How to cope with Homesickness in College
Being in a new place and missing your home, family, friends, and pets is completely normal. It means you have a healthy attachment to your loved ones. It will take a while to adjust to your new surroundings.
About 20% of students entering college report being bothered by missing home. Homesickness can affect your daily routine, disturbing your sleep patterns, making you feel angry, nauseous, or nervous, and causing feelings of isolation, loneliness, or withdrawal. You may also feel overwhelmed, insecure, anxious, or panicky, experience low self-esteem or self-worth, headaches, a lack of appetite, or difficulty concentrating.
How to Cope with Homesickness
- Keep in regular contact with your family and friends back home through letters, emails, and text messages. Call home once or twice a week; daily communication can worsen your homesickness.
- Establish a familiar space where you can start to feel more at home, such as a café, a table in the cafeteria, or a specific place in the library.
- Make friends with peers, communicate with your classmates, and meet new people, especially locals who can help you adjust more easily to the new environment.
- Get involved in extracurricular activities, take part in sports and physical activities, join clubs, and attend events. This will help take your mind off your homesickness and lift your mood.
- Visit people and invite them to visit you.
- If you need to talk to someone, stop by the AUD Health Center in A Building, Room 116, or visit the Personal Counselor at the Center, Room 328. We are here to support you!
