Have you ever struggled with your mental health?

Yes. I have struggled with my mental health before when I first came here. In my first two weeks at school, I saw lots of changes in my life. You know, it's new environment, new language, new people, and like everything surrounding me is awkward.

 

What caused the problem?

For my case, I struggled with my mental health a little for no reason. Definitely, I don’t know why.

I think it is because of friendship. I thought I needed to meet new friends who come from another countries in this new environment, culture,and the other reason why I struggled is that I miss my country. 

​

Did you tell your parents/guardians/family about this?

I told this to my parents, because I thought my feeling would be better to talk this topic to my parents than not to talk with this topic.

​

Did they understand what you're going through?

I think they understand my feeling but not a hundred percent, because parents haven’t experienced to go abroad to study in young ages like us. You know, people can’t understand completely without experiencing directly.

 

Did you tell anyone? How did they respond?

Yes, I called my Korean friend, who is in the USA as international student, and another one who lives in Korea. Their response are different to deal with this issue. First person feel empathy with my feeling, which "we do well in the school but inside, we feel something lonely and sad." The second person doesn’t understand how I feel, they just think "you are lucky that you get out of Korea", which is a good point, "how lucky you are, your situation is better than Korean students".

​

How did you cope?

There are books written in my mother tongue in the library near my home, so I read books which make me feel better, or I just talk to myself “you are doing well” “don’t worry too much” “don’t push yourself". I know the way I can survive this environment is loving myself, and then it is easier to survive here. There is another way to help me out to survive here,I listen songs which raise me up such as “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” or something like this songs. More importantly, I enjoy learning new things from school (but not always).

​

Did you seek professional help?

No, I didn’t, because I can handle my mental health by myself, but if I have opportunity to talk with a counselor, I want to talk about how I feel nowadays and discuss about something in my life.