need to ask ....

ob·ses·sion
əbˈseSHən/
noun
noun: obsession the state of being obsessed with someone or something.

1. "she cared for him with a devotion bordering on obsession"
   • an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind.
     plural noun: obsessions
     "he was in the grip of an obsession he was powerless to resist"
2. Just one of my problems ... a big one ... my question ... is this a bp "thing" .... or just another character fault ....

Quess what I am asking , do you have this issue ...

I get OCD/ obsessional /circular thinking when hypo or manic. So, yes. I become fixated and driven towards whatever my latest "desire" is. I am painting again, for example.

I want to say yes. But I can't think of an example at this moment.

Yes, I have been obsessed with ppl when manic.

I used to have one obsession ... and that was HAVING to have the same parking lot at work ... come hell or high water ... to the point of leaving sometimes at 6:30am when I only had to be there by 8am. I know. I know. But it was a really bad time in my life.

Yes always. Don't think of it as a flaw, just a characteristic. Obsession at its worst has triggered full on hallucinations. Then I settle down. Mild or moderate obsessions, I redirect my thoughts over and over until it passes. Yup, always. Do you think this is a character flaw? It's not a deliberate choice to be obsessive.

Part of all kinds of brain functions.
So everyone could have an obsession from time to time. Not just bipolar.
I get that way, when I can't find something or someone. Like online.
Anxious feelings set in and it can get out of control for awhile. Then ,if I'm stable, I'll just give it up after it starts driving me crazy.
Never stalked anyone or made too big of an a-hole out of myself.

When I am manic, absolutely. I get stuck on people...so preoccupied with them that I can think of nothing else and want to be with them every second of the day (monopolizing their time). I contact them constantly by phone and email and try to touch and hug them as much as possible when I am around them. I also tend to fantasize about them even when that fantasy doesn't really make sense.

I do similar things with celebrities some times when I am manic. I've been obsessed with Mary Tyler Moore (and the Mary Tyler Moore show) when I was newly in high school (and my first bout with mania). I have also been obsessed with Molly Shannon, Meryl Streep, Janis Joplin, and Ani Difranco. This is followed by an extreme desire to track them down (luckily I've never done it).

I have also obsessed over emails that I have written or those written to me. I will read and reread an email, or even just one sentence from an email for hours at a time.

I also have a deep connection with music (which my pdoc claims is an obsession) as all of you know.

I have been so obsessed with the 60's that I believed I was a reincarnated hippy and part of the anti-war movement. I felt literally as if the Vietnam War was still my concern. Trigger: strong anti-war sentiments: Later in life, I was so far to the right I supported Glen Beck. I was so hyper focused on tea party issues I could have campaigned for them. I am ridiculous!

you all know my "issue" I had with the little korean girl I followed .... last week I realized I was treating my new T that way .... so I set my next appt off two weeks to give myself a cooling off period .... the korean one during an exstream depression ... the T during a mostly hypo period .... so it may be totally unrelated to my bp ... IDK .. it's beginning to worry me though .... something else to work thru I guess ...

Obsession and I are old friends....good to you for trying to head it off at the pass.