Three ways to guard against reverse culture shock as an expat

Your old home might not look like this, which goes some way to explaining the phenomenon of reverse culture shock.

We all know that the post-holiday blues crash-landing is often softened by the return to home comforts. Be it a good cup of tea, your local pub, or even just the smells and sounds of the nearby park, coming home after an extended time away can feel like a steady return to “normality”.

The danger for expats who live in another country is that their “normality” shape-shifts, meaning a return “home” can be just as much of a culture shock as the initial move overseas was.

Brits who have lived in Spain for many years can attest to this phenomenon. For many, a move overseas is the first time that they have been outside of the UK for longer than three weeks at a time – and this can be disconcerting for some.

So if you’re worried about reverse culture shock, take these three easy steps to guard against it and ensure that you feel at home in two places, rather than none…

1. Ditch the superiority complex

This is by no means something that will strike everybody, but nurturing a sense of pride in one’s decision to make a success of life overseas is natural. After all, you left your comfort zone, your home, your friends, probably close family and possibly a good job, to start a new life in a new country. That is not easy, and should be applauded.

However, no matter how fun it might feel to post pictures of glorious blue skies and stunning beaches on Facebook, continuing these behaviours in real life once home will win you few friends, and may add to a sense of isolation. Instead, try to be excited to be back, even as a weekend visitor, and talk humbly about your new life: it will help keep the bonds strong between the old and the new.

2. Talk about and recognise how you’ve changed

Whether you are simply visiting home on holiday, or are actually moving back for good, it pays to talk to both new and old friends about the ways in which you have changed. The most obvious change will be a knowledge of another culture, and possibly language. This will have equipped you with an innate confidence that you maybe didn’t possess, at least not obviously, before.

It is important to recognise this change in yourself because it is likely to mean you yearn for new and different stimuli and interests once back home. Don’t fancy going back to the old local for a Sunday roast? That’s normal – don’t feel bad about it. Instead, take this opportunity to continue broadening your horizons, even if your immediate surroundings are intensely familiar.

3. Maintain connections, on both sides

Visiting or moving back home is made far easier if you have been able to maintain strong connections to people there. Family should be a given, as should your closest friends, but it is also important to continue to take an interest in others, too, because if you do move back for good, a strong social network will help make the transition much smoother.

Also vital is to ensure that the friends you made while living abroad are also kept as close as possible because, well, you never know: who is to say where you will be living again in a year or two?