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What is Culture Shock

20 Culture Shock Symptoms Every Expat Should Know

March 3, 2019 by familymoveabroad

Culture shock affects every expat at some point. Even if your move abroad is purely out of desire. Preparedness is key. Recognizing the emotional, social and physical symptoms of culture shock — along with tools to cope — will ease your transition and set you up for success in your new foreign home. Emotional symptoms of culture shock make it hard to cope

Emotional Symptoms of Culture Shock

  1. Feelings of nostalgia and sadness for your country of origin. Missing family, friends and activities you used to do.
  2. Loneliness, isolation and a sense of “not belonging” in your new country.
  3. Feelings of doubt, disappointment, guilt or regret at the challenges of living abroad.
  4. Constant thoughts of wanting to go back to your home country.  
  5. Fear, anxiety and nervousness when facing the unknown.
  6. Inability to be present. To enjoy new situations and new experiences.
  7. Feeling negative about the future.
  8. Constant comparison of the lifestyle and circumstances between your home country and your new country.

Physical symptoms of Culture Shock

Culture shock may manifest itself through physical symptoms

  1. Loss of energy, physical tiredness, fatigue.
  2. Change in sleep patterns — insomnia, narcolepsy, nightmares.  
  3. Shift in eating habits — eating disorders, eating in excess or loss of appetite.
  4. Pain in one or several parts of the body with no obvious physical cause.
  5. Hair loss or skin ailments.
  6. Gastrointestinal disorders.
  7. Development of new allergies

Social symptoms of Culture Shock

  1. Difficulty communicating due to a language barrier.Culture shock can make you feel isolated and alone
  2. Challenges making friends and getting to know people.
  3. Emergence or increased shyness and insecurity in social settings and interpersonal encounters.
  4. Inability to understand cultural and social differences.
  5. Difficulties integrating that result in further loneliness and isolation

How These Symptoms Might Appear in Everyday Life

Clearly culture shock affects multiple areas of your well being. Further, challenges in one area may interact and amplify difficulties in others. 
    • You miss friends, family and activities you used to do before you moved.
    • That sadness keeps you from exploring activities in your new country.
    • Failure to engage in enjoyable pastimes makes it difficult to form new friendships.
    • The lack of friends starts to isolate you socially.
    • This isolation feeds your sense of loneliness and feeling like “you don’t belong here.”
    • Inner turmoil increases, keeping you awake at night.
    • Your increasing fatigue aggravates your nervousness, causing appetite loss.
    • The stress on your body diminishes energy further.
    • This physical depletion makes you less able to invest yourself socially.
    • Loneliness increases even more.
    • You become even more convinced “you don’t belong here.” 
  • You obsess even more about the life you had before your move.

Tools to Help You Cope

Clearly, culture shock can be painfully intense. And serious. Untreated, symptoms can degrade into depression, anxiety or other health problems. Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t move abroad! The opportunities for self-discovery that comes from living in a foreign country are truly one of a kind. The important thing to remember is these kinds of symptoms are a completely normal part of your adaptation process. It’s when they persist that they become a problem.  Preparedness is key. Even before you move,  there are many things you can to do cope with culture shock.  With awareness — and perhaps a bit of professional help — culture shock will be nothing more than a temporary component of a fantastic foreign adventure.
Irene Paola Garza Del Valle ~ Integrative Psychotherapy ~ Specializing in expats and multicultural couples and families
Born and raised in Mexico, I now live in Seville, Spain. I have counseled people from 11 countries and 5 continents both in person and virtually.

mentesequilibrio.wixsite.com/mentesenequilibrio ~ www.facebook.com/mentesenequilibrio ~ www.youtube.com/channel/UCYZuuVPNlY3BjICCiyPplmA

Filed Under: Culture Shock, Expat Family Life, Expat Tips Tagged With: Can you overcome culture shock, How culture shock effects, How does culture shock affect an individual, How to handle culture shock, Symptoms of Culture Shock, What does culture shock feel like, What is Culture Shock

How to Cope with Culture Shock – An Expert’s Guide

February 18, 2019 by familymoveabroad

When culture shock takes hold, the word can feel like a lonely place

Moving to a foreign country may be one of the greatest adventures you ever pursue. Yet the excitement and planning of your international adventure can mask a much darker side of your move abroad — the emotional toll of culture shock.

What is culture shock and why does it occur?

Culture shock refers to the confusion and distress you feel when you’re suddenly exposed to a new, strange, or foreign culture. It further encompasses the feelings of loss and grief for the people, places and activities you love and miss from the culture left behind.

Who experiences culture shock and how does it affect you?

All expats eventually feel sadness over losing the life they had before — even if the move abroad was very much desired.

Specific symptoms may present themselves emotionally, socially and physically. Your individual experience of these symptoms will be unique and specific to you.

Personality differences, life history and the circumstances behind your move all play a role in your transition process.

What can you do to overcome culture shock?

Successful adaptation demands you process the loss you’re experiencing before it degrades to anxiety, depression or other mental health problems.

Balance is key. The aim is not to detach from your former culture, nor forget about loved ones and favorite places you’ve left behind. Rather, you integrate who you were before with the new you opened up by your foreign experiences.

Express your emotions

Talking about the negative emotions you’re experiencing is key to releasing them. Express everything you are feeling — the nostalgia, the sadness, the disappointment and the fear.

If relying on a friend or family member makes you feel too vulnerable, seek out a qualified therapist.

The loneliness of culture shock can isolate you socially

Get to know new people

Developing relationships in your new country is critical. Find ways to pursue activities you enjoyed in your former life to start cultivating new social circles.

Consider seeking out expat communities in your area. Connecting with others from your home country might make you feel less alone, and those individuals will likely understand what you’re going through.

Create a positive outlook

When feeling down, try to remember your strengths and the reasons you made the decision to move abroad.

Focus on the benefits of your new place of residence — the things you can do in your new country that you maybe can’t at home. Look for similarities between the old life and the new so that you’re not obsessing about the differences.

Turn uniqueness into opportunity

Sometimes being a foreigner has its advantages. Is there a skill you have that might open up a job opportunity? A business idea you can bring from your home culture that locals might be interested in?

Finding ways to offer something to your new community will help you feel better about being there and open doors to new personal connections.

Focus on the present

Invest your time and thoughts into making a life in the place where you are now. It’s one thing to acknowledge what you love and miss about your home country. It’s another to obsess over what you no longer have.

Pursue the sports and recreational activities you enjoyed before. Enroll in a gym. Go for a run. Create a routine for yourself.

Blend the things that make you “you,” while mixing in a few cultural events or opportunities unique to your new home.

Culture shock symptoms and tips how to cope.

Remember all your experiences add up in life

A foreign relocation is a huge step outside your comfort zone. Stepping out of your comfort zone is an opportunity to grow. Living in a foreign country presents many opportunities to learn something new, to expand your perspective about life, to see the world through new eyes.

The emotions you’re experiencing are an opportunity for you to realize you are stronger, more resilient and more capable than you thought you were. Learn to reframe hardships into learning experiences. Shifting perspectives will help you take pride in yourself for what you’re accomplishing.

Prevention

Culture shock can’t necessarily be avoided, but you can prepare yourself and your family members for the potential sadness to come. Consciously being clear with yourself about you’re leaving behind before you actually leave will help you more quickly process the loss and accept the new situation.

Create realistic expectations about what you expect to do in your new country. Think about things that will be different that you expect to enjoy, but also take time to note the things you know you’ll miss.

Family, friends, favorite foods, hobbies or sports that won’t be available… Often just the awareness of the sadness and symptoms of culture shock is enough to help ease through the changes.

Do any of your family members already struggle with mental health issues like depression or anxiety? Find a counselor immediately on arrival, or even consider starting therapy before you go. The whole journey will feel that much more supported.

When to seek professional support

The experience of some or all of the symptoms of cultural adaption at some point in your transition is completely normal. But grief from culture shock left untreated can lead to more severe emotional states such as depression or anxiety.

If you find yourself with increasingly worsening symptoms that persist for more than two months, you should seek out help. A qualified therapist will work with you to create solutions and strategies to deal with your feelings and come to a place of acceptance and happiness in your new life.

Expat and Psychologist Irene Paola Garza Del Valle understands culture shock personally and professionally.

Irene Paola Garza Del Valle ~ Integrative Psychotherapy ~ Specializing in expats and multicultural couples and families.

Born and raised in Mexico and now living in Seville, Spain, I have counseled people from 11 countries and 5 continents both in person and virtually. I want people to know you will stop feeling afraid when you realize the answers lie inside you. It doesn’t matter where you are living or where you are from. Your home, your safe place, is yourself.

 Get in touch with Irene at mentesequilibrio.wixsite.com/mentesenequilibrio ~ www.facebook.com/mentesenequilibrio ~ www.youtube.com/channel/UCYZuuVPNlY3BjICCiyPplmA

 

 

Filed Under: Culture Shock, Expat Family Life, Expat Tips Tagged With: Culture Shock Help, Effects of Culture Shock, How to Cope with Culture Shock, What is Culture Shock, Why does culture shock happen

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