loop for _hours_. Not kidding. And I’m still not bored of the song at the end - in fact, when I finally stop, it just feels… weird. > > _sigh_ I have problems. 🙂 Oh, Kee-rist!! :rolleyes: Evidently, I have been sleep-posting, and under a sock, no less! (Really, that post describes me to a “t!”) 😉 Anime? Check. Manga? Check. Same song endlessly repeated? You betcha. Not to mention my tendency to have close to thirty SDMB tabs open at once. Yeah, well, I could have worse addictions, so I’m not complaining. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-absorbed-do-you-get-into-newfound-interests/461789/23 "2008-09-05T14:08:18Z")
No anime/manga. I do get really into certain songs. Techno/dance songs with catchy electronic bits seems to do it for me. ---
**Author:** ![hobscrk777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a6a055/32.png) [@hobscrk777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hobscrk777)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-absorbed-do-you-get-into-newfound-interests/461789/24 "2008-09-06T01:27:06Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > Do you have ADD? My nine-year-old son does, and has always been a kid that doesn’t just _like_ things- he becomes obsessed with them. His first fascination was with Regis Philbin, when he was 2. It was strange. Another of his obsessions is the now-canceled TV show Fear Factor. He has the t-shirts, game, magnets, books, seasons on DVD, and watches it online as much as I’ll let him. > > Just yesterday I mentioned this fact about him to the nurse practitioner that prescribes his medication, and she said that it was very common to people with ADD. Feel free to fight my ignorance here, but I was under the impression that ADD manifests itself in someone by that person not being able to focus on anything for a significant length of time. I have no problem buckling down when it’s time to get serious, but in my free time I (like many others have admitted here) tend to fixate on new interests to the exclusion of other, older ones for a week or two. Is this really a symptom of ADD? ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-absorbed-do-you-get-into-newfound-interests/461789/25 "2008-09-06T01:29:06Z")
> [@hobscrk777](#): > > Feel free to fight my ignorance here, but I was under the impression that ADD manifests itself in someone by that person not being able to focus on anything for a significant length of time. I have no problem buckling down when it’s time to get serious, but in my free time I (like many others have admitted here) tend to fixate on new interests to the exclusion of other, older ones for a week or two. Is this really a symptom of ADD? IANAPsychiatrist, and this is not General Questions. I was merely relaying that my son does this, and this is what the nurse practitioner said. ---
**Author:** ![AllWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@AllWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllWalker)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2008, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-absorbed-do-you-get-into-newfound-interests/461789/26 "2008-09-07T02:40:30Z")
> [@freekalette](#): > > Not to mention my tendency to have close to thirty SDMB tabs open at once. Okay, freek, I think you and I may actually be the same person. I’m going to stop saying things I do before this gets mysterious. _cue mysterious, vaguely X-Files-y music_ ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2008, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-absorbed-do-you-get-into-newfound-interests/461789/27 "2008-09-07T02:54:46Z")
The first thing I thought of when I saw this thread was John Laroche, the flower-poacher in “Adaptation”(Charlie Kaufman’s re-imagining of Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief). Before his obsession with the ghost orchid, he was all about collecting fish: > [@](#): > > John Laroche: Then one morning, I woke up and said, “Fuck fish.” I renounce fish, I will never set foot in that ocean again. And there hasn’t been a time where I have stuck so much as a toe back in that ocean. > > Susan Orlean: But why? > > John Laroche: Done with fish. ---
**Author:** ![bink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@bink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bink)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2008, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-absorbed-do-you-get-into-newfound-interests/461789/28 "2008-09-07T04:05:36Z")
I do this too. You can look at my Amazon Wishlist, which I never edit, and plot the timeline of my former hobbies like rings on a tree. When I get into something I have to have every book on the subject, a folder full of bookmarks, etc. But once I’m done with it, I’m pretty much completely over it. (glances at dusty telescope, folds laundry on the still-unfixed pinball machine) ---
**Author:** ![freekalette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2008, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-absorbed-do-you-get-into-newfound-interests/461789/29 "2008-09-07T13:11:25Z")
> [@AllWalker](#): > > Okay, freek, I think you and I may actually be the same person. I’m going to stop saying things I do before this gets mysterious. > > _cue mysterious, vaguely X-Files-y music_ Aww, the illusion is broken. I heard Twilight Zone-y music. 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-absorbed-do-you-get-into-newfound-interests/461789.md?page=1)