Depression in a New Country: When Homesickness Is Something Else

This article is general information published by the practice of Dr. Sholeh Toobaei, Specialist Psychiatrist, Dubai. It has not yet been individually reviewed by a clinician and is not a substitute for personal medical advice. Published: 1 September 2026.

Scope: This article is general information for people living away from their home country. It is not a diagnosis. Only a face-to-face assessment can tell the difference between adjustment, homesickness, and depression in your specific case.

Is it normal to feel low after moving to a new country?

Yes. Feeling sad, disoriented, lonely, or regretful in the first months after a move is normal and near-universal. It is called adjustment, and it usually improves steadily over the first six to twelve months as routines, friendships, and a sense of place develop.

Moving countries is one of the largest stresses a person can undertake, even when the move is voluntary and hopeful. You have lost, all at once: your language environment, your food, your friendships, your professional identity, your family's daily presence, and a thousand small certainties about how the world works. Grief for those losses is not illness. It is the price of the move, and most people pay it and recover.

The pattern of normal adjustment is: bad days and good days, with the good days slowly winning. You cry after a phone call home, but the call also comforts you. You feel lost on Friday, but by Wednesday a colleague made you laugh. The trend, over months, is upward.

How is depression different from homesickness?

Depression is different in three ways: it does not lift when good things happen, it flattens your ability to feel pleasure at all, and it comes with physical changes — in sleep, appetite, energy, and concentration. Homesickness has a target (home); depression has no target and no exceptions.

The most telling sign is what clinicians call anhedonia — the loss of the ability to enjoy things. A homesick person watches a video from home and feels warm and sad at once. A depressed person watches it and feels nothing, or feels worse. Other signs: waking at 4am every morning unable to return to sleep; a persistent feeling of worthlessness or guilt; the sense that your family would be better off without you; finding that even small decisions — what to eat, what to wear — have become exhausting.

Another dividing line: homesickness improves when you connect — a call, a visit, a meal with people from home. Depression does not improve with connection, and often makes you withdraw from it. If you have stopped answering your mother's calls because you cannot pretend to be fine, that is worth attention.

Why are expatriates at higher risk?

Because the protective factors against depression are exactly what migration removes: close family nearby, long-term friendships, community belonging, and familiar sources of comfort. Meanwhile the risk factors are increased: isolation, financial pressure, job insecurity tied to a visa, and the inability to simply go home when things go wrong.

There is also a specifically expatriate trap: the feeling that you are not allowed to be unhappy. You chose to come. Your family may have sacrificed for you to come. People back home see the skyline photos and assume you are thriving. Admitting depression can feel like admitting failure — so people hide it, sometimes for years, behind "I'm just busy." Many patients describe performing happiness on video calls while falling apart between them.

Spouses who moved for a partner's job — and who may not have their own work permit, income, or daily structure — are at particular risk, as are people whose social circle consists entirely of colleagues.

What actually helps?

Structure, connection, and professional assessment — in that order of immediacy. Structure means fixed times for waking, eating, working, and sleeping, even when you feel nothing. Connection means at least one regular in-person contact a week that is not work. Assessment means letting a professional judge which side of the line you are on.

If it is adjustment, a professional can tell you so, and that reassurance itself is valuable. If it is depression, it is a treatable medical condition — with talking therapy, medication, or both — and treating it early is far easier than treating it after two years of white-knuckling. Either way, you stop guessing.

One more thing, because it comes up constantly: seeking help here does not get reported to your employer and does not affect your visa. It is private medical care, full stop.

When should I seek urgent help?

Seek urgent help immediately if you are thinking about suicide, making plans, or feeling that your family would be better off without you; if you are using alcohol or other substances to get through each day; or if you can no longer function at work or care for yourself or your children. In the UAE, call 999 (police) or 998 (ambulance), or go to the nearest emergency department. For a non-urgent assessment, contact this practice on +971 58 143 2494.