How to Cope with Homesickness

Homesickness is one of the most common feelings that come with living abroad — and one of the least talked about, because it's easy to dismiss as "childish" or "just a phase." Yet homesickness can be intense, recurring, and can genuinely affect your mood. This article explains where it comes from, when it's worth looking at more closely, and what actually helps.

Important: This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for consultation with a professional.

What Homesickness Actually Is

Homesickness is more than missing a particular place. It's often a longing for a sense of familiarity and safety — for an environment where everything was self-evident: the language at the corner store, the taste of bread, the faces of neighbors, the rhythm of daily life. When you emigrate, many of these small, invisible supports disappear all at once, and their absence is felt as homesickness.

Homesickness can be for:

• specific people — family, friends,
• places — your hometown, a landscape, an apartment,
• experiences — holidays, traditions, food,
• and sometimes a former version of yourself — who you were before you had to start over.

Why It Can Hit So Hard

Homesickness tends to intensify at predictable moments: during holidays, at family events you can't travel back for, when you're exhausted or unwell, and when something in your new country goes wrong. It often comes in waves — quiet for weeks, then returning with double the force after a single phone call home.

That's natural. Homesickness is a form of attachment — we miss what matters to us. The problem begins not when we feel homesick, but when homesickness starts to hold us back.

What Actually Helps

There's no single switch that turns homesickness off — and that's not really the goal. The aim is to learn to live with it in a way that doesn't rob you of the joy of your new life. A few things tend to help, usually in combination:

• Staying in touch, without living "out of a suitcase." Regular contact with loved ones is soothing, but if all your attention stays pointed back home, it's hard to put down roots where you are.
• Building new rituals. Small personal traditions in your new place — a favorite café, a Sunday walk — create the sense of familiarity that's been missing.
• Creating touches of home. Cooking familiar dishes, using your own language, listening to Polish music, connecting with the local Polish community — all of these soften the feeling of being a stranger.
• Giving yourself permission to miss home. Homesickness isn't a sign of weakness or a mistake. Allowing yourself to feel it — instead of fighting it — often lightens its weight.
• Taking care of the basics. Sleep, movement, human connection, and daylight genuinely affect how we handle difficult emotions.

When Homesickness Becomes Something More

It's worth taking a closer look — ideally with the help of a professional — when homesickness:

• persists for months without easing,
• turns into a persistently low mood, tearfulness, or loss of interest in things,
• interferes with work, studies, or building relationships,
• comes alongside insomnia, anxiety, or a sense of hopelessness.

In these situations, homesickness may be part of something bigger — such as depression or adjustment difficulties — and it's worth not facing it alone.

Support in the Language You Think In

Sometimes the greatest relief is being able to talk about homesickness with someone who understands the context of living abroad — without having to translate every nuance. Therapists at Wefeel offer online sessions and know what life away from home is really like.

This topic is part of a broader guide: Mental Health as an Expat.