How to deal with drinking nostalgia in recovery

Nostalgia is an intense, bittersweet emotion, linked as much to loss as it is to fond recollections. Its roots are in the Greek words for ‘homecoming’ and ‘pain’, meaning that nostalgia represents a sort of homesickness – a longing for something that we can no longer have. Recovering from alcohol addiction means drinking is something we can no longer experience – and nostalgia is a natural and common response to this.

Unsurprisingly, studies show that drinking nostalgia during recovery from alcoholism is associated with a higher risk of relapse. This means the ways that you experience nostalgia, frame it, and respond to it can have a significant effect on the course of your recovery.

How alcohol brands use nostalgia

Nostalgia isn’t just something that naturally arises when recalling previous experiences – it’s a powerful force that brands try to capture to market products.

Alcohol brands have been especially adept at tapping into nostalgia to sell their drinks, using thorough market research to reveal their potential consumer’s nostalgic triggers. Spotify reports that modern consumers are more likely to order alcoholic drinks online when listening to nostalgic playlists of 90s hits – and brands have leveraged this with dreamy, 90s-inspired imagery and nostalgia-based marketing campaigns.

Multinational companies with massive budgets know the power of nostalgia – which shows that it’s a force to be reckoned with. So, if you find yourself reminiscing about the ‘good’ times you spent drinking, it’s time to make a plan.

Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be

Were those good times really that good? You may be suffering from ‘rosy retrospection’.

Studies have found a marked bias in people’s emotional recall of events – it is usually more positive than the actual experience itself.

Scientists examined people’s expectations of, experience of, and recollections of enjoyable personal events – things like holidays, bike rides and times with friends. They found that both the expectations of these events and recollections about them were more positive than how people actually experienced them. Rose-tinted glasses are real.

Add cravings to the mix, and it’s easy to see how you can start to wistfully recall past drinking events from your time struggling with alcoholism that weren’t as fun as you remember.

Relapse prevention plan

Reminiscing about drinking is a situation that your relapse prevention plan was designed to counteract.

A solid relapse prevention plan is the cornerstone of your long-term recovery plans. Being in recovery means moving forward, and to move forward you need a plan.

Your relapse prevention plan is a document that you can return to when drinking nostalgia becomes overwhelming. It should summarise your goals, how you will manage your time, your triggers, what you plan to do to overcome them, and ways of spotting and preventing relapse. Reminiscing about drinking is an indication that you need to remind yourself of why you quit – returning to your plan can help you to do this.

Shift the focus of your nostalgia

Abstaining from alcohol doesn’t just mean staying away from booze – it’s also a shift in identity. Drinking used to be a huge part of your life, but now you’re an ex-drinker. This transition can potentially trigger feelings of disconnection and loss of the past – which can, in turn, trigger painful episodes of nostalgia.

What you’re nostalgic about has an effect on your behaviour. If you’re feeling nostalgic about a time when you were healthier or stronger, you feel motivated to recapture that. Studies have found that people with addiction issues who are encouraged to recall their pre-addiction selves are more motivated to try to reclaim their self and behavioural patterns from when they weren’t addicted to alcohol.

If you find yourself fondly recalling times you drank, push past it and go back further. Try to remember your pre-addiction self or times you were abstinent. This alters the course of the nostalgia, targeting a time you do actually want to recapture.

This process has been attempted as a novel form of treatment in addiction recovery – and while the sample size was small, researchers saw positive results.

Researchers attempted to induce nostalgia in people with alcohol addiction – by telling them that addiction had fundamentally changed them in a way that would make them feel nostalgic for their true selves. They found that this motivated more attempts to quit. While the study didn’t record any long-term results for this method, this could be a valuable tool to use in a moment of intense cravings to shore up the desire to continue with sobriety.

Be realistic

A simple way to handle bouts of nostalgia is to soberly reflect on the times you’re missing and be truly honest with yourself – they were not as good as you’re remembering.

The impact on your mental health, your relationships, and your ability to achieve your goals were all severely impaired – otherwise, you would not have made the decision to enter recovery and abstain from alcohol. You aren’t remembering the hangovers, arguments, missed responsibilities, blackouts and ill-health.

Reflect honestly on the reasons you decided to quit drinking. These will be a mix of positive and negative reasons – you will have stopped because you wanted to achieve more from your life, but you will also have stopped to avoid the many and varied negative effects of excessive alcohol consumption. Remember why you decided to stop and get alcohol help – it wasn’t because drinking was working well for you. By sticking to your recovery plans, you can get through this – and create new memories and new opportunities for nostalgia in the future.