Expats: Watch Out for Depression!

I recently read the book called Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression — and the Unexpected Solution, and I realized something alarming: if you have a perfect life, being an expat automatically leads to a few causes of depression laid out in this book. In this article, I try to demonstrate this through the story of how I moved to the Netherlands in September of 2016, my unhappiness, and the solution I started to pursue.

The points I’m trying to raise are two things. First, if you think your depression is purely biological, maybe it is, maybe it’s not. I’d advise you to make sure that your environment doesn’t have the causes that lead to depression. I list those in the conclusion.

But the other point I’m trying to raise, which is very important, is that we must take active control of our environment as expats. Otherwise, we risk depression, and that’s not a good place to be in when you’re on your own, far away from relatives or family.

The Beginning

When I opened my eyes, it was a dark Saturday, much darker than I was used to.

It was September 10th, 2016. We had landed in Amsterdam on September first. The first week was a blur as I and my wife tried to get used to where the supermarket was, how I could get to work, and thinking of things she could do while she was stuck at home, waiting for us to get a white stick for her to be able to navigate.