Reverse Culture Shock: What It Is and How to Handle It

Why Coming Home Is Often the Hardest Move

Reverse culture shock — the disorientation of returning to your passport country after living abroad — is one of the most documented and least anticipated experiences for TCKs. Most families prepare carefully for the move abroad. Very few prepare as carefully for the return.

The difficulty is compounded by the fact that nobody around the returning TCK can understand why it is hard. The child is home. They speak the language. They look the part. From the outside, there is nothing to adjust to. From the inside, everything feels foreign.

• What specifically feels unfamiliar or uncomfortable about being back in the passport country?
• Who in your life can actually understand what you are experiencing — and if nobody can, where might you find those people?
• Are you expecting yourself to feel at home faster than is realistic?
• What did you lose when you came back, that you are still grieving?

What Helps

• Have you given yourself permission to find this hard, without explaining it to people who don’t understand?
• Is there a TCK community — online or in person — where you can talk to people who recognise what you’re describing?
• What are you doing to maintain connection with the cultures and places that shaped you?
• Are you seeking professional support from someone who understands the repatriation experience?