Nostalgia

nos·​tal·​gia

1. (n) a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition

   
   

“Ah, the good ol’ days…”

DEBORAH ANN TRIPOLDI / MONTCLAIR LOCAL

There’s truly nothing like a good trip down memory lane, back to times that were much more fun and a lot less stressful. Then, you realize that you’ve been staring into space for 5 minutes straight and you snap back into reality. I’m personally always good for a lot of those moments.

Maybe you see a throwback social media post that takes you back in time to your childhood when you were listening to your favorite music, watching your favorite TV show or cartoons, and/or seeing your favorite athlete do something heroic again.

Does this image do anything for you? Or do you not have a soul?

The Recess Bell was actually birthed through nostalgia. If you’re a smart enough person, you were probably able to gather that just from the name of the company. Let me elaborate, though.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, I — like everyone else — felt like I was going mad at certain points during quarantine. I couldn’t see my friends, couldn’t see my girlfriend nearly as often, I had to change my work routine, etc. It was a straight-up period of isolation, fatigue (in both the physical and emotional sense) and uncertainty. Fear.

As a result, there was a shitstormy wave of negative emotions flowing through my headspace 24/7. As we’ve discussed multiple times here on mental-ity, a consistent flow of negative thought patterns can be extremely detrimental to one’s mental health — it can even prove to be fatal.

An eerily empty Times Square during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020. TED SHAFFREY / AP PHOTO

I had to find a way to cope and lift my mental up somehow. With my present situation in tatters, I looked to the past for some better feelings. And who doesn’t have fond memories of hearing the recess bell ring and getting to run around outside for a chunk of time? That seems impossible unless you were horrible at wallball or hide-and-seek.

No two people are the same, but I can still say with FULL confidence that we have all been there at a certain point. People can turn to a multitude of vices when circumstances get difficult; there’s nothing quite like a couple of hits of nostalgia in my experience, though.

Nintendo GameCube alert!

Contrary to popular belief, however: nostalgia ain’t all sunshine and rainbows and lollipops and teddy bears and rollercoasters. Nostalgia is one of the most complex emotions one can experience because there are BOTH positive and negative aspects to it.

There are some nostalgic moments we'd... rather not remember. NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, FEB. 18, 2007.

Nostalgia: A Mental Disorder (??)

Would you believe me if I told you that nostalgia was actually a diagnosable mental illness during the 17th century?

No?

I guess I'll just have to convince you then.

And no, I'm not talking about ruminating in thought about your ex for hours at a time. (Even though we've all gone down that road.)

The term 'nostalgia' originates from Swiss medical student and author Johannes Hofer, who came up with the word using the Greek root nostos, which means returning to a native place, as well as the Greek root algos, which means "pain" or "grief".

Johannes Hofer and his 1688 dissertation on nostalgia as a medical condition.

Hofer's development of nostalgia caught a major tidal wave heading into the 18th century. Doctors literally treated it as a disease! [1] I'm dead serious. They would write "death by nostalgia" on suicide autopsies.

Hofer closely associated nostalgia with homesickness in his studies, stating that the condition was "sympathetic of an afflicted imagination" and that there was "no remedy other than a return to the homeland."

This idea became a fixture of an idea around the world, and was widely embraced by generals during the American Civil War. During the war, nostalgia was deemed a frequent killer of soldiers, as these soldiers would grow increasingly & critically depressed in an "epidemic fashion" as they longed for their pre-war lives back -- missing their wives, children, and homes. [2]

"The Soldiers Dream Of Home." -- PA COLLECTION / ALAMY

Refer to the definition of nostalgia at the top of this piece. A wistful and excessive sentimental yearning for the past. While "death by nostalgia" isn't really a thing anymore, there are links that can reasonably be drawn between some cases of suicide and intense loops of nostalgia. One's longing and wistfulness for the past can come as a result to a persistent unhappiness with their present. To this point, I present this study from North Dakota State University [3]:

"...at medium and high levels of dysphoria, those in a nostalgia condition felt higher levels of perceived burdensomeness. -- Psychology Masters Theses, North Dakota State University

Kanye West's track 'Hey Mama' off Late Registration contains wistful & grateful tones about his mother & best friend, Donda. When Donda passed, Kanye performed this song live 3 months after.

Can We Talk About Good Nostalgia, Please?

Yeah, didn't mean to totally depress you there. There's a reason why nostalgia is more commonly associated with positivity! Like I stated before, nostalgia can bring great boosts of self-esteem through happy memories. Just think about it under the context of creativity! We are on The Recess Bell, after all.

We all create whatever we create through our experiences, drawing inspiration from our past moments & emotions. Being a creative means tapping into our inner child constantly. We all had to crawl before we could walk, and we all had to draw before we could design.

"Doodles I did on my school notebook" -- Reddit user u/s-_-j.

If you're an artist, it's hard to describe the feeling of finding some old artwork and traveling back in time to the moment where you created it.

If you're a movie buff, it's hard to describe the feeling of seeing an old movie ticket or an old trailer on YouTube that inspires those first-time viewing emotions in you again.

Jurassic Park (1993).

If you're a diehard sports fan, it's hard to describe the feeling of watching a replay your favorite team winning a classic game -- or even a championship, if you're that lucky.

The late Kobe Bryant celebrating the Los Angeles Lakers' Game 7 victory of the 2010 NBA Finals.

If you love your '90s R&B -- just to use an example -- that feeling of hearing that classic record through the speakers again? Priceless.

Quite a time.

However, it's also hard to describe the feelings of grief that can happen through nostalgia trips as well. If you've suffered the loss of a beloved family member (like the aforementioned Kanye), all of the emotions -- joy, sadness, glee, pain -- can hit us all at once like a mack truck, leaving us in a deep state of dissonance.

Nostalgia, for my money, is the most complicated emotion there is. As somebody that lives by the phrase, "too much of anything isn't good," I recognize that excessive trips to the nostalgia river can turn into rumination -- a fixation on past negative memories -- very quickly. That's what makes it tricky.

But, as with most mental health matters: balance and moderation is everything. The negative aspects of nostalgia can't be ignored or erased. But for my money, the positive aspects of the emotion can inspire so much good in us & for us.

CHILDREN: These are ancient video recording mechanisms called VHS tapes.

The memories of the past can be tricky waters to maneuver.

But for the sake of creativity, remember that it is a uniquely valuable thing to be able to use your past as powerful inspiration to propel you into a bountiful future.

Double-tap the photo & read more about 'mental-ity' below!

[1] Winter, Lisa. “Death by Nostalgia, 1688.” The Scientist Magazine®, 1 Feb. 2022, www.the-scientist.com/death-by-nostalgia-1688-69596.

[2] Bell, Danna. “Nostalgia during the Civil War: A Perplexing Condition among Soldiers | Teaching with the Library of Congress.” Blogs.loc.gov, 23 Aug. 2022, blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2022/08/nostalgia-during-the-civil-war-a-perplexing-condition-among-soldiers/.

[3] Sand, Elizabeth Claire. “The Examination of the Effect of Nostalgia on Risk Factors for Suicide.” Ndsu.edu, 2025, library.ndsu.edu/ir/items/93142aaf-b2b3-4846-9db1-62eb42a8a62e.

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