Dolls and other hyper fixations?

So I'm in the early process of getting diagnosed but I know exactly how you feel! I get very sad when my hyperfixations fade but much worse when it's dolls. I stop posting on here and Instagram and I barely touch my dolls and I hate it but like you said it always comes back eventually. If I were you I'd buy the doll because it takes a long time for them to get here if it's a new doll and you run the risk of burning out again before you get the doll next time you are hyperfocusing. If you can when you get her and you aren't hyperfocusing again don't open her. Put her away and when you feel it coming on again you get to open her up and enjoy her at the height of your fixation! Though that's easier said than done. Good luck!

 

I have adhd and hyperfixate pretty bad. But then I lose interest in one thing and switch to another. Hence my joining in 2018, completely forgetting/giving up on getting a bjd, then coming back now in 2021. Right now I'm super focused on finding "the one".

 

When I need to change what I'm focusing on for a while, I get out my box of Barbies and Liv dolls. I will play with them and enjoy them for a couple of weeks, until my desire to get back to my BJDs returns.

 

Wow, it's really nice to see so many neurodivergent people in the hobby!
I know I'm definitely feeling a lot of the replies in this thread! I'm diagnosed hyperactive-impulsive ADHD, and I think it shows the most with my brain's need to constantly switch around and have a "hobby of the week." Seriously, my house is littered with lots of unfinished projects and other stuff that's been waiting for me to be interested in it again. There are books and video games I've bought that I haven't even opened yet!

But I think it helps me to know that: 1. having more than one interest makes me a well-rounded person! It's very much healthy and good for you to be interested in more than one thing! 2. personally, I tend to come back to things. There are some things that have pretty much been my special interests for life, and it would take a serious catastrophe to pry me away from them.

So if someone who, like me, enjoys all sorts of dolls and collectibles were to come to me with a "losing interest" problem, I'd definitely just advise them to wait it out. Who knows, you might go back into honeymoon obsession next month or even next week! But if it were someone who was new in general to this kind of interest and doesn't have any background, then I would probably say to be more cautious and reserved about commitment. 'Cause nothing sucks more than dumping significant money on something only to find out you don't care about it. Definitely not speaking from experience. Nope. Definitely haven't wasted hundreds on random garbage. Not me! (/sarcasm ;P)

But yeah, I love that with BJDs the interest is so multi-faceted that you can avoid burnout by just doing something else for your dolls! Or nothing at all - some of my happiest collector moments are just hanging out and staring at my little guys! (I mean, I understand the need for some people to put things away when they're not busy with them, that's certainly helpful if you're burnt out or intimidated by being reminded of them... but that's not me, lol. I have to have everything out in the open, or else I'll forget it exists. XD)

 

I'm alleged inattentive ADHD (therapist and psychiatrist seem to agree/I'm trying out meds and they help to varying degrees but it still doesn't feel right to call myself that) and yeah I feel this. I have a few different hobbies I ping-pong between; sometimes I'll spend a week to months absolutely obsessed with my dolls, or I'll want to Knit All The Things, or I'll plow through my current writing project. And then, boom, something else is more fun and I switch to that instead. Hell, with the dolls, I have a few different types (playline fashion dolls, an American Girl, and the BJDs), so even if I'm in doll mode I might not be in BJD mode specifically.

I do feel the expensiveness of the hobby does add a certain level of guilt to switching out of doll mode; each doll is a hundreds of dollars investment in my interest, so I wanna get my money's worth! But, at the same time, I'd rather set them aside for a bit knowing I'll pick them up later than make myself work with them and grow resentful of them "stealing" my time from whatever I do want to do at the moment or something. As others have mentioned, dolls are patient little things!

And yeah, sometimes other hobbies can dovetail nicely with dolls, so even if you're not in doll mode, you can still spend time on them doing what you're loving right now. I'm trying to stashbust yarn and fabric right now, and all my fabric goes to doll stuff (mostly because I don't have human-size patterns), and whenever I finish a human-size knitting project, I use the leftovers for doll knits so all that lovely yarn goes somewhere. It's a wonderful symbiosis.

 

My interests fluctuate a lot and I also get periods when absolutely nothing interests me, those are the hardest for me personally.

I also feel guilty when I fall out of interest with a hobby especially if it's one that has money spent in it, but with dolls it's super guilt as it's the most expensive of my hobbies.

I have gotten better about not feeling the guilt so much as I now know that I will fluctuate back eventually.

 

I made this table back in April in the span of a week.


Other BJD furniture I've started on since are very much still works in progress. I remain miffed my hyperfixation hasn't whirled back yet into this form of crafting. On the other hand, I've gotten much more into wig making recently, including pulling apart enough yarn in a day to make an 8 inch long weft. My tinies might have spartan dioramas for a while yet, but at least they'll have nice hair.

 

I definitely cycle out of actively working on them-- where I'm living right now, I don't have much space, and no place that's great to set up for photographs at present, so they've spent a lot of time boxed up even when I've felt the strong interest.

When I have more workspace and photospace, one of the things I like about dolls as an interest is the idea of working up cosplays on them for other hyperfocuses, though-- getting to combine whatever my current obsession is with my ongoing collection.

 

I definitely can relate to the hyperfixation issue! I have a TON of hyperfixations and most of the time it just seems like a toss up between what'll be the fixation of the day for me. But like many other people have said, my dolls were always there when my interests changed to something else and it was almost like a fresh of breath air after getting back into the hobby after being away from it. With OCD and ADHD I always have some new thing to try or some way to make an old fixation exciting again and like some other people mentioned, finding new parts of the hobby to explore can keep that interest! I know for me, writing has always been a huge fixation and being able to shell my OC's is one of the things that always ignites my interest back in the hobby!

 

Yeah... I do.

I've got a lot of different hobbies, and I wax and wane in my interest levels towards them. For most things that isn't an issue... but with my dolls over the last few years, I've felt horribly guilty about not doing much with them. I would talk to them, apologize for not playing with them; but with health and depression issues, there wasn't much I could do.

But I'm back now, and doing what I can to make up for lost time with them, and still managing to do some with my miniatures as well.