I'm in my mid 30's now, and found myself growing increasingly nostalgic for my childhood. I miss the things I used to do, and regret the things I didn't do when I had the chance. The bittersweet feelings of it all can be overwhelming.

I was feeling this way well before the pandemic, so I don't think that's what caused it. But it maybe intensified it. Coupled with that is the existential angst I feel. perhaps related to it. What was everything ultimately for?

Is it a trick of the mind? Are we predisposed to glorify the past, and that if I went back to my childhood, I would find it wasn't necessarily as great as I imagine it in my mind's eye?

Is it because of depression, or boredom? Or is it a phase that I'll eventually grow out of? Or do people have nostalgic pangs forever? Is there some way to cure it?

Yes. Just a couple of years more, and you start forgetting things. :]

As a fellow mid-30er, I sometimes find myself in the same situation. Even though my childhood was not exactly the best time of my life, there were still good things in it that I reminisce about. Whatever you want it to be for. Life's not a recipe or a checklist, though there are things society expects of you in most cases. Feel free to do whatever fits your personality, including going on the untrodden path. There's certainly a nostalgic feel that comes with remembering times long gone. They were usually not that amazing as we imagine them now, but, as I like to say, time has scent. And the past sometimes smells good, like something freshly out of the oven that can never be cooked again. It depends on the person, I guess. With some it only gets worse as they grow older. But yes, there is a cure: carpe diem. Appreciate what you have and stop looking at the past, especially while the future can get even better.

I'm a few decades on you. I will say that chances are you can probably do SOME of stuff you are thinking about. When I get like that I usually do something about it. I missed how I use to skateboard with my friends. So I take my board out for a bit and ride or do some small tricks with it. When my grand kids come over I take them out vs stay in and we ride bikes/boards then hit a store for some sweets and come back and check out a film or game from their library or mine.

That's just one example but my advice is to keep your body healthy and do some of that stuff that you're thinking about.

I'm late thirties too. When I feel this way I tell myself:

"Instead of regretting things you did/didn't do 20 years ago, make sure that 20 years from now you won't regret anything about today."

Today are the days you'll feel nostalgic about 20 years later. Live them to the fullest.

I've felt nostalgic ever since I was a kid, and I put all the blame on folk tales, romanticism, Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki, and growing up in a city.

My advice: try to diminish the if onlys and the what ifs, and contemplate the past from a healthy distance. There's this old Italian saying that goes "Si stava meglio quando si stava peggio" (It was better when it was worse / We were better off when we were worse off), which in a way, illustrates the point of absurdity nostalgia can reach.

Also, although I think it's impossible to live a life without regrets, ZFR has given a pretty good advice.

nostalgia is a sickness , you should find a doctor to cure it out

Dr. Luke A. Head

I blame The Wonder Years. It's a great show, but sometimes I think watching it as a kid really warped me.

Anyway, sure - I'm nostalgic for plenty of things, movies, music, places, people, things that happened and thigns that did not... but I don't want to cure it. I want to watch the night sky, listen to some nostalgic tunes and embrace it all. Captain Kirk got it right:

"You know that pain and guilt can't be taken away with a wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves. I don't want my pain taken away! I need my pain!"

(perhaps a bit melodramatic there at the end in this context, but you get the idea)

Pftt, thirties is nothing -- I'm really old!

Nostalgia is perfectly normal and almost inevitable. The nostalgia market is huge for a reason, with countless books and products aimed at people who've reached a certain age.

It's understandable that remembering things from former years, when your life was probably a lot less complicated, and you probably had fewer responsibilities, is appealing.

Nostalgia can be painful. It can be a longing that makes the present seem unsatisfactory. But in reality every age has its benefits and its drawbacks.

As for regrets, what use are they to you? All we can ever do is to try to make the best choices in the here and now. Sometimes we'll get it wrong, sometimes we'll get it right. That's the way it is.

Do your best to be happy in the moment, my friend. And if you feel like a nostalgia kick sometimes, go ahead, but enjoy it for what it is -- an idealised view of the past.

Nope, after 35 it’s all downhill. All you can hope for is the sunny window and not peeing yourself all the time.

Edit, and yes that is a bit tongue in cheek there! It was all better when you are young. What people think however is that it was better for everybody else then as well. For the individual, sure, they were young healthier, had friends, time ran slower etc. So it was definitely better for that person back then

Not really nostalgic, because my life at school was rather unpleasant (am also mid-30s, tending towards late 30s). But I do wonder where the last 20 years went, seems to me like they passed in an instant, and I wasted them. I certainly haven't achieved the things most people expect from life and I suspect I never will. It's a terrible feeling and I feel profound regret every day. But at the same time I can't pinpoint any single point where I clearly went wrong, at the time my choices seemed without alternative.
Anyway, I understand this probably isn't helpful to you at all, but maybe it makes you understand that sentiments like yours aren't uncommon.

At least when it comes to media, you live in unprecedented times, when you can surround yourself with the very things that were around in your childhood/early teens. Not copycats, not influences, but the exact thing from that time period.

And very cheaply, too, if you know where to look for it.

Your life, though, is only one way, and turning back will only make things worse.

You're also very near a mid-life crisis.

You either get your Thundercats and Ren & Stimpy now, along with that Danzig or Ozzy Osbourne album, or in a few years spend half your savings on a second-hand imported Porsche, hair restoration products and blue pills. Are they still selling those pills in spam mail? Or is that old news already?

Anyway, it's your choice.

I personally found that surrounding myself with paraphernalia from before '96 is much more affordable than the Porsche, hookers and drugs.

But don't let me tell you how to live your life.

In all seriousness, suck it up, and age gracefully. A venerable age is a beautiful thing, despite what every commercial tells you.

You can still ride the swings and go down the slider late at night, when no one's watching. ;)

You can be nostalgic for games you've never played.

Usually nothing. Life is suffering and then you die, which if the rational viewpoint has it right means it really was all for nothing while if the spiritual one is right most probably means even more suffering, one way or another. The only way to win this game is to not play it, but unfortunately others force your entry without you having any possibility to have any say in it... And worse, that's seen, by them as well as by society as a whole, as a great thing. Yes. It's how memory tends to work, for most the positive aspects are emphasized while the negatives fade away, and in fact, with memories not actually being stored in the brain like they are on a computer but rather being recreated whenever they're accessed, without a reliable way to accurately recover them, they're constantly modified in this biased way as well, so the real positives will tend to get mixed with fantasy, putting it all through ever more rose-tinted glasses. Depression is the normal reaction to being alive, especially in this world and society as it is, and as it has ever been. Boredom though... I can't quite get how people can get bored in the modern world, with so much at one's fingertips that not even a fraction of 1% of it can be accessed and experienced over the course of one's entire life. And then there's the inner world as well, a passably active imagination prevents boredom in itself, even in (real) isolation. Highly doubtful. Tends to only get worse as time passes. Not sure if "cure" is the proper term, implies an illness... I guess a simple way would be becoming a shallow mindless hedonistic drone just gorging on present pleasures and instant gratification, as many do, one way or another. A more proper, albeit much harder and only partial, one would be being thorough in your rational analysis of the past and present, and checking memories against reliable sources, to make accurate comparisons and see what really was better and what wasn't, what you'd really want to experience again and what in truth you'd rather not... And how much everything sucks and sucked, both now and then, anyway.