Fellow expats, this question was probably asked thousands of times but yeah. How do you cope with expat loneliness and how long did it take you to make some actual friends? I have been living in a different country for one month and I just can’t stop feeling lonely and alienated.
One thing i did that helped a lot was, put all my closest friends into a shared whatsapp group.
we’re individually not that great always at keeping in touch, as we all obviously lead busy lives with work and families, but as a group it’s much easier. i only have to report stuff once, tell stories and jokes once, etc.
if i need a quick point of view probably one of them is around at any given time
they didn’t all know each other and now they do, so that’s a nice bonus that they made new friendships too because of it
as a result, i didn’t fall out of touch with the friends i cared about most and in some ways we’re closer than ever. i’m on my third expat country and it’s been 8 years.