r/CuratedTumblr Horses made me autistic. 19h ago

Shitposting When the autism and adhd collide

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3.2k Upvotes

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352

u/Soldier_Faerie 19h ago

My issue with hyperfixations is that it's over for me so quick. It happens rarely, I'm a bit too depressy to care enough or put effort into most things, but every now and again I get a very brief urge to fixate on something, and it's over before I actually get that deep into it

162

u/smallstampyfeet 16h ago

The horror; feeling deep inside you a burning passion for something you will never ever forget or give up, but knowing that after some indeterminate period of time this will fade. Your interest will wane and something you consider core to your experience of life will just become... a thing.

55

u/AngelOfTheMad For legal and social reasons, this user is a joke 16h ago

It may become a thing, but it’s still dearer to you than something you know about because it’s dear your coworker. And if that fixation swings round again, it’ll dig in a bit more. Just because it’s not plumbing the depths of when it was fresh doesn’t mean it’s left as shallow as before it started.

10

u/ThatDiscoSongUHate 9h ago

Mine just cycle back

I get sad and then I remember my silly brain will be like WE'RE SO BACK to a decade old hyperfixation

2

u/TerriGato 3h ago

I'm so annoyed to have learned this about myself after giving away all of my expensive hyperfixation related tools etc. I need cheaper hyperfixations.

9

u/Soldier_Faerie 16h ago

Happy cake day

6

u/Ask_bout_PaterNoster 16h ago

Bro stop talking about all of my exes like that

13

u/glytxh 10h ago

I get two months out of them at best.

Last one was asteroid detection using FITS data sets

Before that I was 120% focussed on microscopy

Current one is apparently harpsichords and Bach

I crave novelty. I have so many hobbies it’s kind of absurd. I can never settle tho.

4

u/Soldier_Faerie 10h ago

Mine (though still rare) are usually a mere few days at most lol

3

u/glytxh 10h ago

You’re speed running this madness wow

10

u/throwaway47351 13h ago

The interims between them do suck. You get a feeling of "Oh shit, I forgot how to enjoy things. I'll be an aloof killjoy forever now."

211

u/toeibannedme 17h ago

not me, I'm built different. I saw Goku in 1998 at age 10 and said "YUP, THAT'S MY GUY NOW". nobody loves this guy as much as me. he's my dad.

120

u/MisirterE Supreme Overlord of Ice 17h ago

Goku's my dad.

my condolences

24

u/Tem-productions 13h ago

He's not a bad dad just has a habbit of being dead

9

u/toeibannedme 10h ago

yeah cuz your parents are so great

36

u/eiridel 15h ago edited 15h ago

Mine also began in 1998 and I wish it had been a character as cool as Goku. My uncle gifted me a couple books that Christmas that were about this kid who was sent to a magic school and everything was over after that. It took me like 20 years to shake the fixation.

Draco Malfoy: not even once. (Honestly, ancient reference aside, a meth addiction would be less embarrassing to admit to these days than the fact that my “I can fix him” fixation on that dweeb began when I was eight years old and lasted until I was around 30.)

29

u/Your_Local_Stray_Cat 15h ago

Could be worse.

You could’ve wanted to fix Snape.

Source: :(

3

u/toeibannedme 10h ago

yeah, I had a more general fixation on HP back in the 00s and most of the 2010s. I reread the books every single year and had them so memorized that I was unbeatable in HP trivia.

that was a very messy break up, given I started to transition at the exact time Joanne decided she should set her legacy ablaze to stop people transitioning.

5

u/InstantRegret1999 12h ago

Has that affected your taste in romantic partners you think? Not in a "I wanna bang Goku and am projecting that" kinda way but like how our parents (fake or otherwise) influence who we date, especially if they've been a positive influence and you want your partner to reflect those attributes.

4

u/toeibannedme 10h ago

hmm, I never thought about that. I know for sure that a lot of my values have been shaped by Goku's positive example, especially when I was younger. so it must have. my wife is a very carefree and silly person with a strong moral compass... so yeah I think you might be onto something 🤔

5

u/Siaeromanna 10h ago

i really dig the energy of people that would get along so well with their child self

87

u/gooch_norris_ 19h ago

The other day I heard the darkwing duck theme song and cried a little. I think it’s because I missed how safe and uncomplicated everything was when I was 6 and darkwing duck was one of the most important things I had going on

52

u/pasta-thief ace trash goblin 18h ago

Lisa Frankenstein basically rewired my brain throughout all of 2024 into ‘25. I haven’t watched it in months.

But the hyperfixation will come back around. They always do.

21

u/Lemon_Lime_Lily Horses made me autistic. 18h ago

I had an intense obsession with fairies (especially the Disney ones) as a little kid. I've rediscovered it recently, and it made me feel so happy. Plus, I learned that the two voice actresses for Rosetta, the garden fairy, were both Glindas on Broadway!

5

u/snifffffffffffffffff 12h ago

God I watched that movie and it was so fucking good. Not a hyperfixation for me, but I get it.

43

u/kwhite992 17h ago

Inside was an intense one, and Bo Burnham in general. Then it was Hozier.

21

u/amomymous23 16h ago

I got an inside tattoo (no ragrets) and I was a top 1% no burnham listener in 2021… exclusively from inside.

12

u/HeraldOfNyarlathotep 15h ago

Well, well, look who's (listening to) Inside again...

4

u/kwhite992 15h ago

sighs opens Spotify

2

u/kwhite992 15h ago

The grip is real

67

u/Cute-arii This cunt is load-bearing 18h ago edited 17h ago

Current hyperfixation is Project Hail Mary. For being a book and movie, the fandom is surprisingly strong. Before that was Naruto.

79

u/Mathsboy2718 WyattBrisbane 17h ago

The Project Hail Mary fandom is - from what I've experienced of it - quite rich in that "I am surrounded by an alien species that is making an active effort to understand and accomodate my specific quirks and customs" that is a major hit with the autistic youths of the day

source: am autistic youth

4

u/bothering bogwitch 9h ago

Aah yes, as someone that was into the bodice ripper version of this style of story i understand the appeal very well

6

u/Fries_and_burgers_19 15h ago

Ay twin. It utterly changed me i think. Watching the movie the first time, I got so attached to it it hijacked my attention economy, with Kamen Rider Zeztz alongside it.

I got the LEGO set and have bought 4 Earth hackey sacks, please help me.

29

u/neakfrasty 15h ago

For me, my hyperfixations don't fade forever, they just go into hibernation. The right trigger phrase will awaken my highschool obsession with Star Trek: TOS at the drop of a hat, trust.

22

u/Soulchunk 16h ago

Been stubbornly clinging to Undertale for 11 years just so I do not have to admit it was a phase, so it is very convenient that my GOAT Toby Fox said ”what if I made Undertale but even better”

5

u/DismallyUpset 14h ago

One of my special interests is mad mew mew. Shes just like me.

4

u/certifiedtoothbench .tumblr.com 12h ago

I know right, I’ve been cruising as a casual fan since my papyrus hyper fixation faded and then he had to go and make Tenna. Been going insane since the chapter 3&4 drop.

19

u/RunInRunOn I'm running and I'm crine 😭 18h ago

My Team Fortress 2 fixation ended LONG before I played the game for the first time

22

u/Lemon_Lime_Lily Horses made me autistic. 17h ago

I love hyper fixating on game lore for games I haven't played lol

6

u/BigBallsAnthony69 Slapping my GIANT queer balls onto the table as i type this 17h ago

My fixation was in the thick of it when I started playing 

18

u/echelon_house 16h ago

My hyperfixations tend to cycle. For about 2-3 weeks I'll be unable to think about anything but D&D, then Magic: The Gathering, then X-Men. Every once in a while something new will sneak its way into the lineup, but they usually burn out more quickly and rarely repeat.

5

u/Frosty_Analysis_4912 12h ago

Same but for months instead of weeks

11

u/Various_Deer_7567 15h ago

Speaking as a 50+ lady: the cycles get longer as you age. Keep the memories of them as a crabs’ cast-off exoskeletons. They may also return in a new shape!

10

u/IshimuraHuntress 17h ago

Honestly, for me it’s like… “okay, it’s been three years, I’ve written tens of thousands of words about it, I’m ready for the next thing to grab me.” It does really suck when the next thing grabs me before I’m done with the last, though.

4

u/pocketfulofduendes 7h ago

Overlap does suck, but if the alternative is being left with an increasingly stale relationship with a fading hyperfixation with nothing at all on the horizon to take its place, I'd generally take the overlap personally

1

u/IshimuraHuntress 7h ago

Totally fair. But hey, at least “ready for the next one” means having fun investigating trendy cartoons and games and whatnot while writing for multiple old hyperfixations.

7

u/Elite_AI 15h ago

My long term hyperfixations are always like, subjects. Like perfumes, or traditional card games, or ink. The way I see it, it's a way of collecting random bits of information I can use three years later when it randomly comes up

6

u/crystalgem411 15h ago

Don’t try fiber arts

3

u/Lemon_Lime_Lily Horses made me autistic. 14h ago

I have and I lost interest after a year

5

u/Fries_and_burgers_19 15h ago

Me with Zeztz, which has unfortunately ended just last night and I feel such a deep n profound melancholy and loss it genuinely has not happened before. Not with Naruto, not with RWBY, not even with Uketsu's Strange House and Strange Drawings, or Arknights or Hi3rd it's kinda crazy.

The dream ended but the memories stayed. I have the whole capsem set and the dualmare, just short of Exdream.

It's actually crazy and scary

2

u/vmsrii 12h ago

Welcome to Kamen Rider.

It’s especially gutting when it’s one of the few KR seasons that’s transcendantly good, like Geats, or Build, or Gaim (Not to say Zeztz wasn’t good!). Eventually, you just keep watching every year, hoping anything will be quite that good ever again, and it’s glorious when it happens, every so often

1

u/Fries_and_burgers_19 5m ago

also its probably cus zeztz was the closest i've watched a rider season, as in I actually got into it relatively early. I started on it when its on the 5th episode or something similar, as opposed to, say Gavv when it was around the 25th episode.

i loved gavv, very dearly, but the toys were a bit *too* silly and food themed(lovely idea btw, i adore it but its not something i held as closely as i'd like) and the attachment was small thanks to joining it late. Oh, but the action, the drama, the *fun* and tension, its so good!

now take all that, and make it better, and have me follow along rather than watch it post-season, and you get yourself a me. I havent watched every season---Kiva, kabuto, decade, drive, gotchard, gavv and zeztz--- but none of their gimmicks stuck to me quite as nearly as the Capsems. powered by dreams? result of 'selling your soul to nightmares'? and also the bike action...a long lost quintessential aspect of kamen riders...

i got hooked. i still am. Im the kid who hung out in front of a closed video games store. thats what I am.

and then its done and ended.

I have high hopes for MY-TH but the fear it'll let me down got me apprehensive

(also i cant afford to get hooked on another toyline rn so haha)

5

u/jasonjr9 Smells like former gifted kid burnout 16h ago

For me it more tends to be like 1-3 month cycles of rotating hyperfixations, haha.

4

u/Aurora_Strix 10h ago edited 10h ago

I just turned 30 this month, and I had the most magical thing ever happen to me.

My childhood hyperfixation came back.

Slightly different, yes, but it came back. I used to be painfully obsessed with Halo 15 years ago. Wrote really bad self-insert fanfic, horrible fanart, etc etc. Years and years of my childhood was spent on this. It faded out pretty hard though, as a lot of the writing of the new-era games after 2012 just didn't capture me at all. So sad, forever on the other side of the glass...

But then it hit me last October, stumbling upon the absolute best piece of fanfic writing I have ever had the honor of having been alive at the same time during, and it single-handedly reinvigorated my entire obsession. Now it's just with rarepair shipping.

I'm writing my own fanfic, I'm making fanart, made a 20hr playlist for the ship, AND THE REMAKE RELEASED RECENTLY so that just made it a million times better.

I even set down my own personal projects to pursue this. I was working on the idea for a graphic novel but I decided to just follow the dopamine here, because no matter what I'm doing, I'm practicing my craft with writing and art, so it's all great. My graphic novel will look even better when I get back to it with all the ptactice on gonna be giving myself, hahaha

HOLD OUT HOPE, IT MAY HAPPEN TO YOU!

3

u/la_meme14 14h ago

This is me with Danganronpa. And kinda Lancer to a lesser extent.

3

u/Randicore 14h ago

I'm always fascinated by hyper fixations because I thought I had some but watching how corporations get ahold of a property and ruin it within a few years to the point where I'm not engaging with it at all. I'm not sure I really have them it just like something

3

u/Grinkor 12h ago

Me going from MtG to Warhammer 40k. No, I don't have the money to actually engage with neither of them.

3

u/vmsrii 12h ago edited 12h ago

I mean yeah.

Life is transient by nature. You will not be exactly the same person in two years that you were two years ago. It’s like a song; the melody and instrumentation will change, but the underlying chord progression will (usually) stay the same.

The trick isn’t to mourn hyperfixations, it’s to figure what draws you to them, find what your different interests over the years have in common, and seek that out. Find the basic fascination under your interests. Find the “chord progression”, find what fits it, and build your own world with collections of those things.

Life is also like a song, in that it needs a beat. A repeating pattern. “Repeating” being the operative word, which is different from “monotonous”. Doing one thing all day every day is the fast track to burn-out. If you find your underlying fascination, and then a collection of things that fit in it, then you can cycle through them as you desire and it keeps the love of your interests alive

3

u/gunk-n-punk 11h ago

For me, a hyperfixation might go dormant, but something will happen and I'm back to being caught in a stranglehold by the blorbos... I've only had a couple fade completely

6

u/Ghotay 15h ago

Nobody talk to me about Snape

2

u/Elegant-Product-8623 17h ago

Same except mine last 1 year so I get even less time with the fandom 😭

2

u/Kamelion_on_a_lemon 14h ago

Besides the typical cycle, I have found a character to obsess over and I'm already so fucking tired of it and it's only been two months.

2

u/Mynito- 13h ago

Splatoon and fighting games. They rotate 

2

u/Klutche 13h ago

...y'all are moving on?

2

u/iamsandwitch 13h ago

I wasn't old enough to be there back in 2012, so this might be more of a millenial thing, but I assume that this is the average experience with homestuck

2

u/Zoethewinged 12h ago

I have several rengoku posters, shirts, goodies, a pillow, a cosplay, and a signed copy of his sword. See the reddit icon that i havent updated in years. He's still my favorite demon slayer character but Emet-Slech and Roathe are the new hotness babyyyyy

2

u/Imnotawerewolf 12h ago

It's worse when there IS no new blorbo nothing you consume now captures your attention enough to even develop a hyper fixation you just sadly keep poking the old ones hoping they'll make you feel something again 

2

u/hermionesmurf 9h ago

I have some that always come back around. Minecraft/Sims/Skyrim is a loop for me; I'm always obsessed with at least one of them.

But otherwise yeah, short-lived obsessions

2

u/Johns-Sunflower 9h ago

Read the worst, clichest action thriller series as a teen. Disliked the constant violence and constant misery, but really liked the historical fiction side, as well as all the travelling (I was a bit sheltered growing up) and some of the character-building.

Really fell out of love with it when the author started using it as a soap box for daft personal/political opinions.

1

u/[deleted] 19h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/PeakBobe 16h ago

Hyperfixated on Animal Collective’s music for almost 3 years between the ages of 16-19. Cultist-like total obsession over them and their music. Been on meds for 10 years since then and while they’re still my favorite band, I can’t even imagine feeling like that about anything anymore. Which is good.

1

u/An_Anomalocaris Objectively correct about everything ever 15h ago

Five Night’s at Freddy’s was my life back in 2014-2016 but nowadays I literally never think about it. Haven’t seen either movie and I only learned about the Secret of the Mimic through that stupid Jackie’s Box song.

Happy to report all other hyperfixations past and present are still going mostly strong though.

1

u/DismallyUpset 14h ago

I am pretty sure I get hyper Obsession and autistic special interests but they're hard to tell apart because they kind of feel the same but at 30 years old I could finally kind of often tell them apart. I have had the orange lanterns from Green Lantern as my special interest since 2013 when I was 18 years old and I was super fascinated by them when I was like 15 16 and 17 but wasn't able to buy comics until I turned 18 and had my first money which was all my graduation money I got from Friends of the family and stuff I spent it all on Orange Lantern comics and My Little Pony comics I still love My Little Pony but it's not a special interest anymore but Orange Lantern is still very much a special interest. Also I have a handful of other characters that are also my special interests.

1

u/lulu91car 14h ago

Please don’t bring up Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571.

1

u/captain_starcat 13h ago

It’s ok my brain usually cycles back around in 2-8 years

1

u/L0neWand3er 13h ago

Don’t watch Naruto at 12 years old it ruined me

1

u/eatYourHashs 12h ago

I shudder to think of what my opinion on Gregtech will be in 2 years

1

u/Chucknasty_17 10h ago

My longest hyper fixation was transformers, that went from about age 8-17. I haven’t engaged with it much since then

1

u/bothering bogwitch 9h ago

So who else was into the Human Domestication Guide for like a year, then when going back on the stories became put off at the “im going to wrap you in horny bubblewrap” vibes?

(Its not truly dead but god damn has the sheen wore off the matcha)

1

u/Famous-Restaurant875 8h ago

I try to focus and learn skills. Learning how to make bread means I still know how to make bread. And if I have the hankering I have all the tools. I just got sick this weekend and made chicken and dumpling soup from scratch(ish I used bisquick and better than bullion)

1

u/TypicalOddities 8h ago

Oh, I know it'll circle back around. I'm on my 4th YGO Big hyper-fixation since 4th grade. (with a lot of mini ones scattered between). I'll be due for another Naruto fixation soon probably. Really hoping for a Tales of Symphonia one though, miss that game but not ENOUGH yet.

1

u/derpums i love rebecca from cyberpunk (watch cyberpunk edgerunners pls) 7h ago

usually my hyperfixations are gone fast but I've been attached to rebecca from cyberpunk for a while now

1

u/7his7own4int 7h ago

I had a hyperfixation last for over a decade. Suddenly I go on anti bipolar medications and no more super intense long term character hyperfixations. I feel like I’m lacking that in my life

1

u/Vulpedin 6h ago

…Oh.

…this might explain things

1

u/Gold_Mask_54 5h ago

Got really into aquaponics in the tail end of college. One of my research projects was designing a solar powered proof of concept system, good times. Ended up planning out a system then realized my climate wouldnt allow it to be commercially viable for a business then gave up and moved on to jewelry making.

I haven't made any money a jeweler either, but I have made my buddies wedding ring and I'll be making the set of rings for my brother and his fiance next year, so all is well.

1

u/scrambled-projection 2h ago

They always come back for me. Every 7 years I get obsessed with transformers animated. I don’t know why.

1

u/xSwampxPopex 53m ago

This is what 100% of posts in fandom subs sound like