Individuality, experience, mindset, and family all play a role as potential causes of homesickness.
Aspects of Personality
The extent to which a person feels homesick depends on their features, according to studies. Those who have an “anxious ambivalent” attachment style are more prone to suffer from homesickness while they are away from their loved ones.
The likelihood of feeling homesick increases with negative personality traits like neuroticism. On the other hand, a person’s psychological and social well-being can be safeguarded by possessing positive personality traits including an openness to new experiences.
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The Variables of Experience
Young people who have never spent much time away from home are particularly vulnerable to the emotional repercussions of homesickness. They will have a sense of what to expect if they have already spent time away from their parents, such as at summer camp or a boarding school. Their history might serve as a buffer, easing their transition to their new home.
The Role of Attitude
The way you choose to look at a situation might influence the way your mind responds to it. The expectation of severe homesickness after leaving home might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you can convince yourself of the worst-case scenario, it will be easier to bounce back from your emotional lows, and that belief will serve as a protective element.
The Role of Family
A child’s autonomy is compromised when parents try to impose their will by enrolling them in a boarding school or sending them abroad to study. Consequently, they will miss their loved ones and their familiar surroundings more acutely than usual throughout the absence. Youngsters who are susceptible to homesickness can be helped if they are given time to work through their thoughts and feelings about a recent traumatic event.
How to Deal with Home Sickness
It’s Normal to Miss Your Home. Anyone can feel homesick at some point. Whether you’re an ex-pat or a freshman at university, being far from home can be difficult. Recognize and accept your pangs of homesickness. Do what you need to suppress your sentiments. Feel free to shed a tear if you so choose. Self-criticism about homesickness can undermine tactics for dealing with emotion.
Feelings of unease and worry are common at times of significant personal change. Students who miss home will go through a roller coaster of feelings before they adjust to their new environment. Some people will have trouble dropping off. There will be those who feel alone and abandoned. But to prevail against them, you must first learn to accept them. Getting over homesickness takes time. Putting up the work necessary to progress and readjust would be helpful.
Get a Life, Already!
Try to distract yourself from your feelings by engaging in some new activities. You feel like hiding away from the world and wallowing in your sorrow right now. However, you should not do it. It’s the wrong way to alleviate homesickness. Get out there and meet some new people in school. Join a book club, take a cooking class, or enroll in a new course to expand your horizons. These pursuits will lift your spirits and introduce you to others who can serve as a social support network.
Keeping yourself occupied can reduce the amount of time you spend pining for back home. Because of this, the settling-in process can be shortened. So, leave your room and go out and enjoy what the neighbourhood has to offer.
Maintain Contact With Your Relatives at Home
Whether through online platforms, video chat, or a simple phone call, you can always stay in touch with loved ones back home. The advancement of technology has provided us with numerous options for keeping in touch with friends and family. You can always give them a call once a week, or even twice a week. Still, it’s important to find a happy medium between homesickness and becoming used to your new surroundings. Find ways to reduce the number of calls you make.
Keeping in touch with a loved one regularly is wonderful, but you should also give yourself time to concentrate on your fresh start. If you call them when you’re feeling down, it may increase your sense of separation from them, which in turn may increase your homesickness.
The Power of Optimism
When you miss home, it’s natural to have some negative thoughts. You can overcome homesickness, but only if you train your mind to do so.
- Keeping a journal might help you concentrate on your thoughts.
- Keep a journal and record your daily thoughts. K
- Keeping a journal can be a useful tool for dealing with stressful situations.
Document your thoughts and feelings, as well as the things you’ve discovered and come to like about your new home. It’s best to give greater thought to the good points. Feelings of homesickness might be eased by thinking about happy memories.
Learn to Take Advantage of Your New Circumstances
The fact that we are not in our usual environment is the primary cause of our homesickness. Get to know your surroundings before you start working!
Discover the Unknown Territory
Experience the culture by eating at local restaurants, sightseeing at must-see attractions, and mingling with the locals. Find the closest grocery store, library, and coffee shops to your new house during this time of exploration. Making a list of all the things you want to do while you’re visiting your new nation is a great way to have fun and stay motivated.
Involvement in the community also provides a forum for learning about and exchanging ideas with other individuals who can broaden your perspective. Join some student groups or other social events to meet others with similar interests as you. When moving to a new area, it’s helpful to get out and meet people.
Hold on to Some Memories
Hold onto home comforts like a soft toy, a photo of loved ones, or a blanket. It may help ease your mind as you readjust. The transition to a new environment might be made easier by furnishing your room with nostalgic artifacts that remind you of home. You may make the change easier on yourself by keeping these items in your home. Stop trying so hard to make your apartment feel like home and start welcoming new experiences instead.
Avoid Using Any Online Social Networks
When you’re far from home, you check in on social media to see what’s happening back home. You shouldn’t let yourself be left in the dark about what’s going on at home. However, it may be counterproductive to frequently check for updates.
The vast majority of us rely on these sites to maintain long-distance relationships. But if you’re continuously engaging with these sites, you’ll have a hard time separating yourself from the things back home that are making you homesick. It might make you miss home even more, which would be terrible.
Communicate With Others
Get in touch with someone you can chat with about how you’re feeling. Someone who can listen patiently as you vent about how homesick you are can be anyone from a friend to a fellow student to a therapist or counsellor or even a partner. You need someone to talk to when you’re feeling down and depressed so that you can release some of the pent-up emotion. A healthy method to deal with emotional pain is to talk it out with someone you trust.
Pay Attention to Yourself
Time for yourself should be scheduled. Locate a comfortable spot in your room whereby you can stretch out flat and get some much-needed shut-eye to recharge your batteries. Now that you’re far from home and the individuals who care about you, you’ll have to take responsibility for yourself on your own. Get plenty of shut-eye, figure out what works for you emotionally, and get moving. Avoid letting homesickness bring you down.
Consequences of Missing Home
Feelings of homesickness can have a wide-ranging, harmful impact on our mental health. You’re stuck in a negative thought cycle regarding your new home because you can’t stop thinking about your old one. The most common symptoms are depression and anxiety, but if left untreated, psychosomatic illnesses may develop. Being homesick can cause emotional distress that disrupts a person’s normal sleeping routine. Sleep problems can be exacerbated by the stress and disruption brought on by uprooting and starting over in a new place
Avoiding Homesickness: A Guide
Anxiety about being away from one’s usual environment and support system can have a profound impact on one’s ability to operate normally. Pediatricians and other medical practitioners have proposed activities that might be done to mitigate the distress associated with homesickness. These suggestions may be especially helpful if the separation is intentional, as in the case of summer camp or boarding school.
Construct a new dwelling for yourself
Make your new home feel like a true reflection of who you are. You’re not required to make it appear like your house, but you should put the furnishings where it makes you most at ease. You’ll be there for a while, so you might as well make yourself at home there. Create a warm and secure environment in your room.
Establish a system
You should prepare yourself for the fact that the initial few weeks are going to be the darkest. Time-table-friendly activities should be prioritised as you get ready. As a bonus, this can help you feel like you have some say in the future.
Get involved
Join a group whose members’ interests are similar to your own. If you’re feeling homesick, joining a club can offer you something to do and introduce you to new people.
Keep yourself safe
Embrace the freedom and independence that comes with being on your own. At this point, you have complete freedom of action and choice.
Get out there and mingle
Some people struggle with this because they dislike making small chats or being in the company of strangers. If you plan on living in a hostel or a flat with other people, you’ll need to practise getting along with others. Some of them are experiencing homesickness and are in a similar situation to you; you must know this. Feelings of homesickness may be alleviated by conversation.
Takeaways
When you’re away from the place you call home, it’s natural to feel homesick. Moving to a brand-new, foreign location might be an exciting adventure. Still, it’s normal to experience a mixture of feelings of isolation, sorrow, and worry at the prospect of parting ways with the people you care about.
Feelings of homesickness are normal, and it takes time and effort to overcome them. But if you’re still feeling like you need some assistance, you can always schedule an appointment with Therapy Now Online. They have a staff of counsellors and mental health experts that are qualified to handle problems of this nature. Their counselling services allow you to set up a consultation at your convenience. Visit their page to learn more about their online services.