Theoretical: pathological nostalgia?

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Posting this here, since I'm unconvinced that this is necessarily related to autistic spectrum disorders.

I tend to get nostalgic a lot. And this manifests as a longing for years gone by, even if during those years I was not necessarily very happy. I can also enjoy old pop cultural things, like listen to old songs from my childhood for hours, or go on YouTube and go through old cartoon intros, uploaded clips of 80s or 90s TV shows, etc. Now most of the time I don't let it interfere with my functioning. But I find I sometimes have to restrain myself, actively say to myself "Don't go overboard with the nostalgia", or more accurately phrased, "Don't go overboard with the dwelling on things past". Thinking things like 'back then, it was better,' or 'things should not have changed in such-and-such way'. I think that if I don't control myself, I could seriously end up in a psychological loop of replaying the good-old-days over and over, and not paying enough attention to the present. A present, which in turn will become a chapter of 'the good old days' in its own right years from now.

Now I realise that aspects of this could well be related to autism, related to my tendency to obsess about things that I like (which in this case happen to be in the past), and related to my desire to have a 'homebase of comfort', a 'warm nest' so to speak, which is what the desire to go back to earlier, less complicated times may appeal to.

Is anyone familiar with similar sensations that they might want to share here? Recently, I have thought that this may be a wholly different psychological 'condition' in its own right.

I go through the same things as well. I get nostalgic about the 80s and the 60s. I wasn't even around in the 60s. I don't tell myself not to dwell on the past. I embrace that part about myself. The thing that draws me to those two decades is that the staple of music from those two decades that was played on the radio back in those days, included a wider variety. In other words, they played The Kinks as much as they played The Beatles back in the 80s. The TV shows were better, too. There wasn't any reality TV and people on sitcoms didn't stand around and talk about sex. I celebrate that part of myself, because that's what makes me who I am. My favourite Kink was fired in the 80s, and I still go back to that decade.

I do think this is related to Autism, because a lot of people go through phases of personal interests or obsessions and when they are reminded of a past phase it can induce a huge amount of nostalgia. I get very nostalgic when remembering old places or special interests.

I used to have painful, debilitating nostalgia over a certain period of my life. I think it was understandable, because I didn't have money worries, I was going to my dream school, and had friends for the first time in my life. I romanticized the good parts. Unfortunately, I lost it all because I also developed an eating disorder and got kicked out of school. So it wasn't all good parts.

But for years afterwards, I would return to the eating disorder, trying to get feelings of that period of my life back. I wanted to go back so badly.

I asked therapists how to get over these feelings and nothing helped except for time. Eventually, I ended up somewhere where I was happy and felt I had a future I could tolerate again, made new friends, and now I don't experience the same painful nostalgia for that part of my life, at least not very often.

I tend to become very nostalgic over my childhood, especially the ages of 11 - 12. That was when I had a best friend who shared my special interest in anime. We had sleepovers and marathons of our favorite shows together, and we both aspired to become artists so we spent a lot of time drawing together too. That was probably the happiest period of time in my life prior to adulthood. I can't watch the anime we used to watch together without becoming so overwhelmed with nostalgia that I want to cry. And even when I watch newer anime, sometimes I think "I wish this was on Toonami/weekday mornings before school", just so I could have something to be nostalgic about later.

Oh BOY do I ever relate to this topic. I believe pathological nostalgia occurs in those with autism maybe a little more frequestly than the general population.

I've been nostalgic for past times and things for most of my life--and it really is an endless crippling psychological loop in my own situation. It's a huge monkey on my back and I have not been able to overcome it. It is a part of me, but to the point where it is a monstrous problem and I have not paid attention to the present for a very long time--almost as if I'm unable to, not wired that way.

Glad I'm not alone.

Hm. I find that I have a very hard time staying present in current situations, and have little emotional response aside from anxiety to most occurrences. However, as soon as I am past a certain stage in my life, I start to feel nostalgic over it. I remember that I was just as anxious and neurotic during those periods, but I can better see them for what they were. It depresses me sometimes to know that I've been involved in a lot of pretty awesome experiences, but that for some reason I was unable to experience them as they were actually happening. If that makes any sense. I would really like to change this about myself. I don't know if it's possible, though.

I realize this is a pretty old topic but I must give it a bump back up as I can totally relate. I am a very nostalgic person and obsess over it. Which might help with my dilemma over my question of am I schizo or ASD? I mean nostalgia obsession? Which category does that fit more into it? In either case I miss the 90's, what I can remember of it and I definitely miss the early 2000's and despite the pain and drama I went through during 08 and 09 I miss those years as well because they were at least exciting. Now everything is so boring and dead. I find myself feeling less nostalgic these days because I don't really see the point. I wish things would go back to how they used to be but I think I've accepted that they won't. I just don't know how to work with the present and what I have now.

I am so glad someone posted this. I relate completely with this, and am glad to see I'm far from the only one. I spend a lot of time, during certain times of the year trying to "replay" every happy memory assosiated with that time of year. I even listen to certain music, for different seasons, even though the songs themselves aren't relevant to the time of year.