Anybody else suffer from nostalgia?

[lonelydoc]

I seem to suffer from incurable nostalgia, which worsens my depression and anxiety, and also my past friends don't really keep in touch with me, or they aren't around.

I'm 33 and I can't seem to adjust to what people might call "adult" life. Settling down, having a family, having a regular job. It all seems so mundane, like the world isn't new anymore.

I just wanted to put that out there, see what some of you do to cope.

 

[Sci-Fi]

All. Of. The. Time.

Haven't figured out a way to cope really, when I find myself being "nostalgic" I try to find something else to occupy my mind with. Doesn't always work though.

 

[lifestream]

I get nostalgic for my younger years every so often.

Then I remember how it actually felt to live it, and that usually cures me of any nostalgia.

I know it's comforting to think of the past as a golden time of opportunity where anything and everything seemed possible, but try and remember how it felt actually being there.

 

[Punisher]

Adult life sucks.

 

[Cavey]

I think everyone gets nostalgic from time to time - I know it seems to be much worse now than it was when I was younger. Thinking about the past can be a good thing and bring a smile to your face, but obsessing over it can really mess up your life. I try and keep it in my mind so that I don't repeat the same mistakes again and then I just keep moving forwards...

 

[LonelySutton]

Yeh I think I am very immature. My young years were so wonderful and I think it is obvious that the older ones will not be. I feel like I was unprepared for adult life. I kind of feel like there MUST be a solution I am just missing. How is it that people don't kill themselves every day. I am watching the leftovers and on that show everyone is suicidal because people disappeared (only 2%) of the population but I don't find that half as depressing as the stark reality of "growing up" as it is today.

 

[SofiasMami]

Hi,
I think "suffer from" nostagia is a very apt way of putting it. I absolutely loathe nostalgia.
I'd rather walk through the fires of hell wrapped in tissue paper soaked in lighter fluid than be nostalgic. I think it serves no real purpose other than to make us stuck.

If you're in a transition period in your life, as it sounds like you are, it's easy to fall for the siren song of nostalgia. I have too but I've learned to snap out of it sooner rather than later.

I guess I consider myself fortunate that I moved a continent away from my hometown and started completely anew, new job, new friends, everything. So it's easy to slap away nostalgic feelings because I essentially started a new life. Sooner or later, we all get an opportunity to start anew, including you, yes?

I also have convinced myself that the best is yet to come. So if that's true, who gives a flying fig about what life in tbe 80s was like!

-Teresa

 

[Rosebolt]

I seem to suffer from incurable nostalgia, which worsens my depression and anxiety, and also my past friends don't really keep in touch with me, or they aren't around.

I'm 33 and I can't seem to adjust to what people might call "adult" life. Settling down, having a family, having a regular job. It all seems so mundane, like the world isn't new anymore.

I just wanted to put that out there, see what some of you do to cope.

Heey.

I'm not really an adult so you're free to disregard what i'm about to say. I'm 21.

Nostalgia for as far as i experience it is a powerful and inspiring tool.

Also, your second paragaph triggers an allergic reaction in me. If you don't want to adjust to a conformist life, then don't. The world has so much more to offer than that, reap the beauty.

 

[AmeNoKo]

This is new to me--- I've always had a pleasant feeling with nostalgia.

In particular, I'm at this point in my life where I've finally disbanded the idea of Hopelessness as a life-style, and I'm very nearing having a great change in acquiring independence. I'm already a 40-hour-week worker, a full-time college student, and pay quite a few bills, and I don't mind that. I especially won't mind it when I'm totally on my own and truly the master of my [very small] domain.
But I also don't mind when I think back to youth. In fact I'm really the opposite; most of my young memories greatly embarrass and trouble me. But for those ones that don't, the 'nostalgia' ones, I find great comfort in the lessons I acquired from those moments, and how that happiness experienced as a lad is still the same happiness I want now.
For me, I view 'Sadness' not as an import sensation, but as an export. I don't believe anyone or anything has made me sad over the years, but that I've unconsciously aligned myself with sadness, and have used it as a crutch and handicap for 'purposeful living' for very long now.
But happiness hasn't changed, despite all the sadness. The goodness of friends, of new experiences, is the same now as a grown male as it was a boy. For me, nostalgia is the reminder of where I'd like to reachieve myself, the happiness that I'd like to reacquire, but now have even greater and more variant control over. As an independent, having options I think is the greatest gift.

But I disagree with your ideas about 'Adult' life though, because, in my opinion, there's absolutely No_Such_Thing. Life is whatever you want it to be, and so if the idea of responsibilities makes you uncomfortable you're perfectly free to not take them on. You don't need a family; you don't need a mortgage; you don't "need" most anything.
You do need to work though, and you should pursue looking for a career you can enjoy. But other than that one, there's really nothing that is demanded from you other than whatever costs of living you take up.
And there's lots of options for that too. Plenty of areas, at least in the U.S., have low-cost living, and aren't too crazy dangerous. Mostly southern States, and I've seen full, 1 bed/Bath apartments go for only $300 a month.
So really, even if you can't find a career that works for you, you still don't have to do a 40-hour week to live. It'll be tight living, but again; you are in control of whatever responsibilities life offers you. If you don't want them, then don't take them.

 

[johnny196775]

The world ended after the 70s and now im trying to pick up the pieces and pretend it is 2014. So yes i think back a lot. It sure gets me nowhere though.

 

[LonesomeLoner]

I get nostalgia often. It triggers painful memories and sometimes some funny ones.

 

[TheSkaFish]

The world ended after the 70s and now im trying to pick up the pieces and pretend it is 2014. So yes i think back a lot. It sure gets me nowhere though.

I feel that way too, only for me it's the '90s to early '00s.

But as far as the general sense of nostalgia, I feel it too. Any time I pass a park I wish I could go back to the days when I could just run around and play there, and then come home and watch my favorite old shows or read books or play with toys or games again. I just felt like the world was so huge and full of promise and that there was so much time to figure it all out. I felt like I could just shut the rest of the world out and just live in my own little universe where everything was fun and safe and I was so free. Playtime was all the time and I went to sleep content knowing that tomorrow would bring another wonderful day.

Also, as I mentioned on an earlier post, as a child I had did not have to worry about things like how I was going to make money or if I would ever find someone to date. Ever since life started being about those two things, I haven't been very happy. They kind of hang over everything like a cloud, because I didn't pick the right interests I guess. Money is hard because I'm not into things like computers or construction or auto repair or engineering or business, and dating is hard because I'm not a macho man. It's hard for me to want to even get up in the morning, because the first thing I think is how I've blown it now, my ship has sailed in terms of money and dating and developing a talent and that there is no way to return to the happiness of youth.

I don't see how I can return to that state of happiness since every day takes me further away from it.

 

[SofiasMami]

The world ended after the 70s and now im trying to pick up the pieces and pretend it is 2014. So yes i think back a lot. It sure gets me nowhere though.

I feel that way too, only for me it's the '90s to early '00s.

But as far as the general sense of nostalgia, I feel it too. Any time I pass a park I wish I could go back to the days when I could just run around and play there, and then come home and watch my favorite old shows or read books or play with toys or games again.

Well if you ever have a kid or spend time with kids, you can certainly do that again.
I go down the slides, climb the monkey bars, swing on the swings, swim in the city pool then go home and play board games with my kiddo.
But oddly, I never get a sense of nostalgia when I'm doing that. I just like being in the sunshine and fresh air

-Teresa

 

[johnny196775]

i want to relearn rollerskating someday.

 

[TheSkaFish]

Well if you ever have a kid or spend time with kids, you can certainly do that again.
I go down the slides, climb the monkey bars, swing on the swings, swim in the city pool then go home and play board games with my kiddo.

-Teresa

Eh, I know. It sounds nice. But at the same time, I don't think I'm going to ever meet someone I'd actually want a relationship with again, so it won't be possible to have kids and I wouldn't want such a commitment to someone who I only feel lukewarm about at best. Also, kids cost too much money to raise. My life isn't set up for it.

 

[MermiaWow]

The world ended after the 70s and now im trying to pick up the pieces and pretend it is 2014. So yes i think back a lot. It sure gets me nowhere though.

I feel that way too, only for me it's the '90s to early '00s.

But as far as the general sense of nostalgia, I feel it too. Any time I pass a park I wish I could go back to the days when I could just run around and play there, and then come home and watch my favorite old shows or read books or play with toys or games again. I just felt like the world was so huge and full of promise and that there was so much time to figure it all out. I felt like I could just shut the rest of the world out and just live in my own little universe where everything was fun and safe and I was so free. Playtime was all the time and I went to sleep content knowing that tomorrow would bring another wonderful day.

Also, as I mentioned on an earlier post, as a child I had did not have to worry about things like how I was going to make money or if I would ever find someone to date. Ever since life started being about those two things, I haven't been very happy. They kind of hang over everything like a cloud, because I didn't pick the right interests I guess. Money is hard because I'm not into things like computers or construction or auto repair or engineering or business, and dating is hard because I'm not a macho man. It's hard for me to want to even get up in the morning, because the first thing I think is how I've blown it now, my ship has sailed in terms of money and dating and developing a talent and that there is no way to return to the happiness of youth.

I don't see how I can return to that state of happiness since every day takes me further away from it.

This.

 

[Delta]

I went through a nostalgia phase a few years back, wanting to buy old model kits that I used to build as a child, I think I was just trying to recapture something, it passed, I think like most things if it is in moderation it is not a big deal but if it starts making you feel upset as if you have lost something than it becomes a problem.

 

[Pike Creek]

I have nostalgia for somewhere I used to live when I seemed to "have it all". It was worse before because I couldn't stop comparing my current situation to the one I held as my best/ideal situation and it made me perpetually unsatisfied. Now I try to look back at that time for what it really is, a happy memory, reminding myself that my current living situation is wonderful. But I certainly don't miss childhood/teenage years and young adulthood, I'm happy to be where I am now, and would never want to go through that again.

 

[girlontheshelf]

I would love to relive the 70's and 80's again.