Years ago I was diagnosed with OHD–Obsessive Hobby Disorder. Apparently its rare, really rare. Mostly this is because the acronym and diagnosis was made up specifically to apply to me and from what I understand does not apply to anyone else. Or does it?
You see, I was married at the time to a school teacher who dealt daily with 5th graders who had been pigeon holed and categorized with a variety of acronym type terms: ADD, ADHD, OCD, TS and TT. The percentage of students put into each of these categories was high–I don’t doubt it would be over half of her classes. One day she told me I have OHD. I asked her what that was, and she said, Obsessive Hobby Disorder.
OHD is an absolute obsession with the hobby of the moment. I’ve gone through many hobbies over the years. One hobby, as mentioned in my other blog post, was Goliath Bird-Eating Spiders. Once I became interested in spiders, it quickly became an obsession. I went to the library and checked out over 20 books on tarantula spiders. I didn’t read every word of every book, but I did skim through them and ready chapters or various paragraphs that caught my attention. I also spent hours each night surfing the internet reading on the topic and looking of photos of various types of tarantulas. I found the local spider group, the Southern Nevada Herpetological Society. These folks were experts on exotic pets from lizards to snakes to spiders. They helped answer some of my questions which I didn’t find in books or online. I also tracked down a spider breeder in a nearby city who raised and sold spiders to local pet shops. For about three months almost any conversation I had would revert to the discussion of tarantulas after about 20 minutes.
I took a similar approach with chess, rockets, website design, watches, lizards, mid-century modern architecture, and various other topics. Each of these became an obsession for months at a time, eclipsing all other interests in my life. Today, after hours of intense therapy, I’ve managed to get most of my OHD under control to where it doesn’t impact my conversations with people. I’m no longer as much of a social leper as when I was first diagnosed with OHD. Do you have OHD? If so, how have you dealt with it?
February 3, 2011
i have it i’ve just realised tonight that i do,my wife jokes that i have a new hobby or interest every couple of weeks,if i’ts not going back playing my local sport i’ts cars or motorbikes. i had a long spell keeping reptiles,then i wanted a cat,then a dog then gold fish,i didn’t get a cat or dog yet but i will get a dog eventually.i wouldn’t call my behavour obsessive like i dont do anything possible to buy a car i’ve seen or anything or go hungery for my latest fad,but at any one time something seems really “cool” or interesting but given time it wears off.usually i just go with the flow and enjoy what im doing at the time,i’t doesn’t cause friction with family life or upset my or anyone in any way.i want it all i guess,so trying different things all the time keeps me happy.oh by the way when im interested in something i also get books from the library or trawl the net looking for info on the particular subject at the time.so your not on your own there chap.
May 12, 2011
I know exactly how it feels.
When a new hobby arrives it starts casual.
After a month or two I become an expert on the subject matter. I feel the need to perfect the art (pool, trading card games, MMO’s, brewing, cooking etc..). It usually ends with me loosing interest after a couple of months/years then picking up something else, or I lose interest because something else captivated me.
It negatively affects social interaction and I only realized that recently. Trying to manage it on your own is not easy.
June 5, 2011
I agree with glaciered that it can negatively effect your social life as you become inconsistent. The friends you make through a certain hobby will have a difficult time relating to you, and you relating to them, once you move on to your next. I say this because I too exhibit similar traits and have struggled to manage the tendency.
How do you deal with/manage this?
May 15, 2012
Ive always had a rather compulsive nature but recently my obsessive hobby is tropical fish keeping. I spend hours on the net researching everything about the fish i own (or ones i want to own) also i find the purchasing of ‘stuff’ needed for any given hobby gives me a real buzz- especially as ebay always has a steady stream of 2nd hand aquariums at a fraction of the cost they charge in shops. Usually i am the only person involved in my hobbies so there is usually a partner telling me ‘ you dont really need that … Do you?’ etc, but i started this hobby as my partner had a tropical fish tank that we stocked together and now we have fish tanks all over the house, ive even started travelling greater distances to see what fish they have. Bottom line, its getting expensive.
Anyhoo, in answer to other peoples questions, i find that by keeping myself so busy with my job that i am literally shattered by the end of the day so i dont have the energy to be obsessive really helps. I run my own plumbing and eating business so its easy to tire myself out. ( the only reason i think this obsession is getting out of hand is due to the fact that business has been a bit slow lately so ive had a lot more time to ‘play’ ) probably not the most helpful story for others but thats how i deal with it. Hopefully business will pick up soon: before i bankrupt myself buying aquaria.
January 9, 2013
I believe it to actually be true. My fiancé gets on to a certain subject and just obsesses with it for weeks to months then it will switch to another topic. This last month has been horrible which is funny because his knew obsession is christianity all of a sudden. He told me he no longer wants to make love because it’s sin and is talking about moving out. We have been together for 7 years and are engaged. So yeah it is actually a real thing in his case
August 11, 2013
To me this very real disorder is a blessing and a curse. When I was a kid I had trouble picking a profession or career because I didn’t want to be tied down to one particular thing. I wanted to experience a lot of (unconventionally cool) things. When I was younger I was obsessed with comic books and basketball cards. Then art and drawing. Then music and classic literature and Mlb baseball. In the last year things have gone from bad to worse. Walking Dead TV and graphic novels, firearms and marksmanship, survival and bug out bag building, pen and ink, watercolor painting, knives and bush blades, and most recently an obsession for air hockey. Hobbies can be expensive and time consuming and therein lies the rub. These things consume my thoughts totally. I research constantly, casually, to feed my fascinations. I believe these lead to a fuller life. I want to be well rounded. If money was no problem for me it would be much less of an issue I’m sure but it’s always a problem. You can’t play air hockey without a 1500 dollar table, 4 dollars a comic book, 18 a novel, 32 cents a round, 4 hours a ballgame, a day at the range, a day at the arcade, and 600 bucks on survival gear I may never get to use. I realize this isn’t normal behavior but I have a lot of love for a lot of hobbies. Where do I go from here?
October 12, 2013
Of course it’s real. I live with the real deal. His latest obsession is the newly acquired microlight. Before that it was the model aircraft, helicopters, raptors, whatever. We’ve had photography, fishing, and recently bee keeping, till they all died. Never content to have one, or two items i.e. cameras, bee hives, helicopter etc he has to acquire copious amounts. He has a shed especially devoted to the model aircraft. I can say it is affecting our relationship, as I spend so much time now on my own. If I object he thinks I just want to stop him doing what he wants. There seems to be be no room for compromise.
December 9, 2013
It is a mental escape from reality- just like sports or gambling and shopping. The promise of happiness is just around the corner. And the real payoff is the distraction from your real life that you unhappy with.
It is a distraction and escape from a generalized feeling of anxiety (and probably ineffectiveness and power over your life) that you very well may have been carrying around since you grew up in a dysfunctional household.
Or maybe that’s just me (and my cousin who is a more obsessive hobbyist -with an even worse father/upbringing than me and my alcoholic father.
December 9, 2013
You have an interesting observation. I do feel I had a very functional household with a full time mother who was nurturing and a responsible hard working father, both of which were religious (not smoking, drinking or doing drugs). Recently I’ve been reading a book called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who believes that dancers, athletes and chess players are obsessed with these hobbies/sports because they have a “flow” experience where space and time disappear and they are totally focused in that moment and that period of time. The same is found in Eastern religions focusing heavily on meditation, mindfulness, and living in the current moment (letting go of the past and future). A lot of studies also talk about escapism through video games which has a flow type experience. I’m not sure what is all means if you have a happy and healthy childhood but enjoy “flow” experiences through obsessive hobbies. Certainly some element of escapism is there, but perhaps not quite in the way you are mentioning.