Why do I always get sick when I’m living abroad?
Posted by Massive_Struggle_801@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 10 comments
Normally I'm a healthy person and I rarely get sick, and even then when I do it's usually not severe at all.
In the past 2 years, I've been living abroad away from my family. In those 2 years I have experienced the following conditions:
- heart palpitations and difficulty breathing that led to me going to the ER
- got diagnosed with a wrist condition called De
Quervain's tenosynovitis
- got a REALLY bad rash that covered, and I'm not exaggerating, 100% of my skin surface. This happened twice
- got my lymph nodes swollen in my neck and it made me really sick for about 3 weeks. Before that I didn't even know such a sickness existed
- got a, I believe, compression nerve in my neck that made my arm hurt in excruciating pain, made my fingers swollen, and made my hand partially numb
- Gotten a condition (I don't even know why this is happening) that made me throw up every day after food, and it also made me extremely sensitive to any smell to the point that I would throw up after doing something with very minimal smells like putting on my face moisturizer
Why is this happening to me when I'm abroad? Is it stress? Is it the place that I was living in?
u_scout@reddit
Moving abroad always stress + random illnesses. That hit your hard — new climate, food, even hidden stuff like mold. I had similar situation when I moved. Personal health insurance is useful and will save you money
The-American-Abroad@reddit
Did you move next to a chemical plant?
Careful-Inside-3835@reddit
You’re not alone I’ve been struggling with allergies since I moved and it’s getting better but if I get a cold all hell breaks lose.
DifferentCut3708@reddit
Changing the bio atmosphere that your body is adapted to definitely affects the immune system and other physiological systems of the body. Even mental health get affected due to migration. The risk of getting schezophrenia for example increases a lot with migration.
Material_Skin_3166@reddit
Home sickness?
Massive_Struggle_801@reddit (OP)
Could be 🤷♀️
spara-budget@reddit
When I moved to Broad last year, I think I got two maybe three heavy colds in the first couple months. My doctor in Spain said that my body is probably not used to Spain. What I took to mean that sensibly I love to who the viruses the bacteria whatever.
Or it was just a coincidence
Your situation sounds like maybe be stressed like everyone else said
I thought that you said that you don’t have much more stress. I don’t think I do either, but there are daily unacknowledged stressors if I had to list them all out just the feeling of being out of my comfort zone. I generally enjoy that, but there may be something stressful in not speaking the language as well I’ve not known the customs as well being away from family being away from friends, etc. etc. etc..
FinestTreesInDa7Seas@reddit
A few of these things sound like they could be caused by stress. Do you feel a lot of stress from living abroad?
Massive_Struggle_801@reddit (OP)
I mean yeah I do but not any more than the stress I feel at home
Topaz_11@reddit
Getting older - sounds to me like those would have happened in any location.