Nostalgia: the Good and the Bad

According to the American Psychological Association, the term nostalgia describes the longing for pleasant aspects of your past that are stored in your memory. Although nostalgia isn’t seen as a mental illness today by the American Psychiatric Association, it was once considered an actual disorder, being linked in the 17th century to people who were isolated from others and those who went through a painful experience resulting in distance from their homeland.

Today, nostalgia can be seen as a more positive experience, and it’s characterized by feeling sentimental for people, places, or things that represent a time or version of ourselves that we see more positively than in the present.

The current perspective on nostalgia sees it as giving people a sense of connection, remembering pleasant times with loved ones who were there; inspiration, where remembering the good times can motivate the individual to work hard to reach their goals and achieve these good feelings again; and a strong sense of identity.

But although nostalgia is now considered to be a good thing, how healthy can it be? After all, everything we do should be in moderation. Historically, dwelling on the past was a characteristic to avoid, especially among soldiers yearning to be back with their loved ones, leading to physician Johannes Kofer to coin the term in 1688, the Greek nostos meaning ‘homecoming’, and algos referring to ‘pain”. It was considered a disorder since then.

Nostalgia can also be seen as a double-edged sword, with several downsides to it.

According to David Newman, PhD, in an article by EverydayHealth, nostalgia a mixed emotion. Yearning for a time in the past can induce sadness that it no longer exists. In fact, lingering on the past for too long could lead to dwelling on the “what ifs” and things you could have done in certain scenarios, and this can also lead to depressive feelings.

Another interesting factor to nostalgia is how it is specifically introduced. A 2020 study by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that nostalgia is linked with sadness if it appears suddenly or unprompted throughout the day, however it is more positive if the individual is asked to reminisce on it.

Nevertheless, nostalgia is seen as an overwhelmingly positive emotion as it can promote your sense of self, increase personal growth, boost your mood, and make you more optimistic.

Studies aside, it’s important to be aware of how nostalgia is making you feel. Additionally dwelling on the past for too long can lead to feelings of sadness and can be a sign of different thinking patterns, such as rumination, where you can’t stop focusing on things that distress you, depression, where you go over the past repetitively and consume yourself with feelings of self-hatred and guilt, and anxiety, where you constantly worry about the future in a way that makes you panic or irrational.

Homesickness can also be confused with nostalgia. Although nostalgia originally meant homesickness, especially in regard to soldiers, it is now seen as concerning the uniqueness of past experiences and a yearning to re-experience it. Homesickness, on the other hand, has a more spatial connotation, according to a 2005 paper published through ResearchGate.

Nostalgia can be confused with many of these issues, and it is important to be aware of how much you experience it. Continuously dwelling on the past can lead to nostalgic depression, which can be characterized by sadness or regret, loneliness, loss of interest in activities you usually enjoy, or pessimism.

If you find yourself experiencing this, try reconnecting with important people from your past, and reminisce together. Nostalgia tends to be healthier when it is shared.

Look for lessons from the past and apply it to the present moment. You are the same person as you were in the past, so use that as a motivating factor to learn from your past actions and create a better future for yourself.

Finally, try redirecting your nostalgia. Instead of lingering on memories that bring you sadness and longing for the past, think of memories involving people in your life right now. This can remind you of more positive memories and give you more meaning and purpose to your present life.

For more information, here are some of my sources linked below: