What is culture shock?
I think a lot of people misunderstand what it is. They think it is just this one moment where you can't understand everything and you cry into your pillow for what feels like decades. It is a defining moment, after all. You know when you are having culture shock ... right?
Not exactly.
Culture shock is a little more in depth than that. At least I think so. When people tell me that they went to a place for more than a week and say they didn't have culture shock I question it. I could give you a definition of culture shock, but instead I will leave you this link: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=culture+shock+definition (If the link doesn't work you can copy and paste it into the address bar). I will, however, give some examples of what culture shock is from what I have personally experienced and from what I have seen others go through.
I was first told that culture shock would go something like this: you are getting ready to leave home - yay! You leave home and the "honeymoon period" sets in and everything is wonderful. After the first week or so suddenly the little things in your new culture are getting at you and everything bothers you all of a sudden. It gets worse for a few weeks. You go up and down between hating and loving your new home until eventually everything evens out. Then you get ready to leave and you think, "Yay, I'm leaving!" "Oh noooo I'm leaving!". Finally, you think it is over once you are home until Reverse Culture Shock sets in: http://www.expatica.com/nl/health_fitness/well_being/Reverse-culture-shock-101_16451.html.
This was very true, but a little bit more flipping between highs and lows. Before we get into what exactly would turn on the culture shock, let me explain how it feels. Here are some examples that I experienced or saw others go through:
1. I have seen people break down in tears from being homesick or from being misunderstood. Language barriers are not the only barriers ... culture barriers can be difficult as well.
2. Although I personally have always had sleep problems, generally having new or different sleep problems abroad is a sign of culture shock. I will go into my sleep problems later on. But I cannot count how many times I have heard people say that they cannot sleep or that they sleep too much. Or that they have strange nightmares. My sleep has been different abroad than when I am at home as well. Not necessarily better or worse, but different.
3. The thing that happened to me the most is that one moment I am in love with my host country. France is so beautiful, Japan is so quirky! And then one little thing makes me dislike everything about the place. Why can't the French pick up the dog shit? Shit is not biodegradable when it is left on the cement sidewalk! Why does everyone smoke here? Why is water so expensive? Why do some streets smell so bad? Why are the cars so small? Why is it so hot in Japan? Why did a giant cicada have to fall onto my balcony and screech so loud that I cannot do anything else? Why are those schoolgirls standing in an annoying circle and I have to rather wait for them to move or walk through them and their conversation? See? I'm getting carried away now.
4. I don't know if this is 'normal' but I have heard others mentioning similar sentiments. Occasionally I dislike my home country. Sometimes I long for it. Homesick. But other times ... especially when I learn of something that is so much more efficient. Why can't Americans wear masks on their faces when they're sick instead of letting their kids run around hacking and coughing everywhere? Why does everything have to be Super Sized in the U.S? Why can't we view religion like Japan and France (i.e. it's personal and if I don't believe in what you believe in no one cares)? Why don't we have trains like Europe (because the trains in Japan are really expensive)?
I guess for the most part I usually end up feeling irritable or frustrated as a form of culture shock. But if you go abroad you will most likely experience culture shock unless you are a robot.
Remedies:
Go OUT. Leave the home. Talk with your host family (if you have one)! Talk with locals! Just leave the building you're in!
Before I end this, I will have a brief explanation of my life in sleeping. This is a topic and part of my life that is very important and large (obviously, sleep is a big part of everyone's life). For as long as I can remember I have had terrible nightmares. It has been a chronic problem and perhaps it has to do with the pain I experience on a daily basis. To clear that up, physical pain. I have had nights where I remembered four to five of my dreams, each on a terrible nightmare. Months have happened where every other night is frightening. When I was in Jr. High and up through High School and the first year or so of college I had many sleepless nights because it was better than the nightmares. Living life as a zombie became normal, but I brushed it off and did my school work. Eventually I grew so tired. When I did sleep it was rather restless or nightmares.
Finally I went to a sleep clinic and the doctor was nice and suggested some rules for me to go by since I am not a fan of taking regular medication (every day medicine, I do take Aleve almost regularly and leave my better pain medicine for when I absolutely need it). That list has become a staple in my sleeping. All lights are turned off, no available clocks to see unless I were to beam myself in the face with my cell phone, I wake up at the same time every morning, and go to sleep at the same time every night. It has done wonders. At first when I began I slept a lot for the first year afterwards. Ten to eleven hours a day and still did not feel rested. I don't know if I was trying to catch up on lost sleep, but it wasn't really much better at times. Nightmares never went away.
When I first went to France I actually slept better than usual. I actually felt rested. Of course, still the nightmares. Eventually I grew tired all of the time. This last summer was difficult for sleep as the midnight sun always makes sleeping difficult. I seriously need to invest in a pair of those eye shade things. Here in Japan my sleep is kind of stranger than usual. I have nightmares all night long, but they are not the same kind of nightmares. Firstly, let me clarify my definition of nightmares. There is a difference between a bad dream and a nightmare to me. A bad dream is the content, but a nightmare is emotions, feelings. I have had dreams with decapitated heads but when I woke up I did not feel anything. No fear, no sadness, no emptiness. That was not a nightmare, it was just a bad dream. On the other hand, I have had dreams that were seemingly harmless, but awoke in sweat, panting or crying or screaming. To me, that is a big difference. When I say nightmare, I mean the latter. Of course, most of my nightmares are awful in content as well. Since I've been in Japan, they have mostly been where I woke up feeling unsettled or awkward ... or flailing my arms around, blankets on the floor. It may be the heat or stress of culture shock. But my dreams themselves are different too. Normally I have very vivid dreams where I can remember a lot of precise details, but these are kind of floating as if I could reach out and touch the dream but it is trapped in a cloud and is actually far away. It's as if I am watching the dream on a screen that is close yet far.
Strangely enough, I do not wish for my nightmares to go away. They are terrible and horrifying sometimes, but as of the New Year of 2013, I have been documenting my dreams and nightmares. I have learned many things from them, not necessarily specific things but more philosophical ideas. Even though I awake screaming and crying, I jot it down even if I know I will forever remember the dream without a pen and paper. There is something lurking in the nightmares. Something I must figure out and in a way it is enlightening. I think it comes from when I sort of became enlightened or had a lot of epiphanies ... or something like that, call it whatever you will. When I was younger I was very negative, even just four or three years ago. I had a lot of anxiety, I still occasionally do but it is different now, and honestly complained a lot. But at some point all I wanted was to pursue happiness and to better myself and throw away negativity. I do sometimes feel negative, as I don't think it something that can fully go away, but instead try to use it in a more productive way. So things such as my pain and my nightmares became a part of life, I guess, for lack of a better way to explain a personal epiphany. Or I suppose that I am trying to make more sense of them, especially the nightmares.
As it is late and I am tired, I am going to deviate from culture shock and nightmares to address this common myth that appears everywhere. What is this myth? Essentially, it is that people do not understand how sickness works. I am talking about common colds. Over my life I have always heard that if you do not wear gloves and hat you'll get sick from going outside when it is cold. In France and Japan, they really believe some strange things about getting sick. You are not wearing slippers or socks on your feet inside? You'll get sick. Didn't dry your hair off in a set amount of time? You'll get sick. Your feet get wet? You'll get sick. Not wearing a sweater in the house when it's cold outside? You'll get sick.
Okay. Anyone who believes any of those things or that anything other than a microscopic virus or "bug" gets you sick needs to take a thirty minute class explaining how getting sick works. You do not get sick from the cold or from your wet hair or from being cold. Maybe you can get frostbite or hypothermia, but we're talking about colds. It must come from how when you're cold your nose begins to get runny, which only happens because: http://www.wisegeek.org/why-does-my-nose-run-when-it-is-cold-outside.htm. Either way, the only reason you would get sick from being cold is because your body is working harder so it is a little bit more susceptible than normal. Know what else makes your body work harder? HEAT. ANXIETY. STRESS. SHITTY SLEEP. TOO MUCH SUGAR. DAIRY. NEW THINGS. The list goes on. Google it. So by "proxy" these things make you sick, which means that they don't really. It's like saying that McDonald's has made you overweight instead of realizing that it is because you eat too much McDonald's. It is the microscopic germ that got onto you that got you sick. That means you touched something that had the germ or someone coughed on you.
There you have it. Now you know about germs if you didn't before. I'd hope most people knew that, but apparently not.
Until next time~
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