Reverse culture shock refers to the experience of isolation, disorientation and struggle to readjust after you come back from your gap year, and it can hit you hard if you are not careful and should not be ignored or underestimated as it can lead to a lot of serious mental health problems. Here are some ways you can deal with the shock of returning home from your travels around the world.
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Michael Huxley is a published author, professional adventurer and founder of the travel website, Bemused Backpacker. He has spent the last twenty years travelling to over 100 countries on almost every continent, slowly building Bemused Backpacker into a successful business after leaving a former career in emergency nursing and travel medicine, and continues to travel the world on numerous adventures every year.
Bemused Backpacker 
I love your videos, really wish you would do more of them! And especially on important topics like these, mental health is such an important topic and rarely gets talked about like it should do.
Thanks so much Alice. I’ll try better!
I’ve had reverse culture shock after my gap year ended. Life at home can seem so pointless afterward and you need to fill our life with something other than just work and catching up with friends. I’m planning my next trip as we speak!
It’s not an easy thing to deal with Kath but I hope planning your next trip is helping?
I have just returned home from over 6 months of travelling and I started to feel some of the things you talk about here so am taking your advice and am planning to do it all over again, except this time I plan on saving enough money to travel for at least a year. I think that alone has given me purpose and made the 9 to 5 work I am doing have some meaning, and that has helped focus everything again. Great video.
Thanks Kieran, having that purpose genuinely does help,and also knowing that your adventure isn’t behind you and is certainly not over. That definitely makes the interlude of work worth it!
Thank you so much for this video! I have been dealing with this myself since we came back from 6 months in Thailand and Vietnam. I really appreciate this post. There are no easy answers but it does help to know you’re not alone.
Thanks Erica, I hope it helps in some way. 🙂
I never knew that reverse culture shock was an actual thing, never mind a thing with an actual name but I’ve felt it myself I just didn’t know what it was at the time. Its actually nice to find out I’m not the only one.
A lot of people don’t Jenny, but I know what you mean. It helps knowing others are going through that process too.
I find it so hard to relate to those at home after my (just over) gap year. My priorities have completely changed now and it seems like nothing has changed at home, everyone just cares about what is on Netflix or who is seeing who or work. Stuff that I just can’t get myself interested in any more.
I know exactly what you mean Maria
This so hits home. It took me weeks to semi readjust to being home after my gap year. I burst into tears when my plane took off. unbelievably grateful for the time and experiences I had but just did not want to face the fact they were over. Planning a new trip really helped
I can imagine Rachel, it’s hard when a long trip comes to an end, but it doesn’t have to be.
Something I never gave much thought, but you’re absolutely right!
Thanks, and to be fair most people don’t give it a thought either, which is one of the main reasons it hits so many people hard because they just aren’t prepared for it.
We were away for 2 years and returned home just a few months ago and you are so right, NOTHING at all had changed, same old same old, and it felt like we just didn’t fit in anymore.
We tried our best, but after a few months home we’re planning to get back on the road – open ended!
Good on you!
Wow what an amazing video, it is so true! Thank you for saying this, I honestly thought we were the only ones!
A lot of people think that Lisa, hopefully this will make a lot of them realise they aren’t, and hopefully that will help them deal with things a little easier.
Amazing, mental health is such an important topic.
It really is.
Well said.
Thanks.
When my year in South America ended and i came home, the moment I got home I was so lost. It was nice to see family and friends after a year away but there was so many things upsetting me and making me angry as when you come back that sense of loss you talk about is very very real. I lost my freedom. you see everything differently but everyone wants to put you back in that same box as before. I honestly couldn’t fit back in. Now I am in Malaysia and loving it. I feel I have found everything I had lost again.
That’s great to hear Valerie, travel really is the best medicine!
There are some really interesting thoughts on this video and my trip doesn’t end for another 6 months (I am in Peru at the moment) but I am definitely going to work on some of these ideas. This has been the time of my life and I really don’t want it to end.
I know exactly what you mean Celia, but being prepared for it really is the best way to deal with it.
Thank you for making this video. I don’t feel quite so alone now.
Aw Samantha one thing you are never are is alone, not with other travellers. Plenty of us have felt this way more than once. 🙂
I found one of the best ways I dealt with coming home (and it is really hard I agree) was to cook a lot of the foods I ate when travelling, I love cooking and did a lot of traditional cookery classes while I was away, so cooking all those traditional meals brought back all the smells and tastes of my travels. It really helped bring back all those memories.
Oh that is an amazing way to bring that nostalgia back! I love it.
Great advice. I am really not looking forward to ending my gap year (okay, gap year and a half, I extended it!) But plan to save up for my next big trip so hopefully it won’t be too bad.
Good luck with the saving Cillian! Hopefully it won’t be too long till you’re back on the road.
Can so relate to this! Coming home can be so hard
It really can Lisa!