Nostalgia can also give rise to dangerous false recollections, which cause depression because nothing can compare to the better our brains come up with.Įspecially in those who suffer from excessive worrying or anxiety, nostalgia can serve as a blanket against the worry and cause other related problems, like depression.Ī study was published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, done by the researcher Bas Verplanken, a professor of social psychology at the University of Bath and it discovered that, after being exposed to nostalgic stimuli, participants suffering from anxiety showed more depressive symptoms. One may feel like the past was better and since one cannot go back to that time the present can start to feel like a drag.įuture plans may be put on hold and the person may constantly talk about how great it used to be. Nostalgia can be harmful sometimes because living in the past too much can lead to a disdain for the present, leading to depression. In addition, memories have a tendency to look better in depression, making nostalgia seem like an attractive prospect as compared to accomplishing things and trying to do things. It is a symptom of depression to be afraid of the future and what does someone do when they don’t want to think about the future or the things they have to do? They think about the past. Depression and memoriesĭepression can make memories feel very attractive and the person suffering from it may not want to stop thinking about them at all.
Nostalgia sometimes feels like a sedative and can have a way of taking past events and make them look more amazing than they were, making the present look bad because it feels so bad right now. This tendency can start to feel like you have made so many mistakes in your life, and so nostalgia can suddenly start feeling like depression. You might start to wish that you could rewind your life and be in the past again, and this can cause resentment for the present and fear for the future.Īt the same time you might start regretting mistakes you may have made, thinking “I wouldn’t take it for granted this time, I’d be aware with every passing moment how special each moment actually is”. Nostalgia is not a bad thing, but in the current environment when there is so much bad happening all around us, it may start to be an escape, and not something we all do.ĭepression can result from this nostalgia when you start comparing the past to the present, and the present starts to look bad in that comparison. This is called nostalgia, and it refers to the tendency of remembering the past with a fondness. Or many other moments in the past that I wish I could revisit.” Nothing will ever be as good as that time with my friends as a teenager, the holidays with my family, or playing in the backyard as a child, chasing my dog. You may have heard people say “if only I could go back and relive those moments. The good old days: Nostalgia and Depression Nostalgia can be prompted by something similar to the past, and it can be completely unprompted as well.Ī song may remind you of a person, a fragrance may remind you of a song our brain makes associations in the weirdest of ways and nostalgia is the result of these associations. Nostalgia affects us all regardless of who we are.Įveryone has a past and even though some people are more likely than others to feel nostalgic, everyone that does it shares some similarities, that we idealize whatever we are nostalgic about. Nostalgia also means wanting the old days back, and rarely happens without the wish of going back into the past, in fact, it is an important characteristic.
It refers to thinking about the things that were and remembering them as nice and positive. Nostalgia is a concept that means thinking about the past with a fond, happy feeling. It is a common tendency to reminisce but when that happens so much that you do not focus on the present, it becomes a cause for concern. While it is not included in any of the universally used classifications of mental disorders, Nostalgic depression has gained a lot of popularity to discuss the tendency of being nostalgic about the past and the depression that results from it.
Nostalgic Depression is a term for a type of depression that results from excessive reminiscing of the past or not focusing enough on the present or on the future.
#NOSTALGIA MEANING HOW TO#
In this brief guide, we will discuss Nostalgic depression and how to cope with it.
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