Fellow students, especially those from overseas, must often hear the word homesick, that means missing your ex or family hehe, but do you know what homesick means, and what are the impacts, do you know? So, do you know how to solve it? OK, let’s discuss one by one. So homesickness is a feeling when we miss and are unhappy or feel lonely when we have to be separated from home and the people closest to us, for example when we migrate to continue our education such as going to college. This homesick state often causes us to have difficulty adjusting to a new environment. Usually, homesickness is a condition that most people experience at least once in their lives, and can affect our daily activities. 

Those who experience this homesick condition are usually overseas students, that is students who are studying higher education in a place far from their hometown, so they have to live in an overseas area during their studies. Students who are far from their families must be able to adapt to different cultures and face language barriers because the conditions in overseas areas are very inversely proportional to their hometowns, which can increase the possibility of homesick conditions. 

The condition of homesickness can be characterized by symptoms such as changes in mood that make us anxious and nervous and lonely, which makes us less able to control ourselvesRi always feels uncomfortable and insecure. Even a study byWatt and Badger in 2009 stated that homesick conditions can make a person cry often, become lethargic, and in very severe situations can think about committing suicide and the condition is hOmesick can also cause response disorders in bodily functions such as stomach ache, loss of appetite, sleep disturbances and headaches. 

The conditions that made overseas students because they are required to be independent, away from their parents, adapt to new environments and activities, and face cultural changes between their place of origin and where they live., nah if you fail to adapt, psychological disorders can arise like stress due to environmental changes and new people who are different from the conditions in their hometown. In the end, this condition can cause feelings of anxiety, insecurity and discomfort as well as loneliness.

Most overseas students who experience homesickness feel high levels of stress with emotional symptoms being more dominant than physical symptoms. Apart from that, students who are not at home or are homesick while overseas tend to be unable to focus and are lazy about studying in lectures because they always feel like going back to their hometown when compared to students who do not experience homesickness. 

Usually the state of homesickness is caused by several factors, for example, when we have difficulty adapting to the university environment and new environments and our habits of always being at home or what we usually call home children. 

So, difficulty adapting to a new environment is usually characterized by dissatisfaction with the new environment because the conditions on campus and overseas areas do not match what we imagined before we decided to migrate. And because of our habit of always being at home or being home children, we find it difficult to adjust to new environments and start friendships with new people in these overseas areas. 

Because our condition is difficult to adapt and socialize with new friends in overseas areas, this is what makes us feel lonely and feel uncomfortable and insecure if we are in overseas areas and this is where the homesick condition arises which makes us always miss house condition as well as people-people If you are at home, you will usually feel homesick and want to return to your hometown often for unreasonable periods of time 

It turns out that the homesick condition experienced by overseas students can be overcome easily and relatively quickly, here are some tips and tricks that you can use to overcome this condition: 

1. Socialize and start making friends with new people in overseas areas so as not to make us feel too lonely, this is because the presence of friends can replace the role of relatives and closest people at home temporarily while in overseas areas. 
2. Find out and join organizations for students who have the same area as us and make friends with people who have the same area as us. This is done so that we feel familiar and will make us comfortable because we feel that the conditions are the same as ours. when we are in the home area. 
3. Doing recreation and exploring overseas areas with new friends or with friends who come from the same area as us.
4. Doing activities, for example joining organizations such as HIMA (Student Association), committees, UKM (Student Activity Unit) on campus and developing hobbies or taking part in volunteering. 
5. Make the boarding room as comfortable as possible for us. This is done so that we no longer feel unfamiliar with the atmosphere in the boarding room. 
6. Routinely contacting family at home, by contacting family we can reduce longing for our parents by hearing their voices or seeing the faces of our family.

Bibliography 

Ali, S. et al. 2020. Acculturative Stress in International Students at Airlangga University – Indonesia. Society. 8(1): 128–140 

Archer, J. et al. 1998. Derivation of A Homesickness Scale. British Journal of Psychology. 89(2): 205–221. 

Duven, C. J. 2018. The Problem with Homesickness: A New Way of Coming Home. Disertasi. Iowa State University: Amerika Serikat. 

Firdaus, M. 2022. The Relationship between Self Compassion and Homesickness in New Students at Islamic Boarding Schools. Nusantara: Journal of Social Sciences. 9(4): 1240–1246. 

Kompasiana. 2020. Mental Health: Homesickness among Students, How to Overcome and Motivate Overseas Students?. Accessed October 26, 2023, from https://www.kompasiana.com/aprizafajriyah4967/629214c9ce96e5557a587572/mental-health -homesickness-dikalangan-mahasiswa-how-cara-mengatasi-dan-memotiv-pada-mahasiswa-ra ntau 

Lestari, M. 2021. The Relationship Between Sense of Belonging and Homesickness in New Students at Islamic Boarding Schools. Al-Qalb: Journal of Islamic Psychology. 

Mozafarinia, F. dan Tavafian, S. 2014. Homesickness and Coping Strategies among International Students Studying in University Technology Malaysia. Health Education and Health Promotion. 

Psychology.Ui.ac.id. 2023. Anti-Homesick Tips, Here are 3 Ways Students Can Easily Adapt When Studying Outside the City. Accessed October 26, 2023, from https://psikologi.ui.ac.id/2023/07/28/tips-anti-homesick-ini-3-cara-mahasiswa-mudah-berada ptasi-saat-kuliah-di-besar -city/

Author

1. Agnatha Aqilah Kunamae
2. Muhammad Zidane Az Zikro
3. Siti Mahaida
4. Tazkia Aisya Karen