A few months ago, I wrote an article regarding extreme celebrity obsessions. I didn’t understand WHY certain folks decided to stay stuck in this fantasy land rather than facing reality and working out their problems in life. I still don’t understand it actually.
However, recently, I have been noticing one part of this that is more disturbing than most. Obsessed fans accusing other obsessed fans of being overly obsessed. Isn’t this like the pot calling the kettle black?
Without using any names or the celebrity involved, (as I frequently see this on the boards for various celebs) I will simply ask this: what difference does it make to these people that other fans are obsessed with the same person they are? Why do they bother the others so much?
I mean, who really cares at all? Seriously. Why do you worry so much about what the other fans are doing? They are not hurting anyone but themselves really. Sure, it’s annoying when someone is so dead set on living in a grandiose fantasy world that they don’t want to come out. It’s the equivalent to watching someone slowly destroy themselves with drug addiction. Loved ones around them may enable them, whether it’s intentional or not, because they think it helps them. In one case with a person I once knew, her husband enabled her just to keep the peace in their household. At the same time, it created a bizarre power struggle. That marriage ultimately ended up in divorce, because she refused to give up on her addiction.
A lot of the other fans of the celebrity they love hate this woman with a purple passion. Granted, she did some ugly things to them, in the name of that particular celebrity. But there are others who genuinely love the guy and don’t do anything to harm others but yet they are targeted and bullied on a daily basis by other fans.
I myself have been accused of being overly obsessed with a certain celebrity, but the honest truth of it is, I don’t exactly think the person who is flinging these so-called insults actually understands the meaning of the word “obsession”. I have done some research into psychology and know that some people feel that addiction and obsession are two different things. They feel that you can be addicted or hooked on drugs, alcohol or dangerous substances, but not addicted to something like Facebook. But personally I feel one can be addicted to things that aren’t drugs. One can be addicted to video games, and in fact these can and do release similar endorphins in the brains of the players, that are just as strong as those in a crack addict. And obsession and an addiction to me are interchangeable. It’s a problem whenever it dominates a person’s life and consumes a large amount of their time. Their routines, their families, and their jobs may suffer from this. It becomes a problem only when and if it dominates a person’s life and the lives of those around them. Having a few posters and action figures from a celebrity’s movie doesn’t make a person obsessed. That line gets crossed only when and if a fan’s family or friends suffer in silence and are repeatedly subjected to conversations about only one subject.
I do not fit that category. I have other interests outside of my favorite actors and actresses and rarely talk about them, even online. I am friends with others who share common interests of mine, but it does not bother me in the least if they go to these extremes with it. What does bother me are the ones who go to extremes with it, and don’t recognize their own interest as an obsession but point out the exact same obsession in others. It bothers me in the sense that they obsess over who else is obsessed without recognizing that they have the same exact problem then get annoyed by this and THEN start bullying one another.
I am not exactly sure I understand what fuels this. One would think that they’d be the best of friends when sharing this common ground. Instead, they feel threatened and unnerved by the other party. It is kind of like a math problem where two like numbers tend to cancel one another out. What difference though, does it really make, whenever another person is a fan of the same thing? I do not understand why they waste so much time and energy picking at one another over these petty things. Scientists, psychologists, or even others who have observed this feel free to comment and fill me in on what’s happening here.