Hey, people,

I want to know if there is any way to control this fountain pen addiction sickness that I got myself into. I have it for several months now, and nothing can stop me from that perverted pleasure of writing with all my pens (I have 33 by now - but more is on the way), using different inks (Noodler's, Montblanc, and Private Reserve, mostly), even designing my own perfect blue ink (Private Reserve Tanzanite and Daphnie Blue, 1:2, superfluid and makes any problematic writer regular). After developing a very sinister taste for Monblancs and Heros, I realize that I am spending too much time (and money, of course) on internet browsing and pen buying, and then trying my new arrived shipments in action.

I though that I am a very special nut case, but thanks to your network, I still have a hope that I might find some people who would help me to live with my disease, and maybe even - one day - to be proud of it.

Brothers and sisters, I need your loving words to alleviate my pain of loneliness. Imagine, nobody understands me here (I am from Calabasas, California), I need to speak to someone, and I don't want that person to be a shrink or even worth - a clinical psychiatrist. Please, talk to me, touch me, heal me!

Desperate and lonely,
Rita.

Might you perhaps have meant "Penophilia" ?

I sure hope they do. Some typos are really bad.

ETA: That fixed that little problem. Welcome to FPN Rita.

You are absolutely right. Boy, you are quick!

Yup. That was an example.

Anyway, welcome FPN. Watch that spelling.

Welcome to FPN!

This is a terrible place to try and get over a pen addiction. We're a bunch of enablers here... Luckily, pens take up less space than collecting cars. Or pianos.

I couldn't sleep last night - ended up buying five pens.

My name is Elizabeth. I am an addict.

Hello and welcome,

There are some addictions that bring more pleasure than pain and the enjoyment of fine writing, penmanship and the company of like minded souls are 3 major aids to the collection of good fountain pens.


Have fun and enjoy

You came to the wrong place for therapy but the right place for more ideas on how to feed the addiction. There's no help. You belong to the cult now.

Try to think of it as a cult... without the animal sacrifice.

Welcome!

John

Embrace it! Pens are good.

I couldn't sleep last night too. I received new 11 pens yesterday from isellpens.com and had to try all of them with different inks. Oh boy, oh boy, they were all good!

Probably not until the government gives us universal health care.

It doesn't help... I live where we have that... and I have a watch collection, a pocket knife collection, and a burgeoning pen collection... Have pared the camera collection down to help pay for the others...

THANK YOU! I will write it with my best pens using my best inks on my best paper, frame it, hang it in my office, and heal my soul with your simple words.

Can I use them as my signature?

It seems all I can bring myself to do is to cheer you on. I sneak a few pens past the wife here and there and think I'll have to live out my pen fantasies vicariously through you.

That's it. I have a little watch collection too. I love automatic watches, and they are not that cheap. I have a piano, but no way I can start collecting pianos... or cars... Yeah, right, never say no... There should be some explanation - insecurity issues, low self-esteem, something happened to us in our childhood, I don't know. What is it that moves us so uncontrollably?

Sure! I'm flattered.

I've had a thing for nice writing instruments since I was a kid. I'm not really sure what it is, but something about the combination of form and function in nice pens really pleases me.

I figure that my habit is excusable. It's only money, and you can't take it with you. Might as well spend it on something that makes me happy.

(That being said, I should reign in my habit before I'm choosing between food and pens.)

It sounds like you feel guilty, and may be that guilt is the reason why we get in that vicious circle of uncontrollable accumulation. I have to thank artaddict again for giving me my signature and hope. It's not that bad after all. I am getting better already... Thank you all!

That's a perfect one. I did not see it that way - you are absolutely right. I have noticed that I dropped some extra pounds as a side-effect of my obsessive writing. Good thing about writing as compared to reading (my top obsession since I remember myself) is that you can't write and eat in the same time. Oh, man, you are so observant... I am close to being proud of myself now. Thanks!!!!!!

Rita,

I saw on your profile that one of your favorite authors is Mark Twain. Did you realise he was a penophiliac also? See the link below.

Welcome to FPN.

Mike

http://www.kamakurapens.com/WirtTwain.html

WOW!!!! There are some interesting patterns emerging for observation. Thank you so much, TBPI, you have opened my eyes! I am seeing something here... And it doesn't look like a bat at all.

Hi, My name is Martin I´m also a Pen Addict, instead of trying to fight it lets unite against 1 dollar ballpens and rollers.

Addicted badly!!!!!!!

Only hope is something called "Pens Anonymous"
Alcoholic Anonymous did the trick for me with alcohol.

Rita!
I'm an aspiring addict! I hope to get to the level of "addiction" you find yourself afflicted with. Luckily I have a good "pusher" to supply me with all the pens I want - and an employee discount too! LOL

It has been reported that when the original John D. Rockefeller died, and his attorney came out of his (Rockefeller's) bedroom, announcing his passing, someone asked the attorney how much money Mr. Rockefeller left behind. The attorney is reported to have replied "All of it."

"Never saw a U-haul behind a hearse." is another pithy quote about hanging on to "stuff" (sadly, including pens).

But there must be pens in Heaven, since when we appear before the Judgement Throne, the angels will check to see if our name is written in the Book of Life.

Donnie

There is a very efficient way. Your bank account and a social worker. It is a bit drastic way, but it works. Bulletproof like Noodler's ink. Go to yor nearest wellfare office or similar, wherever you can get a social worker, you will need her support, here is why;

1.] Explain your problem, ask for support. Define your addiction as an overspending problem as a source of troubles in your life; make up something - a boyfriend threatens to leave you, or husband is turning back, not enough left for food since you spend thousands for rare pens.... whatever. Dramatize a bit. Together, you and your S.W. will calculate your monthly spending for essential bills only;
find out a strict minimum amount of money for food and clothes (no luxury), electricity, gasoline or public transport, rent or property tax, and no more than that. Don't trust yourself on this one, let S.W. do the job. Be happy if S.W. prescribes the amount of money like for lazy bums on social assistance. The lower the amount, the better.

2.] Arange with your bank to allow withdrawal the averaged monthly amount as approved by the social worker. You will need her writen request to your bank to limit monthly withdrawal. Extra money to be allowed only under special circumstances, and only with a written approval by your social worker, like for medical bills, or funeral, or similar. Live like that for three or four years.

3.] In the meantime find other, less destructive way to keep yourself occupied. Search for clubs in your area. Maybe pottery ? If you make a good, classic clay beans pot (non glazed inside or outside !) from a food-grade clay, I'll buy it from you. How about black&white photography ? Who in a club can make a better photograph with a film and a thirty years old basic manual camera ? Or try yoga. Hiking, camping... Try this: http://www.meetup.com/ browse under all cities and find something interesting in your area (stay away from pen lovers, don't search for it).

4.] Delete your password and bookmark for FPN, in order never to return here.

Obviously the pens would be quills made from shed angel feathers, but what would the ink be? It would have to be a Noodler's Eternal, but which colour?

I hope that in heaven I will BE a pen... OF THE WRITER..

I just ignore those cheap roller-ball suckers... I am afraid that my fountain pens may catch something from them and their noble ink will turn into some gooey puss.

The pen might catch aids (Acquired Ink Deficiency Syndrome)

You seem like a nice person with whould I'd like to kill a bottle of Noodler's Baystate Blue. See you soon at the LA FP Show, Corinne!

It's an interesting plan, but it's not going to work for me.

It's not the money part that worries me, but my time and energy that I channel into my addiction. I have a highly respectable professional position in a very successful American corporation plus a time-consuming hobby of a screenwriter. For me, time is money and I never have enough of it. I just want to understand why it happened to me so unexpectedly...

That's why I am taking some vacation time to deal with it.

Once some nice guy (an aspiring boyfriend) suggested me to take pottery as a hobby, and that was his great mistake. Frankly, I would slap him, but I did not want to touch him. Nowadays, I think that all he wanted is to give me was a nice friendly advice, but missed the point.

Anyway, I will probably end up writing a screenplay about fountain pens. Maybe you guys will help me to raise money for my indie. Below is the link to my first short that I wrote and produced. If you watch it to the end you might get the point. It's an absurdistic dark comedy "Suicide Blonde". Let me know what you think about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5lTiS5F3AU

Yes, of course

Another writer. Must be an occupational hazard...

Been deres dun datz, printed teh t-shirt.

Heyy! Calabasas! I've heard of that. Welcome.

Does your T-shirt say the same words as mine:

"I was addicted to fountain pens...
and all I have now is this stinking t-shirt"

I used to collect t-shirts, now I collect pens, they don't shrink in the wash ;-)

Parker advertised his Permanite Duofold by dropping it out of an aeroplane.
I could tell him a thing or two.
My daily writer, a 1928 Big Red went through a whole washing machine cycle and full tumble dry before I discovered it completely disassembled when the laundry came out. The ink must have come out in the wash.
I put it back together and it works perfectly again, the only after-effect is a slght indentation of the ball of the clip on the cap. You can't see this because the clip is turned over it.............................
Now the shirts are carefully check before they are flung in the basket.
I would hate to think about the effect of washing a ball pen!