It is easy to get dismayed about the little annoyances in life when you move to Kyiv – the polluted air, the gloomy grey buildings and the unhelpful people in shops and restaurants.
This is what Violetta Sokol, a psychologist at American Medical Centers in Kyiv, calls the depression that expatriated can feel when struggling to adapt to the new society and surroundings.
“Many expats in Ukraine suffer from this,” said Sokol, adding that around seven patients a month come to see her with the disorder’s symptoms.
The World Health Organization classifies adjustment disorder as “a state of subjective distress and emotional disturbance, usually interfering with social functioning and performance and arising in the adaptation to a significant life change.”
Andriy Mukhomorov, a psychiatrist who treats expats, said: “I have had several foreign patients suffering from depression … that arose because of the sudden change of physical social and psychological environment.”
The usual lack of knowledge of Russian and Ukrainian leaves new arrivals feeling “disoriented and uninformed,” he said.
Another problem for Americans and Western Europeans is that Ukraine is “less civilized than many of the country’s the expats tend to come from,” said Sokol.
This means that dealing with everyday tasks became a major source of stress, explained Mukhomorov.
“When foreigners come here they face very basic problems like which supermarket to go to, where to wash their clothes. These things tend to be more complicated in Ukraine than in other European countries,” he said.
Additionally there is an issue of people being downcast, unfriendly and harsh on the streets. “Ukraine is a very gloomy place. It can bring you down,” said Zachary Davis, 28, an American expat who moved to Ukraine less than a year ago. “Endless grey blocks and rundown facades; it seems that everything’s grey around you,” he recalled his feelings when he first came.
When foreigners arrive they tend to be constantly invited for heavy drinks, especially given that our people tend to be very hospitable.
– Violetta Sokol, a psychologist at American Medical Centers in Kyiv
Another American, Christina Mahler, was unsettled by the ignorance on the streets.
“People don’t react. If there is a fight or someone is hitting a child, nobody gets involved, they just pretend that they did not see anything,” Mahler said.
All of these factors can lead to depression.
But, taken all together, some psychologists say these add up to something much more serious than just minor irritants – “adjustment disorder.”
“The first symptom is usually sleeping disorder, then because people can’t sleep, they are unproductive and lack concentration at work, then general frustration and dissatisfaction occur,” psychiatrist Mukhomorov said.
Another cause of stress and depression can be the amount and availability of alcohol. “When foreigners arrive they tend to be constantly invited for heavy drinks, especially given that our people tend to be very hospitable,” Sokol said.
“Alcohol, however, blocks the receptors in the brain that enable a person to relax.”
According to the specialists, the potential for depression that these issues carry are intensified when autumn comes and everything becomes gray and wet, especially given that the winters are so long.
To some expatriates Ukrainian women can also become a further source of stress. Their beauty, Sokol said, can put a strain on relationships as men get tempted and women become jealous.
Not everyone agrees. “I do not find Kyiv gloomy at all,” said Damian Olesnycky, an American expatriate who moved to Ukraine for work some two years ago. “I prefer it to New York because it’s greener, less fast and smaller. I also like Ukrainian girls more than other girls; simply because they are great,” he added.
Olesnycky is not alone in his feeling of happiness.
“I think the cross-cultural moments are invented,” said Stanislav Hohel, a psychologist with many foreign clients. “If a person decides to come to Ukraine, he or she normally knows what they are going for. Foreigners turn to me with common problems that Ukrainians also face.”
Sokol counters that foreigners may face the same problems as Ukrainians, but they don’t know how to deal with them as well as locals.
“A Ukrainian takes beer or a cake and goes to see his neighbor. Afterwards the world looks different. Foreigners get depressed and see a psychologist,” she said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Rina Soloveitchik can be reached at [email protected]
