I've been thinking about this, and here's what I've worked out:

- These obsessions are created by the ego to show off and get attention. The objects are meaningless, they are just themes.

- When I was very young I was completely controlled by my ego, and used these obsessions to show off and annoy people.

- When I was about 17 I said something so stupid, got told off and became embarrassed. My subconscious (I think?) put a mental block on obsessions. This stopped me obsessively talking about them and annoying people, and also "protected" me from further embarrassment and humiliation.

- This went too far though and I couldn't even buy a simple thing, couldn't talk about certain things.

- When I managed to break through one of these mental blocks and buy the thing and/or talk about it, then I'd go back into annoying, attention seeking obsession mode, as before.

- I never said anything as stupid as that time when I was 17, but the obsessing itself was embarrassing afterwards.

- Every time after breaking through the block, the obsession would change to something different and the block would be back.

- Eventually, it chose an object I can't have. This means I couldn't buy one. But I still went into a shop and looked at them.

- After that, it changed to another object I can't have, and this time it's something I can't really look at. This is my current obsession.

I know that if I force myself to find a place I can look at these, and look at them, this obsession will end and a new one will start. I have a feeling it would be something much worse than this one. I don't want to go and look at them for that reason. I don't want a worse one. I think I'd rather keep this one while I work on the actual cause of this problem.

It seems what I need to do now is just stop obsessing. I am mostly free from my ego now, it comes up sometimes in things but it's mild. I have no interest in showing off and I wont let the ego tell me otherwise. I won't let it encourage me to show off. I just need to reprogram my subconscious to know that I don't need that protection anymore. That block is useless now and causing more harm than good. It needs to be removed/dissolved. So now I just need to work on doing that. It seems the only way to dissolve a negative block like this, is to affirm the opposite, drum it in to the subconscious to reprogram it.

So I need to keep telling myself I don't need it anymore, and that I am free of the egos control. I now have the choice to keep an obsession to myself and to a reasonable level, and not show off or annoy people with it. And then I don't need these obsessions anymore either, they are just the egos stupid addictions, a cry for attention and reactions. I don't want that. I have proper hobbies, things I've always enjoyed doing and genuinely do enjoy. So I just need to concentrate on them more, put more time and energy into them, and less into the obsessions.

So my goals:

1. Keep telling myself I don't need the mental block/protection. I am free now

2. Remind myself that the obsessions are just themes for the ego to use to show off and get attention.

And all the time I need to stop putting so much time and energy into the current obsession and into my real interests instead. Eventually they should take over and I should loose most of the interest in the obsession. And if a new one starts just see it for what it is and then ignore it. Giving attention to these silly obsessions only feeds the ego, which I don't want.