Using Nostalgia Therapy to Cope with Isolation

Not yourself lately? Can't concentrate? Are you feeling disoriented? Bored? Depressed?

You may be one of millions right now who could answer "Yes" to such questions. If so, read on to better understand what is happening, why it's happening, and for some unusual but helpful prescriptions. Whether Isolation has been a long standing issue for you because of chronic illness or limitations or you're new to it due to the on-going pandemic, you may be interested in a pleasant way to cope. "Nostalgia Therapy" has become a newly recognized way to ease the anxiety that comes from a lack of social opportunities. It has been shown to ease depression, boost mood and your immune system.

In a recent Psychology Today article (Using Nostalgia to Cope With COVID), Dr. Hal McDonald describes the cause and symptoms of isolation. While he does focus on people who have been affected by the pandemic, his observations and research suggest that a trip down memory lane is good for anyone that feels lonely and isolated due to a disability. Nostalgia therapy, remembering the past or in engaging in activity that conjures up good memories helps a person feel less lonely.

He explains:

"We experience loneliness because we're physically isolated from the dozens of friends, family members, co-workers, and complete strangers with whom we normally rub elbows, shake hands, and share personal space every minute of the day".

He goes on to explain that there's something deeper happening: "we experience self-discontinuity, a sense of disruption or disjointedness between one's past and present self" in response to the undeniable rupture the pandemic has torn in the mottled but generally coherent fabric of "life as we know it."

William Faulkner wrote "The past is never dead. It's not even past." Dr. McDonald seems to agree. He points out that today, a common and healthy reaction to loneliness or self-discontinuity is to invoke pleasant memories, to visit the past. The good news is that these "nostalgic journeys," as he calls them, help us cope. When our self-continuity, or the "sense of connection between one's past self and present self," is disrupted by such singular watershed moments as the pandemic we're all currently enduring, nostalgia can counter that disruption by promoting "feelings of continuity."

The author then offered a personal example: apple toaster strudels. He found that eating a favorite childhood snack, strudel toasters, was therapeutic for him because the taste and aroma transported him back to his childhood family kitchen. Another author, Nicole Johnson from National Geographic (The surprising way nostalgia can help us cope with the pandemic), cited the "nostalgic" benefits one pandemic-bound single mom, Amy Widdicks, got from taking her three children to a nearby drive-in movie.

"The first time I went to a drive-in, I was nine years old, exactly the age of my oldest now," Widdicks says. "There was something incredibly comforting about telling my kids stories about how I'd done something exactly the same when I was their age".

And a piece published in Sage Journals from the Review of General Psychology (Finding Meaning in Nostalgia) concludes that :

"Nostalgia helps people find meaning in their lives, and it does so primarily by increasing social connectedness (a sense of belongingness and acceptance), and secondarily by augmenting self-continuity (a sense of connection between one's past and one's present). Nostalgia mobilizes us for the future," he says. "It increases our desire to pursue important life goals and our confidence that we can accomplish them."

To help get you started down memory lane, here are some fun activities:
  • Watch reruns of a favorite family show.
  • Take time to enjoy the smell and taste of favorite meals from childhood.
  • Look at photo albums or edit and put together new ones using old photographs.
  • If you can, arrange time with loved ones outside – visit a park and have a picnic.

You can also visit fun websites to get you thinking about good memories:

A timely piece from Psychology Today sums it up best:

"If a random happy memory pops into your head out of nowhere, don't treat it as a trivial thought or distraction ...Hang on to the memory and savor it for all it's worth. Not only will it provide you a welcome temporary escape into an undeniably simpler past; it will, more importantly, help you to cope with the very complex and troubling present in".

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