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Regardless of how excited you are about starting college, you could still be struck with homesickness, especially if you have never been away from your family for any length of time before. You suddenly find yourself in a situation where you have to make your own daily routine, you have to adjust to college life and make new friends. All this with no mom, dad or sibling to give you a hug and tell you that you can do it.

Homesickness Is Normal

Homesickness is a natural reaction to a sudden change that takes you away from all that you are familiar with. Everyone has thoughts of home, but for some people, it becomes an obsession that sees them crying a lot and not able to concentrate on the work they should be doing. For some students, it is so severe that they seek teen depression treatment to help them through the first few months. It’s far more common than you might think.

You should not think you are weird or strange because you are missing home and once you accept that everyone is feeling it to some degree, you will be on the right road to dealing with it.

Get To Know Your New Surroundings

Part of feeling homesick is being in strange surroundings. Get to know the campus and the surrounding area by walking around it to find out where everything is. Remember, you are not on your own in feeling this way and you may well find that others would like to walk with you, as they need to discover things as well.

Get Involved

At home. you were an important part of a family and now suddenly you are one of hundreds. To overcome this feeling you need to get involved in college life.  There are often volunteering opportunities, you could become involved in campus politics, or join some of the college clubs.  Filling your social time with meeting people who have similar interests will make you feel less lonely and help you to make new friends.

Keep In Touch With Home

Keeping in touch with your family is an important part of helping you to miss them less. Hearing one of your parents on the other end of a phone each day can be very comforting to start with, but eventually, as you start to feel better, you should try to wean yourself off this habit. When you are feeling low it is great to know they are still there for you if you need them, but at the end of the day, you are making a new life of your own. They will always be part of your life, but you should not make it so that you cannot cope without daily contact.

Talk To Your Friends

No matter how much you are told, it might not sink in that you are not the only one feeling this way unless you talk to your friends. Then you will understand how others are suffering too, and may even be able to do things together to ease the burden of homesickness for you and your friends.

This is an experience that many freshmen go through and part of the secret is to stay positive throughout. Eventually, you will get used to college life and not having your family so close and as it becomes part of normal life, the feelings of homesickness will start to diminish.