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It's a wild, wild life for expats

By Todd Balazovic (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-24 08:05

It's a disorder that's been spreading through the expat population for years, undetected, untreatable. It starts as soon as you step off the plane and doesn't stop until you leave. It infects family, destroys morals and defiles sense of duty.

It's expatisis. The term, coined by family physician and health blogger, Dr Richard Saint-Cyr in a series of blog posts on his website My Health Blog (www.myhealthblog.com), gives a name to the phenomenon of increased drinking, smoking and stress experienced by a surprisingly high number of expats living in Beijing.

Expatitis, Dr Saint-Cyr explains in his blog, is "a syndrome of multiple physical and mental illnesses brought on by maladaptive coping mechanisms to the stressors inherent to living abroad".

In addition to increased attention to vices, he describes the condition as producing a decrease in sleep, healthy eating and exercise.

In other words - all those words of wisdom expat mothers lovingly passed on to their offspring are recklessly thrown to the wind.

Like high school students escaping parental control when they leave home for the first time, I have witnessed countless expats come to China and end up living a lifestyle reminiscent of their dorm days in university. It doesn't matter the age or the gender.

Having observed an unusually high prevalence of unhealthy behavior amongst my fellow expats, I have to agree with Dr Saint-Cyr's diagnosis. I've watched and wondered as expats come and go, what is it about being in Beijing that leads us to abandon self-regard? More so than anywhere else I've lived, I see people diving to the bottom of a bottle or to the bottom of a bag of McDonalds.

Though Dr Saint-Cyr's diagnosis of the symptoms may be correct, I am not entirely convinced that the root of Expat's detrimental deeds are simply a result of an inability to peacefully settle into a Beijing lifestyle.

I don't disagree that coping is involved in the wild ways we tend to gravitate towards, but I think that there is more to it than simply not being able to adapt.

The social norms that once upon a time dictated lifestyles back home have been replaced by the mores of a different culture and by an relaxing of social and personal inhibitions.

The critical eye once cast upon an individual doing something that would be atypical back home has been replaced by the notion that perhaps this is simply 'how foreigners do it.'

It's also important to look at the general personality types that China tends to attract. Most of them, with the exception of those who have no choice in the matter, come to China seeking an adventure.

They are the types of people who thrive of alternative lifestyles and, regardless of where they are living, reject standard social norms.

Coincidentally, perhaps, they are the type of people who also tend to enjoy more drinks, more cigarettes and less sleep.

It's easy to blame external factors for unhealthy behavior, but every lifestyle is a choice, regardless of location. Here there is a slackening of stability and responsibility that leaves even the most astute boy scout (or girl scout, for that matter) feeling a little more footloose, but that's not a reason to let the locale get the best.

While I'd rather be able to pop a pill to cure this listless lifestyle, the only real cure for expatitis is self-discipline and time.

Well, for now at least the problem has been diagnosed.