Q&A: Fear of Forgetting Things Or Something Else?
Question by : Fear of Forgetting Things Or Something Else?
So, since I was about 12 I’ve really taken to gathering information, writing things down, etc. This, of course helped out immensely in school, but over time my need to record things has extended from school to television/radio/computer.
This normally wouldn’t be a problem but I feel like it’s hindering me so much and it annoys me so badly. It’s causing me to not even be able to enjoy anything. I get to absorbed in trying to make sure that I can remember it and not just enjoy it right then and there for what it is.
And, what I mean by this is, anytime I hear of a show/anime/band/song/singer/movie/fact/quote/etc, I feel the need to bookmark it/write it down/copy and paste it and save it as a note/etc. I hear it/see it and I HAVE to record it/save it for later somehow immediately.
Some examples:
> I was watching ‘Don’t Forget the Lyrics’ and I always have to watch it with a notebook handy and I have to write down every single song that is played
>If I’m watching a movie/tv show and I hear a song, I sprint for a piece of paper and listen out for the lyrics to find later
> When I skype with someone and I hear music or them talking about a movie, I go find it right that moment
>If I find a thread about good books/movies/bands on a forum, I copy and paste every single suggestion and save it.
I literally have close to 2,000 bookmarks, dozens and dozens of notebooks and scrap sheets of paper, and hundreds of things saved on my email notepad.
This is driving me crazy but I don’t know why I do it. I’ve tried to just read a thread without copying/pasting everything on it, but the closest I’ve come is closing out of the window just to go to history and reopen it and save the things inside the thread. It’s just something that I HAVE to do and I feel so uneasy if I don’t or if I miss the chance to write/save something.
I’d love any help anyone can offer. I’m at my wits end with this but I don’t even know what it is so I can’t search around for it.
~No, I don’t remember everything. I remember a good bit of it. But a lot of the time even if i come across something I already know/have in my head, I’ll write it down anyway. It seems to benefit me sometimes, I suppose. I mean, I go and look up a bit of what I saved and will sometimes enjoy it and be glad that I had saved it. And, I’ve tried to just ignore it, but it seems to stay on my mind until I do write it down. I remember watching a commercial and heard a song and spent several hours on google/y! answers/adtunes/etc looking for it because it’s just in the back of my head the entire time.
Best answer:
Answer by teffer
It sounds like you’ve developed some sort of obsession/ OCD. let me ask you, has writing any of the things down in your journals, do you remember any of it in your head? Have you benefitted from any of this? I’d say you’d be a very organised person, but just try and not use a peper to wright anything, down I mean what’s the worst that can happen?
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