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Missing home? Take this insightful quiz and uncover valuable tips for a remedy to homesickness and to never again feel homesick.
Homesickness is characterized by the feeling of complex interplay, which includes longing, grief, nostalgia, and the sensation of separation from familiar and familial surroundings. These feelings can pile up over time, impacting an individual's mental health and ability to focus on his task.
When you are taken by the feeling deeply, you tend to have anxiety, melancholy, loneliness, and a low sense of self-esteem. These psychological obstacles disrupt daily functioning and cause impairment of the ability to adjust to a new situation.
It denotes a period of adjustment it is not a sickness. "It could be about missing home, but it's also about not yet feeling comfortable where you are,"
This is also a grief reaction, comparable to losing a loved one, except that the person is grieving the loss of a familiar location. There is a desire and longing for the familiar.
Feeling homesick has been connected with
Insomnia,
Appetite issues, and
Difficulty in concentrating.
It is an extremely painful condition.
A person can have a less-than-ideal home life, possibly dealing with poverty, violence, or other difficulties, but feel homesick after visiting a beautiful, serene college campus.
Symptoms of Getting Homesick
Common emotional symptoms: | Common physical symptoms: |
| Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much
|
How Homesickness Affecting You
People experience feeling homesick in different ways. Some people may have minor melancholy that passes quickly. Others may endure more severe anxiety or despair due to extreme attachment towards their home and culture and some mental disturbance.
This can affect many aspects of a person's life, including their relationships and capacity to function at work. In some cases, people may isolate themselves and resort to harmful coping techniques such as alcohol, drugs, or gambling. They try to get relief from the grief to avoid the piercing from needles they opt to suffer the disease.
Children and teenagers experience homesickness in different ways than adults. Children and teenagers may show negative emotions by acting out, throwing temper tantrums, or having academic issues. Children tend to feel homesick since they frequently have less control over a change, such as a move. As a result, individuals may have feelings of powerlessness and difficulty adjusting.
Each age group of people will have different kinds of suffering patterns that will be concerned depending on their mental status and peer group.
QUIZ
To confirm if you are feeling homesick, answer the questions below honestly:
1. Do you often find yourself longing for home?
- A. Never
- B. Sometimes
- C. Often
- D. Always
2. Do you feel a sense of sadness or loneliness when you think about home?
- A. Never
- B. Sometimes
- C. Often
- D. Always
3. Do you have difficulty concentrating on tasks because you're thinking about home?
- A. Never
- B. Sometimes
- C. Often
- D. Always
4. Do you feel anxious or depressed when you're away from home?
- A. Never
- B. Sometimes
- C. Often
- D. Always
5. Do you have trouble sleeping because you miss the familiarity of home?
- A. Never
- B. Sometimes
- C. Often
- D. Always
If you answered 'Often' or 'Always' to most of these questions, you are experiencing homesickness.
Remember, it is completely normal to miss home, especially when you are in a new environment. If these feelings persist or cause distress, consider seeking support from friends, family, or a mental health professional.
Tips to Never Feel Homesick Again
1. Know That Your Feelings Are Normal
The transition and adaptability issues that every human encounter sets turmoil in their mental state as adapting to new conditions and situations at first is quite uncomfortable as it moves you out of your comfort zone, so even if you find your other partners being happy in this transition it’s not that they won’t express even if they feel the same but silently they will be adopting to the situation hence it is normal for you…
2. Find a Positive Outlet for Your Feelings
The cause or purpose you are being selected for this transition is for your well-being remember always that you have been set on an expedition to learn certain new things and knowledge that is not available in your comfort zone and just remember why you are here not to suffer but to heal.
3. Explore Your New Area and Surroundings
Let it be your workplace or your residing place try to explore the surrounding environment, people and culture to adapt yourself and find out the places where you reside or work explore alone or along with your new friends but make a note that you explore to know your surroundings.
4. Keep an Artefact That Reminds You of Home
A family photograph or a gift from your loved ones, to feel connected with them so that it reminds you of them all the time. Make sure that this one item remembers your entire home and family and the purpose of why you left the home.
5. Keep Old Memories & Establish New Ones
Let it be a memory, a moment cherish it every day and try to recreate it with the new friends out there you may get the same friends having the same old image vibe so you won’t forget
6. Take Care of Your Health
Have a strict routine towards your health care like morning walks, jogging, gym so that it controls cortisol levels in your blood and has a mark on what you consume, hear, and see because whatever goes inside you may be food, vision, speech or thought has a direct impact on your mental status.
7. Find Ways to Stay Connected
Do video calls and virtual meetings to be more realistic and sensational and connected from heart to your loved ones hence, it helps you to GET RELIEF from the symptoms if you are suffering and if you stay nearby by trying to give a visit to your home town on consecutive weekends so that it helps you to get relief from the symptoms gradually.
Written by Darshan R
Edited by Virginia Helzainka
Reference:
IPC. (2023, July 5). The Psychology of Homesickness: Understanding the Impact on Mental Well-being. https://theinternationalpsychologyclinic.com/the-psychology-of-homesickness-understanding-the-impact-on-mental-well-being/
Annabel. (n.d.). Dealing with homesickness | the inside word at the University of Auckland. https://www.theinsideword.ac.nz/2022/07/dealing-with-homesickness/
Bologna, C. (2018, June 27). What happens to your mind and body when you feel homesick? HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-happens-mind-body-homesick_n_5b201ebde4b09d7a3d77eee1