I have some sort of nostalgic depression. what can i do?

**Posts:** 7 · by **Indeed** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 9:35 pm

I just can't find enjoyment these days. I've always been sort of nostalgic, but in the past 2 years or so, I've just fallen in love with the past. to think about my past life comforts me, but at the same time makes me very sad that I can't have them back. the times I wish I had back the most are from 2nd grade to the end of high school. I'm 25 now, but I was just so happy back then. I had great parents, living middle class, and it was just great.

I go back to places I used to have good times at, and I just sit there and think back on good times. I do this as a means to pass the time during the day sometimes. places are of real significance to me, and they impact me greatly to where I feel depressed. I say to myself. right here. right here is where some great times happened, and now they are gone. commonly I will go to the mall, in the food court. there is an arcade there. I just go in the arcade and stare at the games, imagining that it was many years ago, and i was there with my friends, sometimes I get teary eyed because its just so impacting to me in my head.

the only thing that keeps me busy and content is my daily workout routines which i have made very intense. bruce lee is my inspiration to keep going. im more fit, healthy, and I'm more intelligent than I ever was, yet im still very unhappy. im more prone to anger than I ever have been as well. and also its funny because I'm a very heterosexual person, yet I just wish I could go back to when I wasn't because my friends were so much cooler back then, when we didn't have girls on the mind.

im convinced that the best times are behind me. i'd like to believe otherwise, but I can't seem to. the only ideas I have are moving to a completely different city, and start over. I can't seem to make anything good happen in the city i live in, where all the good times happened. i can't relate to people anymore. sometimes I just want to leave this city and never come back, because i feel ive been forsaken here. its like im looking at skeletons and a ghost town of a place that used to be really great.

any ideas on what to do

-Indeed

**Posts:** 5 · by **Agatha** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 9:55 pm

I am sorry you feel like this, good memories are always good but we can't get stuck on them. Hope you have something new and exciting happening soon =)

**Posts:** 14140 · by **jurplesman** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 4:33 am

Ruminating about the good old days may be signs of depression in the here and now.

Please check yourself with the Nutrition Behavior Inventory Test (NBI) and if you score high it is more than likely that your present depression is due to a physical disorder rather than a disorder of the mind. Read about hypoglycemia.

Going on a Hypoglycemic Diet may dissipate the depression over time.

**Posts:** 11010 · by **briary** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:45 am

Hi Indeed

Welcome to the forum. It is natural when experiencing depression to look back on past times when you felt happier. It is often difficult to find enjoyment in anything in the present or to believe that you can feel happy again. However, you can come through this and build yourself the kind of life you would like.

I would recommend you read the Depression Learning Path which explains how depression works and what you can do to start to help yourself come through it.

You will find a lot of support here.

Karen

**Posts:** 48 · by **AWT** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 9:45 am

Hi Indeed,

I have exactly the same feelings as you.. word for word.

I'm 40 now, moved out at 21 and 11 years ago moved 150 miles to my wife's home city shortly after getting married. I go back to my home town to see my parents, back to the house I grew up in and even sleeping in my old room.

The bittersweet feelings of so much time gone by and nostalgia are almost unbearable, and I find myself taking my children to all the old haunts I went to at that age. Trying to recapture times when there were no worries I suppose.

I have a 'better than average' job, but haven't achieved the standard of living my dad did at my age, so that's another painful reminder of the 'world' I left behind.

I don't know how to break free from this and just be thankful for what I do have - I suppose it's a classic midlife crisis but I'm so depressed I can't think clearly. Whatever you do, don't end up like me!

Andy

**Posts:** 7 · by **Indeed** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 6:15 pm

hi people, im doing a lot better now.

there was some huge drama that erupted between me and my former friend in my hometown. didn't turn out well. but i think i figured out that one of the biggest causes of my depression was that i was staying in my hometown not doing anything really, but sulking, because I wanted to relive past memories, instead of going after my dreams. but these people aren't the same people I knew. so i decided to just be somewhere else, because it was just an unhealthy situation for me.

so ive moved to a city north of where i was. im going to save money for a few months here and then move back east(in the US), to a big city(havent decided yet) and go for my dreams of writing and playing music. i feel great, like nothing or no one can get me down. i actually have something to look forward to, instead of something to look back on.

**Posts:** 2 · by **eleventh son** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:02 am

It's eerie. I did an online search about nostalgic depression because lately thoughts of the past have been flooding my psyche I and can't seem to get them out of my head. I find myself wandering back to places and times when life somehow seemed so much richer and better culturally and socially than it seems today. It's refreshing to see that I'm not the only one in the world that feels this way. It was a bit of an eye opener for me to find this entry by indeed. It now almost makes me think that this sort of thing is much more common that I would have previously believed. I also have to say that despite some of the comments about this being a natural thought process of depression, I still can't escape the feeling that there is something quite significant at play here on a sociological level beyond mere symptoms of depression. I personally believe that what I am experiencing is something more on the level of total culture shock that is threatening and intimidating my psyche back into the safety of memories of a time when to me things seemed so much clearer and more well defined than they seem today on so many different levels.

**Posts:** 1 · by **bigrandrn** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 4:52 am

Indeed wrote:I just can't find enjoyment these days. I've always been sort of nostalgic, but in the past 2 years or so, I've just fallen in love with the past. to think about my past life comforts me, but at the same time makes me very sad that I can't have them back. the times I wish I had back the most are from 2nd grade to the end of high school. I'm 25 now, but I was just so happy back then. I had great parents, living middle class, and it was just great.

I go back to places I used to have good times at, and I just sit there and think back on good times. I do this as a means to pass the time during the day sometimes. places are of real significance to me, and they impact me greatly to where I feel depressed. I say to myself. right here. right here is where some great times happened, and now they are gone. commonly I will go to the mall, in the food court. there is an arcade there. I just go in the arcade and stare at the games, imagining that it was many years ago, and i was there with my friends, sometimes I get teary eyed because its just so impacting to me in my head.

the only thing that keeps me busy and content is my daily workout routines which i have made very intense. bruce lee is my inspiration to keep going. im more fit, healthy, and I'm more intelligent than I ever was, yet im still very unhappy. im more prone to anger than I ever have been as well. and also its funny because I'm a very heterosexual person, yet I just wish I could go back to when I wasn't because my friends were so much cooler back then, when we didn't have girls on the mind.

im convinced that the best times are behind me. i'd like to believe otherwise, but I can't seem to. the only ideas I have are moving to a completely different city, and start over. I can't seem to make anything good happen in the city i live in, where all the good times happened. i can't relate to people anymore. sometimes I just want to leave this city and never come back, because i feel ive been forsaken here. its like im looking at skeletons and a ghost town of a place that used to be really great.

any ideas on what to do

-Indeed

I stopped taking painkillers on thanksgiving....and for the past 3 days, this mans words are my feelings EXACTLY. If always had periods of nostalgia in the past, thought it would be cool to go back to my carefree wonderful life,,,,but i always had some happiness in my current life and it didnt depress me to think about the past, now, everytime i think of anything, playing finalfantasy 7, tracking off, anything, i start crying.
I wish i could die now if i could go back and live it over again, it would be so worth it to live it over again.

**Posts:** 38 · by **confettiinmyhair** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 8:31 pm

I've had a similar problem, it took ages to get my head around where I was currently at and not regress into the past where I would ask myself these silly hypothetical questions. Should I have done this, Should I have done that? A lot of those questions arose because I would be reminded of old times by driving past places that were once of importance to me or the scene of good times.

I coped with this by metaphorically closing that chapter of my life (this was only done recently). I said that was me then, this is me now and it's time to move on. I've changed jobs, started saving for a new place to live and enrolled on course to get a diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy.

**Posts:** 12 · by **m12327** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 4:26 pm

Well, somebody's reviving dead threads.

Anway, I think that the OP and anyone else who suffers from this can find solace in this poem I found, as I think it has a remarkable degree of pertinence that I hope you can all appreciate:

From the history of a boyhood past,
Nostalgia evoked and shadows cast;
Now recalled with a grievous sigh,
Is a time of innocence now gone by.

**Posts:** 1 · by **thatdude222** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 4:27 am

dude... i understand how u feel word for word... just like most of the ppl who have replied to ur post... since i was about 9 years old i have felt like if i could just rewind that i would be happy... or happier... recently i came to the conclusion that as u age life just gets worse so i might as well have as much fun and fullfillment as possible because tomorrow ill just be worse off... i dont let it get me down completely but it is definitally a factor in my life which i have delt with in mild and sometimes very powerful doses... i say just keep on living and do what u think is the best for you not only in the moment but also later when u will be looking back... im only 19 but i dont think that i will ever truly get over the nostalgia which i live with... i know that it seems funny that im like this so young... it likely has to do with my having to grow up too fast or sumthin stupid like that... point is... i think that all of us on here will honestly just have to deal with it and try to love the old times while making new memories which we will in turn look back on with love later in life

**Posts:** 1 · by **John111** » Sat Apr 17, 2010 2:57 am

I often felt like this after I went away to University and left my friends and family back in another town. I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life, and I often felt depressed and alone, even though I had people that I would hang around with. It was like everyone I used to know had moved on with their lives and I was somehow left behind.

But in time, I found a profession. I made new friends, and I found someone to start my own family with. Suddenly I was living new memories in my own family and I felt good about life again. It can happen for you too. It just takes time for everything to fall into place.

Keep in touch with your family ... but start your own ... and new direction.

Life will get better, just keep pushing past today.

**Posts:** 548 · by **Chick1979** » Mon Apr 19, 2010 5:44 pm

'Nostaligic depression' is what depression is...

Depression is an illness of the past and anxiety is an illness of the future.

Living in the here and now is the bit we need to be in but if someone works out how to do this then let me know! Meds and therapy is a good combination generally.

**Posts:** 29 · by **vinnie1** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 12:54 pm

thats it, once you realise that you are living in the past, know nothing or what you know simply does not serve you (causes pain) and be willing to draw on the canvas again. Starting A NEW LEARNING EXPERINCE YOU ARE SOME WAY THERE. Depression is mainly caused by our minds living in the past to which sometimes we are not aware. Bring yourself in surrender of all you know and live in the now.
Let me know

**Posts:** 2 · by **brannon** » Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:36 pm

Im about to turn 43 years old next month(August). I often find myself in a state of nostalgia, Listening to 70's and 80's music, thinking about old friends, getting together, reminising about the past, looking at old photos of back in the day, etc. I think all of this is fine, as long as you put everything into perspective, and realize, that its the past, and are able to move on into the future. Nostalgia is like a pair of comfortable shoes, or that comfortable shirt you love to wear, but its ragged, and its time to throw it out, and get a new one. Im not saying totally abandon your memories, now, memories are precious. Hold on to them, but dont let them or the past rule your life here in the now and in the future. Check out new music, go to new places, make new friends(if you are like me, the old ones are gone). Nostalgia is not a bad thing, but it can be if it holds you back from the now and the future.

I have some sort of nostalgic depression. what can i do?

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