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Nostalgia and obsession with the past

Hope

I live in the past. I fear the responsibilities that adult life brings; I endure bittersweet nostalgia for my childhood and schooldays, when things were safe, predictable, structured, choice was limited and my anxieties were safely contained. My past seems like a golden age, a perfect time, like a perpetual summer.

I am immature, emotionally, that is. I don't feel my age, and I am anxious nearly all the time. It is because of my anxiety that I yearn for a simpler time.

Are there others who are trapped in the past?

Parents

  • Sorry to open up a decade old thread. I'm not diagnosed myself but my two kids have recently been diagnosed. I'm mid 40s and the penny's only just dropped regarding autism. The kids are like a mirror.

    Anyway. I've been talking about a similar thing to your post with people I know for over maybe 20 years. People tell me it's just normal rose tinted specs "things were better in my youth" stuff but I don't agree. It's an incredibly strong feeling and an immense sadness that these things are gone. I can surround myself with old, nostalgic objects and try to recreate what it was like but it's not the same, modernity has pervaded everything outside my control now and I almost detest dealing with it. The irony being that I've worked in IT for over 25 years and am forced to keep up with it as part of the job. Obviously, there is no way back. I'm just at a loss really as what to do about it.

    Anyway, just felt compelled to comment on this as it came up in Google while I was searching for this very topic, and it really struck a chord. Obviously, I might not even be autistic but I think the chances of that, and my mother for that matter, being so are quite high knowing what I now know about the subject. I'm also at a bit of a loss as to what to do about it all. Anyway. Just wanted to say thanks for the post. Even if it's over a decade late  :)

  • in reply to Snowman

    It's nice other people feel the same way. I think some of it is about growing up and "adulting" but I think an awful lot is to do with "modern" progress and a world which is getting faster and louder which can often go against an autistic person's natural grain. As for the comments below regarding feeling young. I've tried to have this conversation with a few people who are not autistic. They said they feel young at heart but I feel there's something inherently different between our experiences of feeling young. Maybe more of a naiveté on my part.

  • in reply to Deleted User
    Unknown said:
    I've tried to have this conversation with a few people who are not autistic. They said they feel young at heart but I feel there's something inherently different between our experiences of feeling young. Maybe more of a naiveté on my part.

    I agree.  However, for me, I think it is my general perception of "time" that seems different to many others that I speak with - just as much as my own probable naivety.  Moreover, I like to be an "expert" in everything I do and to know a lot about most things that interest me.  With the world "progressing" at its current rate, I feel like I'm not permitted enough time to play, learn and enjoy my current toys before a whole load of new stuff (increasingly inferior stuff) is then thrust in my face and I'm told I should now only want and play with that.

  • in reply to Helen

    Thank you.  I do love to learn, and I wasn't aware of that.  I'll take a look.

  • in reply to Snowman

    Snowman.  You should know this.  I have never before encountered someone quite like you - and I am extremely pleased to make your acquaintance.  If I tried to extract "quotes" from your writing above to indicate its resonance with me then I would need to copy and paste the whole damn lot.  This has never happened to me before.  I am a little freaked out.....but in a good way....I think!

    If you review my activity in these pages, you will note that I am a very private human and prefer to chat in the non-public "back room" of these pages on a one-to-one basis about anything that I feel is too private.

    If you are comfortable to do so, I would be delighted for you to send me a private message = the rectangular box next to the lightening strike.  After the initial message from you, I am able to respond and then we can converse thereafter whenever.  I prefer this approach so that we don't need to appear as visible "friends" in our respective profiles.  I am unusually private, but for VERY mundane reasons - which others here can attest to.

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  • in reply to Snowman

    Snowman.  You should know this.  I have never before encountered someone quite like you - and I am extremely pleased to make your acquaintance.  If I tried to extract "quotes" from your writing above to indicate its resonance with me then I would need to copy and paste the whole damn lot.  This has never happened to me before.  I am a little freaked out.....but in a good way....I think!

    If you review my activity in these pages, you will note that I am a very private human and prefer to chat in the non-public "back room" of these pages on a one-to-one basis about anything that I feel is too private.

    If you are comfortable to do so, I would be delighted for you to send me a private message = the rectangular box next to the lightening strike.  After the initial message from you, I am able to respond and then we can converse thereafter whenever.  I prefer this approach so that we don't need to appear as visible "friends" in our respective profiles.  I am unusually private, but for VERY mundane reasons - which others here can attest to.

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