{"id":764,"date":"2026-09-18T15:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alexandrebartoli.com\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T15:11:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T18:11:38","slug":"brasileiro-no-exterior-saudade-adaptacao-e-saude-mental","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexandrebartoli.com\/en_us\/brasileiro-no-exterior-saudade-adaptacao-e-saude-mental\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazilian abroad: homesickness, adaptation, and mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When life outside Brazil seems to be going well, but something still weighs on you inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You end a call with the family on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conversation went well. You talked about the week, exchanged news, and laughed at a few things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when the call ends, the silence of the house seems even heavier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the outside, a lot may have been functioning well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The career advanced. The routine became more organized. Life gained new possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet that does not erase the longing, the loneliness, or the feeling of still trying to find your place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living abroad is more than just changing your address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You also need to rebuild your references, connections, routine, and sense of belonging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this process does not happen in a linear way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are days when you feel completely integrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At other times, a meal, a song, a conversation in Portuguese, or an important date in Brazil can remind you of the distance from everything that still makes up part of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps one of the most difficult parts is admitting that these two experiences can exist at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can acknowledge the opportunities you've earned while still missing the life you left behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may like living away from home and still feel lonely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may have made an important choice for your life and continue facing difficulties in adapting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing does not invalidate the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem begins when you realize that you need to be okay all the time to justify the decision to leave Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you continue to function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solve problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meets commitments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maintain contact with those who have left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they start to notice changes in sleep, difficulty resting, irritability, fatigue, or the sense that time off is never enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the point isn't to try to eliminate homesickness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may be important to understand the place it occupies in your story and to build a life abroad where you do not need to abandon what is also part of who you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belonging does not mean erasing your origins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also does not mean choosing between Brazil and the country where you live today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many cases, it means being able to build a life that accommodates both of these references.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And perhaps this is an important question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How has it been for you to live through what you achieved abroad without having to deny homesickness, loneliness, or the difficulties that are also part of this experience?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When these questions start taking up too much space in your routine, psychotherapy can be a place to understand what is happening without having to explain or justify how you feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandre Bartoli <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psychologist \u2013 CRP-04 \/ 86889<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quando a vida fora do Brasil parece ter dado certo, mas alguma coisa ainda pesa por dentro. Voc\u00ea termina uma chamada com a fam\u00edlia no domingo. A conversa foi boa. Voc\u00eas falaram da semana, trocaram not\u00edcias, riram de algumas coisas. Mas, quando a liga\u00e7\u00e3o termina, o sil\u00eancio da casa parece maior. Por fora, muita coisa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brasileiros-no-exterior"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexandrebartoli.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexandrebartoli.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexandrebartoli.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexandrebartoli.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexandrebartoli.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alexandrebartoli.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":766,"href":"https:\/\/alexandrebartoli.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions\/766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexandrebartoli.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexandrebartoli.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexandrebartoli.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}