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This is the Summary of it all. I call it the Summary of the Obsessive Fandom Cycle, (O.F.C.) So I'll round up 5 main points, that happen in chronological order.
1. First comes the discovery of the story. This can be in any form such as book/film/series. You watch/read/take in the story. And find that you enjoy it. It is a little spark inside you. A little flicker which is in a valley, where a small gush of wind could quickly extinguish it, but it could also pass over the valley, keeping the spark a healthy flicker.
2. If the spark stays lit, it means you realise you really quite enjoyed the story. You think hmm... maybe I could research it a bit? Maybe see some BTS of the making... look up the actors and read about the author. You have fun doing so and that spark of exhilaration and hope turns into a luminous, steady, warm glow.
3. Research is the fundamental base of this phase. The obsession creeps in like the sea during high tide, like a plant swiftly twisting in and out between cracks in a pavement. It flows in all too fast. A wave of, un-real realisation, which opens your mind to a whole new world. It"s almost like a disease; there just aren"t as many death rates. You start to get the feeling of wanting to know everything about the story. The production, the characters, you look up facts about the characters, watch countless interviews with the cast, look at release dates for the next part. This is the stage where things lift off, you search up fan accounts on Instagram, follow the cast on Twitter and read start reading some mellow fanfiction. In social situations you find things that relate to the story everywhere. You find the "Cas" in Casserole and Newt in your "Isaac Newton" maths book. Even 21 backer street, that you drive past on your way to work.This is what you find the most enjoyable of the Obsessive Fandom Cycle. The story might be sad, but fandoms can show you how to turn the negative sadness into happiness. E.g. Attack on Titan:
See you might find a lot of this in your story.
it made you very sad and probably gave you "the feels".
In stage 3, memes are the drug of
obliviousness. You feel the funny side of the
story, along with other fanpeople.
Your steady luminous glow has turned into a raging bonfire, read to expand further; no going back now. You"re out of your own control
4. This is the stage of extreme obsession. It"s where the story takes over just about everything. The thought of the story turns into a black hole inside you that needs to be fed every day. If not, it gives you a reminder of the pain (feels). This is why you are then forced to feed it more and more, nevertheless, over this period of time it also slowly decays you from the inside. This is the longest part of the cycle, which can usually last anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks. During this phase when you are feeding the monster, you read as much fanfiction as possible. Dirty Romances and action. You have a laptop with 20+ tabs open, ready to read your way through the nights till sleep comes to you. You wake up every day to realise your purpose, to feed the hole. You can't stop reloading instagram, and search every relatable tag on Tumblr. Everything else that isn"t focused on feeding it, is then perceived as negative, gloomy and uninteresting. But hoever more, you just want more, you plan to start writing your own fanfiction till 4am on a school night. Start a fan account on instagram and spend all your free time making edits. What separates this phase from the last, is that you still feel intense- or at least mild euphoria when you get hold of your 'food' let call it. If in some way you are not able to read countless fanfics or aren"t available to access Wifi, where you can search up memes and film trailers, and crack videos, you will probably proceed to phase 5, at the most, being 2 days after. Your social life disappears. And so do all other sources of happiness income. The story and fandom is the only source to feed the raging fire, of despair and greed, which will have turned into something far bigger at the end of phase 4...
5. During this stage is where your realization comes flooding in. You over think everything. The raging bush fire transformed into a Meteor which transformed into a blue Hypergiant Star. The monster hole inside you has eaten every last bit of you. In short- it means that you"ve come to the stage where everything makes you sad. Even your income - food: memes and gifs and cast videos and fanfictions can"t lift your spirits. Then, later on, everything is hopeless. You miss your favourite characters, you want them, you want to be them, with them. You have a longing for adventure and romance and drama, even though you can"t even take one step out the door. You resolve to writing, drawing, and trying to distract yourself. When it doesn"t work, you take online anxiety and depression tests. This phase can often range from 7 days to 4 weeks to fully get over. A quick exit out of the trap might be a sequel, prequel, next season, next film, a new story distraction (not a good one as it is only temporary and could spiral you further down), writing about it, letting it out, balling your eyes out. That"s about it. Oh, and suicide. But don"t worry now, there"s an easy way to heal after the Blue Hypergiant Star explodes: TIME. Time can heal and fix anything. You just need to give it the TIME it needs and it will do its magic. So if you can"t get any further with the suggestions above, it would just be best to stick to TIME. It might seem like too long, but at least it should give you hope knowing it WILL get better and things WILL return back to the way they were.
6. This is the super secret phase. After you successfully survived this Cycle, you look back at the story, film/book/series and you are able to enjoy it again. It is then just like story heaven. You can low-key obsess over it without becoming too attached. This is what every fandomer tries to achieve. So many have tried, so sometimes, a 7/10 chance is that you will reach the Fandom heaven. The other 3 chances are that you will attach and obsess again and may have to go through the cycle partly again, but at least, this time, you have a 96.4% chance to get out of the cycle before phase 5.
So this was my summary of the Obsessive Fandom Cycle (O.F.C.). I hope you learnt a bit and please, take in as much info and see if you diagnose yourself, if so, stick to the points of reality and uhhh... good luck! See yo in Heavennnn (or hell >:))
Omg! The fourth season is out!!! = New Cycle
Omggggggggg this series is just like my last obsession if not better!:D = New Cycle
Yaaaaas! They"re making a film with a perf cast! = New cycle
In short my dear fellow fandomers, this cycle is endless.
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Hahaha omg the feels. I totally get this <3 #cumberbabe
ReplyAt least I'm not alone in this! :D hehe
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