Picture this: You’ve just spent months or years exploring distant corners of the world, immersing yourself in new cultures, and building a life far from your original home. The sights, sounds, and rhythms of foreign lands have become your new normal. Then, you return “home” – only to find yourself feeling like a stranger in a familiar land.

This isn’t your typical travel fatigue or post-vacation blues. What you’re experiencing is reverse culture shock, a profound and often unexpected psychological challenge that affects many global wanderers, digital nomads, and long-term travelers when they return to their home country.

The irony? While we prepare ourselves for culture shock when venturing abroad, few of us anticipate the emotional turbulence of returning home. Your favorite coffee shop might still stand on the same corner, your family still lives in the same house, but something feels… different. That “something” is you.

In this blog, I explore the complex emotions of reverse culture shock, understand why it happens, and most importantly, learn practical strategies to navigate this challenging transition while preserving the beautiful perspectives you’ve gained from your travels.

What is Culture Shock?

Culture shock is the feeling of disorientation and discomfort that people often experience when they are suddenly exposed to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes. It can manifest as confusion, anxiety, or even frustration as individuals try to adapt to new social norms and behaviors that are different from their own cultural background.

I’m not going to deny that I don’t experience culture shock from time to time — rather I embrace the difference and plunge into the unfamiliar. What I do grapple with is: Reverse Culture shock

Reverse Culture Shock is the emotional and psychological distress suffered by people when they return home after several years (or months) overseas.

Experiencing Reverse Culture Shock

I often experience it when I come back to the USA. While I’m based in Denver, Colorado — don’t get me wrong, I love Colorado, the beautiful outdoors, my amazing community, and a sense of familiarity — but the frustration and disorientation set in.

The first to experience the shock is my stomach. It knows American foods and subpar quality.

As travelers, we immerse ourselves in cultures and become familiar with new practices. We learn the smells, the sounds, and the feelings of our new location. We learn to interact with new people. All of this is incorporated into our new identity. Eventually, we become accustomed to our new way of life, not realizing that these little changes or customs define what we now find familiar. New routines become our norm. We create new identities through these routines and practices, immersing ourselves in the customs of our new “host” country.

Home is a State of Mind

Our concept of “home” is built on these ideas of familiarity, routine, communication, and identity. Home is more than the physical place in which we live. Home is associated with all of the people, actions, feelings, emotions, and cues that make us feel “at home.”

So it’s really up to you on how you define home. I feel it’s a state of mind.

Sound familiar my fellow nomads, expats, and travelers? Read on about the feelings of reverse culture shock and tips for navigating conversations and staying true to yourself.

Steps for Navigating Reverse Culture Shock

General challenges we may face when we get to our host country.

• People at home aren’t as interested in hearing about your foreign experience as you are in telling them about it. And you don’t want to sound like a pretentious asshole either.
• You aren’t as interested in hearing about what has happened at home as they are in telling you about it. To you, it’s the same shit different toilet.
• You miss being abroad immediately.
• You miss the tight-knit foreign affairs community you were a part of and worldly conversations that ignite every fiber of your being.

Acceptance is the first step

Having self-awareness and acceptance are the first few steps in getting through reverse culture shock.

• Home has changed.
• You have changed.
• You have adapted to another culture and now you must readapt (for now, anyway).

Feel the Feelings from The Art of Coming Home by Craig Storti

• Criticality – At the depths of reverse culture shock, you may notice yourself making a lot of critical judgments about home. Your renewed unfamiliarity with the home culture and your unfamiliarity with the routines can lead to unpleasant and frustrating experiences. Furthermore, this frustration can be displaced, often onto others. It becomes easy to be impatient with others and hard to be objective — even when the problems are insignificant.
  
• Marginality – Your overseas experience has significantly impacted your identity. As you immersed yourself in a new culture, you broadened your perspective and opened your mind to new ideas. Once you return home, you realize that tensions exist between your new identity and mainstream society. You no longer feel like you fit in.
  
• Overexertion/Exhaustion – Because many of the routines, patterns, and customs of your home culture are new to you, you must consciously pay attention to performing basic functions. Add to that the stress of the logistical tasks of your return, and you may begin to feel overwhelmed by this experience. Exhaustion is a commonly reported effect of reverse culture shock.
  
• Resistance/Withdrawal/Self-Doubt/Depression – As you become discontented with your home culture, a common reaction is to resist adapting to it. Many returnees withdraw or escape, dwelling on fantastical thoughts of the foreign culture and avoiding contact with people from the home culture.

Wear Your Global Citizen Like a Badge of Honor

Going back to your home country may unsettle us. If we acknowledge that, yes, the trip is on hold or possibly over but our messy feelings around our many travels have yet to be resolved, I think we’d be better able to connect our global experiences and our local lives at home. Maybe then we’d be able to see how all politics are local, even when we are addressing the global.

Tips for Navigating Challenging Conversations

You may not understand the lifestyle choices of your host country and community, as they may not understand yours, and that’s okay! Accept and learn from each other, that we can support our community along this ride called life despite differences. It’s about sharing values, experiences, and stories.

• Set Boundaries: It’s okay to limit your time or avoid certain topics. Communicate your boundaries clearly and respectfully. Value your time and energy on who you spend time with. Do you feel energized or drained after seeing certain people?
  
• Practice Active Listening: Try to listen without judgment, seek to understand other’s perspectives, and ask follow-up questions like,
  • “I hear you. That is an interesting [insert topic], how did you come to that decision/viewpoint, etc?”
  • Or when people complain about marriages, mortgages, and money — everyone wants to be seen, and heard, and maybe just needs a listening ear to vent to. Meanwhile, you’re planning your next trip and strategizing your minimalist lifestyle into a backpack (and avoid checked bag fees).
    
• “I” Statements: When expressing your thoughts, feelings, or experiences. This can help diffuse any defensiveness others may feel.
  
• Exit Plan: Plan some polite ways to excuse yourself if a conversation becomes too heated, uncomfortable, or verbally abusive. Sometimes, there’s no influencing or educating people, and learning to protect your well-being is the strongest thing you can do.
  
• Focus on Common Ground: Banter. Small talk might be the downfall of some folks, but ask G-rated questions like,
  • “What are you looking forward to [this month, year, etc]”
  • “What project are you working on?” or if folks have kids, you’ll know, because it’s all they’ll talk about.
  • Maybe ask about the kid’s interests. If all else fails, pets, plants, and staring at a wall will get you through it.
    
• Give Yourself Space & Grace: As travelers, we challenge the status quo, to some, we live unconventional lives and all the other things that society tries to fabricate for us. While it’s easy to feel pressure and scrutiny around what we should be doing, stick to your values and live your fullest, authentic, and truthful self. And the end of the road on your deathbed, do you want to live with regrets or say you lived — really lived your life.

On my travels, I often ask retired folks what they might have done differently when they were younger. The most frequent answer was: “I wish I traveled more.”

Travel promises fresh starts

It makes us feel bold, free, and untethered to the daily scripts we rehearse at home — or home-based. There is no doubt that travel can be transformative as it stretches us from the familiar and plunks us into the differences we want other travelers to experience. As nomads, we’re like rubber bands. We stretch our minds, and experiences, and come back to our roots or “home base” and feel like we’re shrinking the rubber band back to the original size. Many of us can’t fathom that. Like that feeling when you go back to your home town and people are living contently, in our eyes, it’s the same shit different toilet. On the other side of the coin, others can’t understand how we live the nomad experience filled with uncertainty and lack of routine. At the end of the day, there are as many paths are there are people. I’ve learned to accept that a white picket fence with 2.5 kids in the suburbs will not bring me happiness but that is what others want. Just like they can’t understand living a nomad life out of a 45L backpack brings me happiness. Accept these differences as you would on your travels to different places.

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