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Or, each purchase has been a flap of the wings until I flew too close to the sun.

I have a few interests including and limited to; anime, manga, board games (the cool ones), PC games, Magic cards.
I believe I've hit a point where my mind is frozen as if I've hit some kind of event horizon or critical mass.
The backlog of everything is so immense that whenever I manage to choose something to consume I find it hard to stay on it for long without having FOMO for the other products.

Even if I did try finishing everything consecutively, outside of work and soon to be study, I'd bet my soul I'd have plenty left over after decades without buying anything ever again.

Anyway, I feel the biggest take away from this is my kids while have heaps of stuff to sift through and stay entertained. The downside being that I've seemingly hit a switch somewhere and woke up in some parallel self.

Call this a cry for help I suppose. Don't get me wrong I'm quite the content hubby/daddy, but I feel this has produced a somewhat 'hollow dread'.
Is this a sincere request for guidance (or more likely, a retelling of what you already know must be done), or are you merely using this forum as a means to vent your current woes? I wouldn't want to stick my nose where it isn't welcome.
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SultanOfSuave: Is this a sincere request for guidance (or more likely, a retelling of what you already know must be done), or are you merely using this forum as a means to vent your current woes? I wouldn't want to stick my nose where it isn't welcome.
I second this question and sentiment as I would offer some advice but unsure if it'd be welcome
Brain patterns. The more you do X you like, the more probable the endorphin flow will create a pattern; in which you will seek in the future repetitively. You were excited by fun things. Then in the declining pleasure(afterglow), you went on the hunt for more. The hunt became the pleasure/stimulus and you end up with an over abundance of choice. But little satisfaction.

The only way out, is to start a new pattern and to stick with it. If you have as little as a personal use porch, try gardening. It is satisfying and forces patience.

You could seek therapy also.
Jesus Saves! Everyone Else Takes 2D12 Damage : )
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micktiegs_8: Even if I did try finishing everything consecutively, I'd bet, I'd have plenty left over after decades, without buying anything ever again.

Call this a cry for help I suppose.
I know that feeling.

You may not like what I'll write now, but it is the most sincere and helpful thing anyone can tell you in this situation:

stop purchasing new stuff!

Trust me: it makes zero sense to amass even more of the same stuff, if you already know, you reached a "peak of indecisiveness" in your life, where you can't even enjoy the things, that you already have.

You wrote:
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micktiegs_8: I have a few interests including and limited to; anime, manga, board games, PC games, Magic cards.
If by "anime" and "manga" you mean the physical stuff (mangas printed on paper, animes on DVD/BR), PC games are the only thing, that you buy in digital form, which means, all the other stuff does not only just sit there unused, but also takes up a lot of room, that could be used otherwise?

Ask yourself: if I never make use of any of this...then why should I add to it?
Another worthwhile question: should I hold onto that stuff, or should I get rid of (some of) it?

I guess, it has something to do with our ancestors' living habits as hunter-gatherers, that we tend to collect stuff.
And there's nothing really wrong with that - as long as we also make use of that stuff.

But if we only collect "out of old habits", without making actual use of the collected stuff, we turn into 'compulsive hoarders'.
And there's a lot wrong about that.

Some personal annotations:
I wouldn't call myself a collector, but I too, "collect" stuff.
In my case it's books, movies on DVDs/BRs, (12" records and) music CDs and comics.

Now, when I write "comics", I don't mean the sort that gets released on a weekly or monthly schedule.
Those don't interest me.
I have a special interest, which makes me buy maybe one to three comics a year. So - all very assessable.

And my records were all bought years (decades) ago, when records where still the main source of "music, that you listen to at home".

The thing is: all these things I "collect" I also "use".
I regularly listen to my CDs, I regularly re-watch my movies, I regularly re-read my books and comics.

"Fun fact": I also used to "collect" board games. At some point, I had almost 500.

And when I write "I used to collect board games", what I really mean is:
I bought board game after board game - with the intention to play them, of course...some day, for sure... (sounds familiar?)

But then - with a few remarkable exceptions, which landed on the table all the time - I never played most of those games.
So - I sold everything that I could sell, and gifted the rest away (again: with exception of maybe three dozen games, that see actual playtime).

I can't tell you how relieved I felt, when more and more of these "shelved corpses" disappeared out of my life.

I felt a real burden had been taken off of me.

Maybe you should assess your situation also with the possibility in mind, that not everything you deemed important, is really as important to you, as you thought, it is?

And maybe you will then also come to the conclusion, that some of the stuff, which you already have amassed, can go (has to go), and that you also don't need anything new ito replace it.

I wish you the best of luck!
I deal with this by becoming more picky as more content becomes available. I turn my nose up at a lot of new games that I would have enjoyed playing 10 or 20 years ago. When I see a new game I consider if I want play it now, or if I would put it off until I have nothing else to do. If it's the latter, I discard it. And so I always have exactly enough games to play, never too many or too few.
I'm the opposite. When i joined GOG i realized i have many games i haven't completed yet, so i stopped buying from other stores and only buy on GOG if i want a game to play on my Linux laptop when i go out, I didn't even play games released in 2023 and 2024.

I still haven't finished my game backlog after 2 years.