Sunday, March 29, 2015

5 Ways to deal with Reverse Homesickness

Everyone knows the feeling of being homesick, longing for home, for a place where you feel comfortable and at ease. People feel sorry for you, try to comfort you and eventually send you home.

However reserve homesickness is something that gets laughed about. People keep on telling you that you just need another holiday while in fact you feel lost, not at home in a place other people tell you is your home. That combined with an extreme longing for in my case Korea caused me a serious depression.

A depression that would only go away when I was back in Korea and would come back as soon as I came back home.

However I finally feel that I have overcome this feeling of sadness, I still know and feel that I don’t belong here in the Netherlands but I can deal with it now. And here are 5 tips how you can too.

Go sightseeing; Yes, in your own town. Go on adventures, try new bars, new restaurants, new stores see your place not as a town where you return to your same old boring life, see it as a new adventure.

Get active; By exercising your body releases pheromones which make you feel happy, even if you hate exercising, find something you like, such as walking, dancing around the house, riding your bicycle.

Meet Friends; Whenever I feel extremely homesick I just want to sleep all day and cry in a corner. This is not a solution to the problem. Go out, meet your friends, take you friends to said new bars and talk about past memories. Laugh together and make plans for new adventures.

Be Sad;  There is nothing wrong with crying your eyes out every once in a while. There is nothing wrong with wanting to go back to that time and place where you are happiest. Just make sure you don’t get stuck in the moment and if you are really slowly rolling into a depression seek help!

Go back; That doesn’t mean you have to go back tomorrow. No, just make plans. Think about it; talk about it. Tell your family how you feel about it and your absolute need to go back. Ease your family and friends back into the idea of you going back for a longer and longer.

Did you guys ever suffer from reserve homesickness? What did you battle this?

Love, Wietske

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