Nostaligia - It's impact on mental health!!

 

Is nostalgia a neurological disorder or it is just a normal feeling or attachment with our past?

 

Sometimes somethings just remind us of the past. Things we used to be very attached in our past for instance music, a certain sound, event, etc. and then suddenly something reminds us of that attachment and we get a pleasure of enjoying that moment again. Sometimes it's pleasure and for some bad events in past, it becomes a cause of sorrow or even anxiety or depression. 

The sentiments you have about your past that gives you a pleasure in your present is called nostalgia.

Before the 17th century nostalgia was referred to as a neurological disorder. The word is combination of ancient Greek, "Nosos" means returning to home or native land and algos referred as pain or suffering. The reason behind it was that the soldiers longing to go to home, always having an urge to meet their families and remembering them was referred to as a bad sign of nostalgia. At that time many psychologists attributed that it is a sign of severe depression if someone is living in the past. 

 

Well, always living in a past can be red flag of depression but sometimes having an affectionate feeling for your past, Sharing or reliving your past is a healthy lifestyle. As after 19th and 20th century after many researches, researchers found that nostalgia is not a neurological disorder, but in fact it is a good way to deal with loneliness, boredom and anxiety. It was found that many almost everyone has this sentimentality with some events in past. While remembering about the good events and attachments in the past, one feels a pleasure and gives a feeling of having a continuity in life, reminding him/her of his/her roots. It gives a texture to life and strength to move on. It gives a will that the life had good events the problems were resolved so it gives a hope that everything can be solved. In fact, while sharing your nostalgic memories gives a kind of relief and attachments to others. Couples who share their thoughts and memories of their past tend to become closer. When you share your experiences with others, the other person understands you better and the bonding becomes more stronger eventually. It reduces stress and feeling of loneliness.

Experimenting if it’s true or not

To test whether it's true or not some researchers did a very interesting experiment. They made some people read about a very deadly disaster to study their behavior. Expectedly they were worried about the victims of disaster and their feeling of being alone so they became more nostalgic. The experiment was a success as they practiced some nostalgic activities or exercises and then they felt less depressed.

Memories can be also a mix of sorrow and joy

These exercises are not always Joyous and stress relieving. Sometimes some memories are not always content. Sometimes they are mix of both the sorrow and joy. We remember the good parts, good time and events spent with a particular person but when we remember that the particular person in no longer with you, it becomes painful to remember. As long as you face the truth and share more good side of your nostalgic attachment, nostalgia remains a healthy activity. But when you keep remembering and not sharing the bad sides of your past for example any trauma, any person you lost, or sometimes people overthink and try to feel and bring back the older themselves that doesn't feel any more in you as you evolve day by day, then nostalgia becomes a problem. This sense of loss of others or yourself causes anxiety and mental illness. But according to researches nostalgia is not the only or main cause of anxiety in such rare cases, there are many other factors involved for example any genetical disorder, any other mental or neurological disorder that has nothing to do with nostalgia.

The positive results of nostalgic exercises are way more than the negative ones that have been seen very rarely. And it is also not clear that the negative outcomes are even the result of nostalgia or not.

This means that we cannot relate nostalgia to home sickness as in early centuries it used to be referred as. In fact, it is a healthy activity to get a relief from stress or something disturbing you. But indulging too much in your past is also not good as you enjoy less in your present or your mental health gets affected if you keep remembering about past unhealthy events. So, conclusively Nostalgia is not a neurological disorder but if practiced occasionally in appropriate manner it can become a healthy activity to get rid of daily stress.

ICC T20 World Cup and Mental Health 

When we hear about cricket world cup, we know that there will be chaos everywhere during the world cup. The true fans of cricket will enjoy the matches and will watch their favorite players, some people will just watch it with their family and will be happy if their country wins or will not bother if they lose they don’t have much interest in sports anyway. Then comes the most strong and dangerous type of audience “Seasonal Fans”. They don’t know what are the rules and policies of game, which player is good at what and other technicalities of game. They just have this enormous amount of passion towards the game and they want their country to win the game at all costs. Now these are the fans that will cheer for the players and will support them only if they play good in that particular match, but will not spare them if they make a tiny mistake during the match. They will not consider other factors like the pitch condition, the player’s strength and weakness, the player’s history. The only thing that matters to them is if they perform well enough so that our country wins the match.

These are the fans that mostly affect the players’ mental health. Dealing with them is tough because they will burst in anger on you if you lose the game, especially if it is in South Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. These countries literally live on these moments of happiness. They will have extreme celebrations if their country wins and unfortunately will be extremely upset if they lose.

High Pressure Matches and their effect on the Cricketers 

These scenarios probably occur during high pressure matches or the matches for whom the fans anticipate for very long such as matches between India-Pakistan and England-Australia. In these matches where both countries have a rivalry between them, can be cultural or purely cricket based, the pressure is very high. Every player has to perform well because it’s more than just a game for the fans. It’s about their feelings attached with this whole situation. So the players feel burdened with the expectations from them, even a tiny mistake can cost them the whole match.

Such case can be seen in ICC T20 World Cup 2021, when talking about the match between India-Pakistan, India lost the match by 10 wickets and this loss was very upsetting for Indian fans and on the other side it was like a festival for Pakistani fans. But some extreme “Seasonal Fans” of India took this loss to heart and literally started threatening the Muslim Cricketer of Team India, Mohammad Shami, and accused him of being a traitor and he intentionally gave the match to Pakistan. They showed a great amount of Islam phobia towards the player that the Captain of Team India came to his defense.

After his statement the fans diverted their anger to Virat Kohli and some of them went so low that they started giving threats to his 10 months old daughter.

These kinds of incidents can affect the mental health of cricketers a great amount as they have to deal with the match’s pressure as well as their personal life. So these games also affect their personal life, which also plays a huge part on their mental health.

How should we deal with these issues

We as fans should not be take these wins and losses to their personal life. Their personal life, family, friends, religion and race have nothing to do with the games they play so we should support them and criticize them in our limits and leaving out their personal life.

And we also should not get grumpy with each other over such games for example if you’re friends with rival team, then you should just leave these to the game and move on. As we have seen very great examples of sportsmanship set by the players, we should also follow them and just take it as a game.