#poor MCU blog has been on hiatus ever since lol

[sitp-recs]

Can I ask what made you leave the fandom and what made you come back to it?

I have a love/hate relationship with it, in the sense that I love it soooo much that it can take over everything else. It’s addictive and I often find myself consuming an unhealthy amount of fics, and I can’t stop it. I feel it’s a blessing and a curse at the same time.

I feel you anon 🫂 hyperfixations are self-care but can also get unhealthy very quickly and it’s hard to manage our fandom engagement when we’re “in the zone”. I used to feel bad about it but now I indulge small breaks at the slightest sign of burnout, just to take a breather. I must have taken at least 3 breaks in the past 2 years (the blog was still active, I just wasn’t reading or reccing anything for a while). The reasons vary between feeling overwhelmed with too many new fics, feeling disconnected from fandom in general, or finding competing obsessions that take my fic time and energy away.

The longer breaks I mentioned before had other reasons: first one (2008-2011) due to an intense studying time between high school years and university entry, I barely did anything else and only came back to fandom because AO3 was launched and I found RurouniHime 🙌 then I got fully immersed in the MCU between 2013 and 2019, following the first Avengers movie.

Stony was a short-lived but very passionate ship phase for me, I was almost as obsessed as I am with Drarry and joined Tumblr to interact with the community, not a shy lurker anymore! But Civil War effectively killed the ship for me and I moved onto another OTP before losing interest in the MCU completely after Tony was killed off. Major kudos to @quicksilvermaid for dragging me back into Drarry by unknowingly posting the incredible Who we are in the shadows on my birthday, felt like a sign 💘

I used to come back because I loved the HP universe and was constantly revisiting the books and movies. Now JK has ruined that, so I come back for the sense of community, and to share this experience with the friends I’ve made here. Creating this blog and connecting with people changed my whole fandom experience - even if sometimes I still enjoy being a lurker and exploring smaller, less overwhelming fandoms! Take care of yourself, anon. Enjoy the ride but don’t let the addictive aspect take you away from enjoying life and your other hobbies! 💜