{"id":5120,"date":"2016-05-22T04:00:42","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=5120"},"modified":"2016-05-21T19:24:23","modified_gmt":"2016-05-22T02:24:23","slug":"reverse-culture-shock-ptsd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/culture\/reverse-culture-shock-ptsd\/","title":{"rendered":"Reverse Culture Shock & PTSD"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"Banawe<\/a><\/strong>When we lived overseas, we didn\u2019t talk much about culture shock. At first, we were newcomers busy adjusting to the new country. After a year or two we were old hands. When someone did bring up culture shock, almost invariably, another person who\u2019d been through it all before would put on a just-you-wait expression and declare that reverse culture shock was much worse.<\/p>\n

What? Going home? I thought. How hard could that be?<\/p>\n

After more than twenty years of living abroad (with a few home leaves and extended stays along the way), my husband and I returned home and did our best to reintegrate into American society.<\/p>\n

That was quite a few years ago. I don’t think I ever thought about my own reverse culture shock, not until this morning. I was dozing, listening to an NPR program on my clock radio, considering whether to get up. Author Sebastian Junger was being interviewed <\/a>about his book, Tribe, on Homecoming and Belonging.<\/em><\/p>\n

He was saying that although only 10% of the US military engaged in combat, 50% have applied for some sort of disability based on PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). His theory is that the 40% who haven\u2019t been in combat are having trouble reintegrating into modern society.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t make the connection to reverse culture shock until he mentioned Peace Corps volunteers. He said they have an extremely high rate of depression after returning from two years in the Peace Corps.<\/p>\n

I’ve never thought of myself as having reverse culture shock, but I admit, the transition back to living in the United States did have its difficulties.<\/p>\n

You hear returning soldiers talk about the camaraderie they miss. After living in such close quarters with their buddies, trusting and depending on them, they come home, and everyone is busy with their own affairs, and the returning soldier is left to his own devices.<\/p>\n

\"first<\/a>

first Christmas in a new country<\/p><\/div>\n

Expatriate life has a lot in common with the military. Like soldiers, you leave your family, friends, and country behind. When you arrive in the new country, all the other expats are in the same situation. You\u2019re all strangers in a foreign land, and you\u2019re all looking for new friends. When holidays come around, Grandma\u2019s house is too far away, so you get together with your new expat friends.<\/p>\n

\"weekend<\/a>

weekend trip with friends<\/p><\/div>\n

You send your kids to the same international school; you join the same clubs; you take weekend trips together; you run into each other in the airport on your way to home leave. And even though your expat friends come from all over the world, the life you\u2019re living brings you together.<\/p>\n

Then one day you return home, and either your expat friends stay abroad or they return to their own countries on other continents. At \u201chome\u201d you don\u2019t have a group of friends. Everyone is busy with their own lives. So you have to start all over at an age when everyone around you has established all the details of their lives a long time ago.<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re retired military or returned expat, you have trouble talking to people. Everything that has been part of your experience and that\u2019s important to you feels like something you shouldn\u2019t talk about. No one is interested.<\/p>\n

Conversation is an exchange, a sort of agreed upon fruit salad. If you throw a fish into the bowl, you spoil the salad. If the other person has no point of contact with what you\u2019re talking about and vice versa, the conversation doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

When we came home after twenty-two years of living abroad, I soon learned not to mention those years. To me, they seemed like the center of my life, but no one wanted to hear about them. So I got on with living where I was.<\/p>\n

My years as an expat haven\u2019t been erased, but keeping them wrapped up and hidden away has felt like a loss. Maybe that’s what reverse culture shock was for me.<\/p>\n

\"my<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0When we lived overseas, we didn\u2019t talk much about culture shock. At first, we were newcomers busy adjusting to the new country. After a year or two we were old hands. When someone did bring up culture shock, almost invariably, another person who\u2019d been through it all before would put on a just-you-wait expression and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,156,148],"tags":[1246,1245,1251,1249,1248,1252,1255,1253,1247,1250,1254],"class_list":["post-5120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-home","category-philippines","tag-culture-shock","tag-expatriates","tag-military","tag-npr","tag-ptsd","tag-reintegrating-into-modern-society","tag-returning-expatriates","tag-returning-peace-corps-volunteers","tag-reverse-culture-shock","tag-sebastian-junger","tag-tribe-on-homecoming-and-belonging"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-1kA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6099,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/china\/the-expatriates-why-do-they-do-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":5120,"position":0},"title":"Expatriates. 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