# Overwhelming nostalgia



## Faded Lines (Sep 22, 2006)

I have been experiencing overwhelming nostalgia lately. It's really bad and makes me very emotional. My past wasn't anything to dance about, but it was still good. However, I don't know why literally everything reminds me of the past. A song, a music video, my Jeep, a smell, a person, a TV show, the snow, a piece of furniture...everything. Lately it has mostly been in the form of music. I'll throw something on and I begin to think of a time period of several months related to when I first heard that song. I am getting choked up thinking about it. Could it be because I am transitioning into becoming an adult? I am going to be 20 this July, and my life is going to start to change radically due to really buckling down on jobs related to my field and everything (oh the anxiety! lol). Anyone else feel this way at times?


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## Jayne311 (Aug 20, 2009)

I feel this way a lot. I really miss my early years of life. But sometimes it isn't even about _my_ past, as much as it's about _the_past. A few months ago I got out some photo albums from a few years before I was born, and cried over pictures of some buildings in Las Vegas from when my parents took a trip there.


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## Mae West (Sep 15, 2005)

I don't like nostalgia. My past was nothing special, but even if it was, I feel like focusing on the past gets in the way of enjoying the moment or planning for the future. I don't even see nostalgia as romantic. I see it as yearning for something that is familiar to avoid the pain of something new and unknown.


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## Faded Lines (Sep 22, 2006)

Yeah, I don't choose the nostalgia, it just happens.


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## Globe_Trekker (Jan 29, 2009)

I realize this is an old thread, but I found this great quote from the Woody Allan movie _Midnight in Paris_:



> Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking - the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in - it's a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.


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## Pennywise (Aug 18, 2011)

I've been getting this a lot lately too, and I think there are two main factors that cause these thoughts:

1. You are approaching adulthood, as you said. This may be causing apprehension and you are thinking back to a time when everything seemed so much simpler and stress-free.

2. Introverted people tend to be naturally more reflective and focused on the past. They like to analyze things they've done and think about what could've been done differently.


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