Nostalgia, Memory, Dementia

Why do babies cry? They’ve been fed, changed, well rested, and loved. What else could they possibly want? Perhaps they are just sad. Perhaps they are dwelling on a memory that brings them sadness. Why else would they cry for no reason? That time when the mother left to go sleep in her own room at night could have brought feelings of abandonment.

As infants get older and become toddlers, more reasoning comes to the tears. Children live in the present and don’t dwell much in the past. Remembering is still very important for them, remembering how to ride a bike or tie shoes, for example. Nostalgia and sad memories rarely affect their little lives.

I’m peeling the glow-in-the-dark ceiling stars off my ceiling. As I do this, I can’t help remembering what I felt when I put them up. I can remember it so clearly, and the exact thought process in my head at the time. I can see a younger version of me standing on a chair, reaching small hands up to place the stars. These are going to be hard to peel off when I move out, I had thought. Just like that, younger me is replaced by older me, and I’m back in the present. I no longer have the small hands, and I don’t need to stand on a chair. I had thought the day would never come where I would need to tear down the decoration in my room. I throw the old stickers in the trash, but keep the memory with me.

Nostalgia is a sentimental yearning for something in the past that can’t be relived. A common misconception with nostalgia is that those who are excessively nostalgic are depressed. Dr. Constantine Sedikides, who was interviewed for the New York Simes, says, “Nostalgia made me feel that my life had roots and continuity. It made me feel good about myself and my relationships. It provided a texture to my life and gave me strength to move forward.” (Tierney) Dr. Sedikides said he was explaining to a colleague his constant bouts of nostalgia, and his colleague diagnosed him with depression, as he was constantly living in the past.

After that encounter in 1999, Dr. Sedikides went on a decade long journey to study the effects of nostalgia. What he found was that Nostalgia can combat loneliness, boredom, and anxiety. It can make people more generous to strangers and couples “feel closer and look happier” when sharing memories. In a cold room or day, nostalgia can literally make a person feel warmer. (Tierney) In reality, it also has a bad side. It’s a “bittersweet emotion.” As a whole, nostalgia makes life seem more meaningful, death less frightening, and people generally become more optimistic and inspired for the future.

Sometimes it’s hard to decide what to keep and what to discard. Our memories are storage room where we bag up memories and sort them by importance. A plastic garbage bag is rapidly filling with memories that have been deemed as unimportant now. Once what had so much value is now not worthy enough to be taken into the future. Another garbage bag contains memories for donating. But what good are they for other people? They won’t have the same affect on other people as they do to me. They won’t remember.

There are random papers with scribbles, old diaries, notebooks filled with composition. Nobody will want these. I can’t donate them, so should I just throw them away? What can I consolidate? What memories do I not need?

I decide I need them all. I carefully place every paper in a cardboard box to take with me... I would not part with a single one.

Our memories do not just remind us of the past. They also prepare us for the future. Donna Rose Addis of The University of Auckland says, “when imagining future events, the brain network that is active is strikingly similar to the network that is activated by remembering our past. This similarity suggests that when imagining, we draw on many of the same processes required when we remember as well as recalling details from memory to aid in the imagination process.” This means that when we plan for the future, we are remembering to remember. It’s all a part of the same process.

Through her research, Addis found that the hippocampus—the brain structure associated with memory—is used for more than memory. It also plays a role in perceiving and visualizing, processing language, keeping information, moving around our environment, being creative, and imagining our future. (Lmunoz)

One of the wheels on the grocery cart wobbles. I try to ignore it as I scan the shelves in the home decor area. I seek out the clearance balloons; remembering I have a budget. I pick out black and white items for the bathroom, cozier items for the bedroom, and classical retro items for the main room and kitchen. Every item I pass tingles with potential. They scream, “Buy me! You’ll make wonderful memories with me!”

Everything is new, and nothing has any nostalgic memory behind it. But one day they will.

What if you could no longer control whether you remembered or not? What if your brain deteriorates, and all your wonderful memories disappear? Imagine one day not being able to remember who you are, or who your loved ones are. With age, the issue of memory loss becomes greater.

The greatest risk factor for any illness is increasing in age. The thing many elderly experience is a form of dementia or Alzheimer’s. Generally, those with Alzheimer’s experience memory loss and the loss of cognitive abilities needed to complete daily activities. Alzheimer's is so common that it is responsible for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. The disease worsens with age, and there is currently no cure. It can happen to you or to a loved one, so it’s important to recognize the warning signs. Cherish the memories you have while you have them. (Alzheimers disease & Dementia)

The baby continues to cry. It could just be suffering from colic. After all, what sufferable memories could it have experienced so far? It’s time alive so far has been short, and it does not have many memories yet. It has not yet learned to remember. But soon it will. Soon it will be walking and talking and existing just like me and everyone else.

Works cited:

Tierney, John. “What Is Nostalgia Good For? Quite a Bit, Research Shows.” The New York Times, 8 July 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/science/what-is-nostalgia-good-for-quite-a-bit-research-shows.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0#h[SENAft,1].

“Nostalgia.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster,www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nostalgia. Accessed 6 Apr. 2017.

“Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia.” Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Association, Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp.

Lmunoz. “CNS Home.” Cognitive Neuroscience Society, The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16 Mar. 2015, www.cogneurosociety.org/memory_addis_yia/.