Homesickness is something I know very well. When I got to campus almost 3 weeks ago, I was leaving the town I had lived in for 18 years, all my friends, and my parents for the first time in my entire life. The transition is definitely not easy, but as cliche as it is it does get easier everyday.
But what is homesickness, exactly? As defined by the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, homesickness is the “distress and functional impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from home and object attachments such as parents”. Everyone experiences homesickness, up to 70% of college students, in different ways and at different times. However, according to a report done by the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, 1 in 14 young people struggle with a form of homesickness the author of the report, Christopher Thurban, calls “intense homesickness”. Symptoms of intense homesickness include developing poor eating and sleep habits (Thuber). Which begs the question- can homesickness cause actual, physical or mental illness?
According to the University of Warwick counseling service, “nausea, headaches, dizziness”, “disrupted menstrual cycle” in girls, and “trembling, and feeling either too hot or too cold” are considered “typical symptoms” of homesickness. Those symptoms are eerily similar with those of an anxiety attack. So while homesickness might not cause someone to get the common cold, it can definitely lead to the development of serious mental illnesses.
However, John Kaplow, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Alabama, disagrees. He believes that homesickness is “an emotion that comes in waves” (Kaplow). As well, it’s not actually about your home or being sick, it’s about missing “what’s normal, what is routine” (Kaplow) because that’s truly what makes a place feel like home.
Wether or not you agree that homesickness is just that, a sickness, or a phase, it’s something that people of all different ages and all different circumstances deal with, and if you’re currently one of those people, remember you’re not alone.
I am not a very homesick individual, but my roommate has experienced it a lot more than I have. I agree that it does come in waves as there are moments when she is perfectly content and others really wants to go back home. I think the sickness feelings could come from the emotional toll feeling homesickness causes, such as crying.
Coming to college was a big change, so yea I understand homesickness. It’s proven that stress can cause illnesss. Here is a small article. Is it possible that the homesickness causes stress that leads to sickness? Kind of like the 3rd link correlation Andrew talked about in class.