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- Homesickness
- How to keep calm during exams
- The First Year Transition
- Are You A Chronic Worrier?
- Long Distance Relationships at University
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- Assertiveness
- Procrastination Prevention
- Body Image
- Coping with Depression
- Managing Difficult Emotions
- Family Matters: Coping with Unexpected Changes
- Perfectionism - a double-edged sword
- Help for compulsive eaters
- Complementary Therapies
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Wellbeing Services
Homesickness
What can you do about it?
- Most importantly: own up to your feelings and accept them. Believe that they will pass; they almost always do. In the meantime, there’s nothing ‘weak’ or ‘childish’ about feeling homesick.
- Remember that many other people will have similar feelings, although you may assume that they are doing fine. (You can’t read their minds- and they can’t read yours!)
- Talk to someone. If you haven’t yet made friends here, try the resident tutors, the Counselling Service, the Advice Unit, a chaplain, or one of the sabbatical officers in the Students’Guild.
- Use your phone. Text people. Send emails. Keep in touch with those you left behind and arrange a firm date to go back and see them. But also give yourself a chance to get involved in your new life.
- Keep busy. Try to establish a routine. The fuller your days are, the less time you will have to feel homesick or lonely.
- Make a real effort to join societies/activities. This might feel difficult, but there are so many clubs and societies within the university and the city that you are very likely to find something that suits your particular interests. At the start of the new academic year many new people will be joining- so you are unlikely to be the only new person.
- Walk around. Explore your new surroundings. It’s a beautiful campus.
- Volunteer to help with something. Get in touch with Community Action in Cornwall House to find out about how to volunteer on or off campus.
- Learn about the Students’Guild. Apart from all it can offer, it’s a great way to meet people in the early days before lectures and social events get underway. Take a sandwich, a book or a newspaper and find a corner in Devonshire House if you’re afraid of looking conspicuous.
- Don’t expect to get everything right. You’re bound to make mistakes, forget things, and get lost. The first year is all about getting it wrong, wasting time, not understanding, feeling stupid. There will be plenty of time to catch up… after all, it’s common for people to be off with flu for a few weeks and still get through the year successfully.
- Don’t make any major decisions. Even if you feel strongly that you don’t want to stay, take your time and talk it over with others.
And if it’s really bad.....
- If you can’t sleep or eat properly see your GP or a doctor at the Student Health Centre
- Decide whether the best policy is to have frequent contact with home (because contact makes you feel better) or little contact (because contact makes you feel worse). Think carefully about whether or not to go home at weekends, assuming this is an option. Some students find it helps to ease the transition; others find the constant readjustment just makes them feel worse.
- Ask yourself if you really want to be at this university, in this city, studying this particular subject, at this time. Most people get through bouts of homesickness and go on to enjoy university. But for some it can be right to leave and take another direction.
- Those who decide to leave often find another course or university with which they are happy, perhaps after taking some time out or working. If you are thinking along these lines, get help from Careers, the Student Advice Unit or your personal tutor. You will need to consider the various academic, career and financial implications.
With thanks to the University of Cardiff, the University of Dundee, and Cambridge University for contributions to this text
