As the title, I relocated to Switzerland 10 months ago.
In the beginning I had the usual normal anxieties of moving away from home for the first time. However as time went by, adapting to living in Switzerland became harder for me.
I feel a bit defeated because Switzerland is a beautiful place and there are so many good things I love about it, but I just cannot seem to be happy 😔 winter is now here and I feel a bit worse.
I am thinking of moving back to my home country. The thought of being back around my family, the things I love to do, my old friends is making me want to go back more and more. I had an easy life but my salary was not the best hence why I wanted to move.
Is it normal to regret? I am very disappointed in myself for feeling like giving up and going back. But I have been quite depressed for the last 7 months.
When I said the words out loud that I want to go back home I felt a huge sense of relief…however I am still hesitant to lose the opportunity to live here.
I am welcoming any advice you can share. Thank you everyone.
You need more time. 10 months isn’t enough to get over culture shock and home sickness when you’re living abroad long term or indefinitely.
Go to the pharmacy and get some vitamin D. Back in Canada I used to get it as a spray. It helps a lot with seasonal depression.
And remember, leaving where you are doesn’t mean you have to return home. There are other countries to explore.
Yup - and a SAD lamo and a therapist.
10 months is ages - if you dont like it, you dont like it
It entirely depends on how long she’s supposed to be there for. There are stages to adjustment and culture shock. If it’s one year, the first three months will be the hardest. If it’s three years, the first year could be difficult. It’s all in relation to the amount of time you’re expected to be in a location.
Not to say she shouldn’t go, but there’s always a period of questioning and turmoil where you don’t quite fit in. If she feels it’s what’s best for her then of course she should go. I ain’t her keeper.
10 months is a drop in a bucket. U have to give it some real time. I gave Poland 2 years, china 9 years and turkey 8 years (and counting), 10 months is barely enough time to feel the country and your reactions to it to be true
10 months is enough to know whether you like somewhere though. I lived in 4 foreign countries. Three of them I liked and one I didn’t. The ones that I liked, I liked straight away. The one that I didn’t like, I found hard in the beginning and I kept expecting it to get easier, but 2.5 years later I was still miserable.
How’s Turkey?? Obviously a very broad question, but I’d like to move there in future 😊
Oh, it’s great 😃👍 but it’s very difficult to be here, at least long term for the moment, they’re in the middle of trying to kick out foreigners from “rich” countries at the moment, making it very difficult to get residence permits renewed and rejecting many first time applications for residence permits, they’re blaming us for the housing crisis and making it difficult unless u either own a property (before it used to be owning any property, then it was changed to 75k+ usd and then recently it has to be worth 200k+ usd). They’re making it difficult even for foreigners who are married to Turks, own property, have Turkish kids, etc etc…my wife and I have been here for a long time and our baby was born here and we’ve had to hire a lawyer to help us stay, for the moment it’s been working, but we’ll see how long it lasts
Gosh darn it, I’ve definitely heard the most recent residency struggles have really ramped up since Erdogan “won” the last election 🙄 That’s geopolitics for you, the administration is more concerned about foreign influence than their own people. I have dual citizenship from a middle-income allied Balkan nation (so finger’s crossed that works in my favor) . . I don’t intend to disclose my U.S. citizenship lol
I stayed abroad an extra year because of uncertain feelings. I think I was more unhappy after that extra year. I’m glad I stuck it out longer but I ultimately still wanted to return home at the end of the day.
10 months is more than enough to know that you don’t like a place. Staying more doesn’t make a difference in my experience (lived in 5 countries). There’s a much bigger risk for OP to be even more depressed though.