• Mental health can influence how positive your experience will be in Japan.

• In addition, things just don’t always go your way and a perfectly good experience can suddenly go sour.

• This stress may not materialize right away and it could take many shapes, for example, affecting your sleep or appetite.

• Some people may become depressed. While depression requires a visit to a mental health professional, here are some things you can do to prevent getting that far.

• Most of the information below about culture shock and SAD was taken from the Kumamoto website.

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Reasons to Consult

• You can consult for any reasons such as:​

  • feeling lonely and isolated

  • culture shock and culture fatigue

  • SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

  • problem at school

  • legal issues

  • health issues

  • drug and alcohol abuse

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Feeling Lonely and Isolated

• Whether you’ve lived abroad before or not, moving to Japan, living by yourself and starting a new job can be stressful and isolating.

• Making new friends can be challenging with the language barrier and the social mentality in Japan.

• It can also be part of culture shock and culture fatigue.

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Culture Shock

• You’ve heard of it and people keep telling you about it. It will inevitably hit you, but you'll hopefully be prepared for it!

• People experience culture shock differently and it can be more intense to some than others.

• "Be aware that Culture Shock is not depression, and recognizing Culture Shock is an important step toward dealing with it."

• "Culture Shock is a four-stage cycle triggered by difficulty adjusting to a new culture.

  • There’s a trend, but most people go through these different phases a number of times. This may force you to re-examine the assumptions and social behaviors which were once thought absolute, and may throw you off and disorient you."

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The Four Stages of Culture Shock​

1. Initial Euphoria (Honeymoon Period).  Anything new is intriguing and exciting:
   “AAAAHHHH, LOOK AT ALL THE VENDING MACHINES. MMMM SQUID. GIVE ME DRIED SQUID. ALL THE CHILDREN ARE SOOOOOO FRIENDLY.”

2. Irritation and Hostility (Culture Shock).  Feel homesick and have a negative attitude towards the host culture:
   “Why is everyone staring at me??? They’re all so rude, why can’t they just be normal, like the backwoods Canadian farmers/ West Coast American hippies/ London Metropolitan aristocrats I grew up with.”

3. Gradual Adjustment.  Start to adjust and the culture seems more familiar:
   “The other day I went for udon and rocked out that all-kanji menu like it was my job! I own this city, and I’m going to write a kick-butt blog post as soon as I get back from ikebana practice”

4. Adaptation and Biculturalism.  Completely adjust to the host culture and may even experience Reverse Culture Shock upon return to home country:
   “I think I’m going to apply for citizenship.”
   “I can’t believe I’m back in New Zealand Suburbia. Why in the world are the roads so wide? Also, I can’t believe I have been sitting in this restaurant for three minutes and no one has served me. The least they could have done was yell ‘welcome’ at the top of their lungs.”

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Symptoms​

• Free-floating anxiety.  Anxious but don’t know why.

• Lack of self-confidence.

• Lack of energy or interest in life.

• Panic attacks.

• Loss of initiative and spontaneity.

• Excessive anger over minor things.

• Feelings of hopelessness.

• Strong desire to associate with people of your own culture or nationality.

• Excessive amount of time spent isolated, avoiding exposure to the foreign environment.

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Ways to Cope with It 

"Give it time!  If you are experiencing Culture Shock, it does NOT mean that you are doing anything wrong. It is a natural reaction that many people go through.

 

Try the following to help deal with Culture Shock:

• Eat well.

• Exercise.

• Try relaxation techniques like meditation, yoga, or tactical breathing.

• Explore your neighborhood.

• Develop your network of friends here. Don’t isolate yourself.

• Don’t cut yourself off from the Japanese community around you.

• Keep a diary or journal. Write down why you came to Japan, and refer to those points.

• Learn to say “no” to things you don’t want to do and keep some time for yourself.

• If a lot of your trouble is coming from the inability to speak Japanese, study!

• Talk to people. Friends, family, support lines."

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Cultural Fatigue

• "Coming to Japan means you must learn new patterns of behavior and figure out how to navigate social situations.

• In our home countries we know how to have a conversation and how interactions are supposed to work.

• We get a small dose of satisfaction, a small buzz, a little psychic boost from an interaction gone well.

• But in a different country and culture, interactions must be learned.

• We don’t get those doses of satisfaction that come from a conversation that is “complete” or “whole”, but rather little shocks that are the result of things not going the way we are used to.

• These shocks accumulate.

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• Culture fatigue describes the cumulative effect of constantly being confronted with these little shocks.

• ‘Culture shock’ implies one big jolt, but for most people it’s the small, sometimes even imperceptible aspects of life that build up and cause culture fatigue.

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• Some common things that can get at people: being compared with past JETs, foreigners; being stared at; getting asked the same questions over and over; smoking and drinking; sexism.

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Feeling Crazy?

• The culture shock graph is often used to express the cycles we go through in a different culture, but in reality it may feel like total chaos.

• It’s normal to feel crazy at first.

• Usually over time the severity of the dips and peaks becomes less.

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Ideas on Coping

• Coping with culture fatigue requires mourning.

  • You lose something by coming to Japan.

• When you come to a different culture, it’s like going to a circus and looking at yourself in one of those fun mirrors that distort your image.

  • You look at yourself and you don’t recognize yourself.

  • You’ve lost the normal you.

• People see you differently than you are used to being seen, and you may even see yourself differently.

• You need to mourn your loss (the loss of family, friends, and your own identity).

  • Just like any time you experience grief, it’s important to acknowledge what you feel and move on.

• Over time, the mirror image gets more familiar, and hopefully you come to like what you see.

• Moving to another culture is a big transition.

• Think back to other transitions in your life (university, 1st job, etc.).

  • Try drawing a graph with time on one axis and how you felt on the other.

  • Chart out how you felt before the transition to after the transition.

  • Chart about 15 months (3 months before the transition to 1 year after the transition).

  • What patterns do you see?

  • Also, what did you do to cope with challenges of transition?

• The things that worked in the past are most likely to work for you now. 

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• Adjustment is an intensely personal experience.

• Often children, when they are taken to another country or culture, revert back to behaviors that they had grown out of (which drives their parents nuts).

• Similarly, when the social carpet gets pulled out from under our feet, we may revert back to old ways and habits that we struggled to get over.  In technical terms this is called ‘regression in the service of the ego.’

• A helpful strategy to help with adjustment:

  • Write out what about Japan particularly bothers you.

  • Not so you can bash Japan, but because it’s important to know where Japan bothers you.

• Pay attention to how you’re feeling, how riled up you are or aren’t when you make your list. 

  • Instead of thinking ‘Why do they always do that?’ trying thinking ‘Why do I always react like this when they do that?’

• Sometimes it helps to pick where not to adjust so you can adjust more fully in other areas.

• It’s also important to know and accept your personal style.

  • Are you introverted or extroverted?

  • Optimist or pessimist?

  • Do you talk slow or fast in conversation?

  • What do you say to yourself when something good happens?

  • Something bad happens?

  • Do you think through problems or feel them out?

• Knowing yourself can help you figure out how to cope and adjust.

• Keep in mind that whatever worked for you before will help you now.

• Use your experiences as a way to know yourself better and learn what’s important to you.

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• Here’s another metaphor:  We are like a jewel, and culture is like the light.  When light comes from a different source or angle, the jewel looks different.  Sometimes just a little change makes the jewel shine, and other times it makes it look dull and unimpressive.  It’s not the jewel’s or the light’s fault, it’s the result of the interaction. It’s not Japan’s fault, it’s not your fault.  It’s the result of the interaction between the two."

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SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

• "Some of you from the more northern parts of the English-speaking realm may scoff at Kyushu winters  (I’m looking at you Canadians, Alaskans, Scottish North Highlanders), but no matter where you’re from, by the time February comes around, not only have you had enough, but your mind’s taken a beating as well.

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Symptoms​

• Hopelessness

• Anxiety

• Loss of energy

• Social withdrawal

• Oversleeping

• Loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed

• Appetite changes (especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates)

• Weight gain

• Difficulty concentrating

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Ways to Avoid It​

• See "Coping Mechanisms" below for more advice.

• Exercise, go outside and see friends! Sometimes a change of scene can help.

• "Light Therapy: Get a “Light Box.” These aren’t just UV lamps, regular light bulbs, or heat lamps, so make sure you get SAD specific ones. Just 30 minutes a day, usually in the morning, has been shown to help with SAD symptoms.

• Diet: SAY NO TO CONBINI’S! Eat well, cook your own food, and failing that, make sure you keep your supply of fruit and veggies up. You’ll feel better about yourself and your lifestyle.

• Counseling: Professional help can be a good idea, especially as a last resort!"

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References: http://kumamotojet.com/shin/index.php/living-in-kumamoto/health/mental-health/

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