When people talk about obsessions it is often in a negative way, or in a medical context.

Some obsessions can motivate people to achieve or to pursue interests that can achieve personal goals.

I like walking and need to walk a few times a day. If the weather is bad, I walk up and down the hallway. I see this as something I do for my mental and physical health, but others see it as an obsession.

I also take pen and paper everywhere so I can write ideas down or just observe the environment. I write down things I want to recall.

Many artists start drawing at an early age and are never without pencil and paper.

There was a quiz winner who spent years as a child in hospital and read many books full of knowledge. He became obsessed with knowledge and won quiz shows.

Can you list any obsessions you or others you know have or are they hobbies or passions but not obsessions?

We might label someone’s interest as an obsession but our own as a hobby. Can we get a grip on our minds, and harness this power to obsess productively? Do you think it is harmful to label what we or others like as an obsession?

Leah 

A Moodscope member