How to stop getting defensive of my interests?
What I mean by that is, when I see someone talk about liking one of my interests, I’ll feel upset.
For example, my special interest is an actor and he’s quite popular, especially right now since he just starred in a fantastic movie.
I feel irrationally frustrated when I see people who “don’t like him as much as me” express their appreciation for him.
For example, I just noticed that my friend made his pfp on Discord a picture of this actor from his new movie. I know in my mind that it’s completely silly to feel defensive over my interest and believe that this person is “encroaching” on my interest. Not everyone has to like his movies with as much passion as I do, or have as much niche knowledge about this specific actor, to be a valid fan of him. But some weird part of me just feels hurt.
At this point I guess I’ll just say it’s Ryan Gosling lol, and another thing that made me feel similarly hurt feelings is the whole “literally me” meme because I can’t help thinking that most of these people don’t really watch his movies or know anything about him.
What makes this feeling worse for me is that usually if I meet someone who also claims to enjoy the same interest as me, they’re at the same time unwilling to discuss about it. So any of my attempts to connect over this shared interest are rejected.
Anyway I realize this is a goofy post. I’m just wondering if anyone else feels like this sometimes and how do you deal with it? I don’t enjoy feeling possessive over an interest that rationally speaking, does not belong to me at all.
Posted Apr 1, 2026, 5:52 AM UTC