1. I'm about as obsessive a shipper as you can get. I seem to be wired for it, because I started obsessing over characters and their relationships when I was in first grade; daydreaming about it just comes naturally with me. And I'll stick with the same OTP for years and years. That comes with emotional highs, but then if things don't go right, I take it really hard. Like, if Ash ended up with someone who isn't Misty, I'd be really upset. And it still bugs me when people say that all Pokeshipping hints were dub-added, or that Misty didn't care about Ash because she was mean to him (granted, she was kinda, at first, the way kids are, but eventually, they developed more of a teasing relationship). Misty hasn't been a main character for over 10 years. 10 years! Pokeshipping isn't my OTP anymore, but it's still really important to me. In shipping, there's almost always one character I relate to more, and I end up strongly internalizing that character, to the point where they become a part of myself and I can easily see think as them. And then I get upset that the characters I love aren't real. Sure, they're real in a way, but it's not the way I want (I think this is an issue a lot of writers and actors have issues with). I've spent a lot of time obsessing over this, and I've realized a lot of interesting things about the relationship between fiction, reality, and the self, why and how we love fictional characters; that's what my Tumblr's about. So, it's not all bad... For a long time, I was worried that I could only ship, but not fall in love with a real person, and I'd forever be able to experience love without really having it. Turns out that's not true, so that's good. (And before someone asks, yeah, I've seen therapists for general anxiety issues, and talked about all this... none of them seem to think it's a problem, though, so...) What I really hope for is that when I fall in love with someone and spend the rest of my life with them, that'll replace shipping. Sure, I'll still ship, but it won't be as important as it is now.
2. So, the reason Pokeshipping isn't my OTP anymore is that I made up a daughter for Ash and Misty for fun, and someone to ship her with... and then I went and developed those characters and got obsessed with that instead. *Headesk* But yeah, I'm writing a fanfiction about that now, because I want other people to love those characters, too, I want them to be real to other people. My dream for them is for them to become the accepted fanon for second generation characters. Yeah, I know that's a lofty goal, and it probably won't happen, but that's what I'd really love to happen.
3. I try to relate to other shippers over our feelings-- after all, who else understands what it's like to be obsessed with the relationships of characters on a kids' anime? But it gets a little dicey sometimes when I'm talking to people from opposing ships. I try to understand others' feelings, but eventually, I want them to understand my feelings, too, even though they never asked for my presence and don't owe me anything. Sometimes I get defensive when people say certain things and... one time I went off a little in the Amourshipping thread, a while back. What I really wanted was just for them to understand what I like about Pokeshipping the way I understand what they like about Amour, show them how I see it... I thought I was careful to make that clear, but some people thought I was trying to start a ship war. Oops. Eh, in the end, I shouldn't have done it... in fact I knew when I was writing it that it probably wouldn't go over well, exactly... I even thought I might get infracted for it. But I did feel validated afterward, so I can't say I regret it, either.