It is hard to be away from your family. Overcoming depression is not an easy move. Expat depression has been a serious topic among us whether how great or bad your situation is, there are easy steps you can consider to help prevent it. For those parents, a father or a mother who chose to leave their family back home or simply just a son or a daughter who wants to give their family a good life through things, and financial, being away with your loved ones is hard. Imagine in a place where no one would dare to talk to you because of language barriers, different cultures, and alone in a room? You were staring at their pictures you brought, stalking their Facebook posts to know their situation, but you can’t express your true feelings to them. You are alone. You need to sacrifice everything for them. This is for them. There are three steps to combat expat depression:
Take a time to walk
The best way to overcome depression is through walking. To take a meaningful walk by accepting your life as an expat, and traveling around the city. Familiarize the city you are in or take a short trip. Taking a short walk while seeing different places, and people could boost your feeling positively.
This will bring understanding your self more, the purpose why you are away with your family- not because you are nothing to them, but sacrificing all for them is the only reason why you strive hard. It will help your mind refresh.
Carving out space for yourself is one way to block out some time, to avoid exhaustion.
Find a Support System
In today’s generation, where technology can be seen anywhere, accessible to most people- connecting to friends, family, and even your own community. If you don’t have friends or support network on your new home, connecting to people from different parts of the world has been easy. This will be a great help to divert and focus on yourself by putting everything in perspective.
Connecting to the home twice a week through a video call, or a simple helo over the phone can establish a good relationship even you are a thousand miles away.
Embrace Acceptance
Focusing on the ‘before” rather than the ‘Now” can add up to depress ingredients. Instead of holding onto the past- the same activity you are doing, seeing your family every day from work, and spending time with your siblings every Saturday or Sunday may stop you from adapting to your new life.
Accept the changes, and accept your life. You need to check in yourself, do you have high expectations about your life? Are you scared of something?
Accepting your own flaws, your situation, and mentality could lead you to peace of mind.
