Introduction

I would like to share a comment from twoplustwo forum about depression of a college student last year. He posted “Do any of you guys ever get homesick at college? I just moved back into school for my sophomore year, got a bunch of good friends here, yet sometimes I just get incredibly homesick? I miss my parents, girlfriend, dogs, and my siblings. How normal is this. It is a weird feeling and the best way I can describe it is a feeling “empty”. (Quotation) Do you guy feel the same way as he did? (Rhetorical question) In 2003, Yi Giseala Lin & Kishimoto said that homesickness is among the most frequently reported concerns of international college students in the Unites States. University counseling service center declare that it is a challenging for any international students who may have moved away from their social support base and are learning to adapt to a new environment. Homesickness for a certain time is natural, but if it happens for a long time, homesickness leads to depression.

Preview

Initially, the biggest hit on all international students is culture shock. It’s a feeling of confusion and nervousness a person may have after leaving a familiar culture to live in new and different culture, Teen Health article stated. Our environment isn't just the air we breathe, the food we eat, the way we treated and everything. Consequently, we will feel like we don’t fit in that environment and culture and start to miss our home. That’s homesickness which head to depression.

Following, being far away is another reason for homesickness exclaimed by findcollegecards block. As I previously mention, being far away is feeling of emptiness. We know that we cannot just go home in a few minutes. As international students, we flied many hours to come here. Therefore, we feel like there is no one when we really need and start feel like loneliness. University counseling service explained that a sense of loneliness, sadness, confusion and fear with thoughts about home can create homesickness and depression.

Ultimately, High Beam research said that adjusting new educational system can be a stressful process. We have language barriers, dealing with new systems, different learning & teaching style, and many other academic pressures. Mori (2000) reported that not doing well or bad experiences can cause students to feel to feel hopeless and an intensive sense of hopeless may be the manifestation of depression.

Need Step

"Depression is a huge problem in the college student population," says John Greden, M.D., executive director of the U-M Depression Center.

1) Many students don't know that what's happening to them has a name, a biological cause, or a range of treatments.

a. And without proper help, depressed students may fall behind in class.

b. Depression can also force to withdraw from friends and activities

c. Seriously, students can try to kill themselves for depression.

2) “There is no question that all of the national surveys we have at our fingertips show a distinct rise in the number of mental health problems,” said Jerald Kay, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the Wright State University School of Medicine.

a. Indeed, in the past 15 years, depression has doubled and suicide tripled

b. In 2003, Rajapaksa & Dundes said that “depression upwards of 30% of international college student report frequent feelings of homesickness.

c. According to the 2006 American College Health Association Survey, 45 percent of women and 36 percent of men felt so depressed that it was difficult to function.

Satisfaction step

In this step, we would discuss about the symptoms of depression and consequences of depression. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, symptom of depression are

difficulty concentrating, remembering details, and making decisions

fatigue and decreased energy
feelings of guilt, worthlessness, and/or helplessness
feelings of hopelessness and/or pessimism
insomnia, early-morning wakefulness, or excessive sleeping
irritability, restlessness
loss of interest in activities or hobbies once pleasurable, including sex
overeating or appetite loss
persistent aches or pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive problems that do not ease even with treatment
persistent sad, anxious, or "empty" feelings
thoughts of suicide, suicide attempts

2) University Counseling services supposed that homesickness or adjustment problems can affect many areas of your life including your mood, your studies and your relationships. For example, you may feel depressed, lonely, stressed about learning your way around the university and your new environment. You may find it harder to concentrate on your studies and lose motivation in your course. You may also find that you are getting sick more often than usual. Things that you used to be able to manage easily suddenly seem harder as self-esteem and confidence drop and you may become more anxious about social interactions and making new friends.

Visualization step

A. Noticeably, as previously stated, depression can affect severely to our school works and social life. Nonetheless, if we can persist and prevent the depression we feel because of homesickness, there are many advantages and so much more we can be successful in our life such as

a) Good in social skill

b) Able to deal with new environment

c) Do well in class works and activities

d) Earn good grade in exam

Action step

A. The international students need to be provided special mental health services to help adjust to the host culture and solve various mental health problems.

i. The counselor's encouragement is one of the ways to reduce depression, said author Smith.

ii. Smith also believed that group work is highly recommended in the Alderian approach. Students are active participants in such group discussion so it will help to them to family with new surrounding and diminish their depression for some extent.

iii. University Counseling Service – information and self-help sheet asserted it can be helpful to talk to counselor from Health Care Center of University. Seeing a counselor can provide you with an independent and confidential place to discuss issues of concern. Professional help at these times can help solve problems and prevent future ones from developing. It also testified about self-help tips for depression;

a) Regular contact with people from home by phone or email

b) Allow yourself time to settle in and learn your way around and become involved in university life.

c) Keep in mind that you are not alone

d) Make new friends and try new things at the university

e) Have realistic expectations of yourself and of the life at university.

f) If you are experiencing study difficulties, find out about possible sources of study skills support

g) Eat well and healthily, exercise regularly, and get enough sleep.

h) Investigate any clubs or groups that share common interests at university

i) Write down all the positive things about being away from home

Conclusion

All we need to do is be aware of our own depression to prevent it. There are ton of ways to find out depression and stop it. As a main point, don’t let our homesickness influence us for a long time. If we feel depressed, we also need to keep in mind that we are not alone. Get comfort and help from friends and professional.

nunki

(ဒီစာေလးကေတာ့ college မွာ speech တစ္ခုလုပ္တုန္းကစုေဆာင္းထားတဲ့ အေၾကာင္းအရာေလးေတြပါ။ မွားခဲ့တာ မျပည့္စံုတာေလးမ်ားရွိရင္ ေ၀ဖန္ေပးၾကပါဦးလို႔)