Bahtatboy

I think you've just given the game away...

co durham boy

Don't get connected and distance yourself from situations , it's the only way . This place is alien and you must learn to counteract all the nonsense that it throws at you . Surviving the day to day shite is the main part . Some of the best engineers and PM's i have come across haven't been able to hack it just because they couldn't adapt. No shame in that as some people just aren't cut out for it .

Doha is a toilet but once you get your head round how it works or doesn't work then it's a breeze mate . Qatar is a bit like Hartlepool , full of weird locals with strange cultural practices just a lot hotter and more expensive

NorthernLad

I would imagine monkey hanging would be something that would catch-on over there.

co durham boy

Bang on chief

Meow

On a basic level I am quite sure that those who struggle in the ME are often the ones who have an expectation that things will be just like in the UK but with more sun and sand.

Kakawax

To be fair on the poor souls, paying tax again must be incredibly traumatic.!

Bahtatboy

Now go and wash your mouth out with soap. (Where's the shudder smilie?)

Ali84

Cheers mate, after nearly 2 years here i see what you mean. i worked out i need to get out every 8-12 weeks to avoid going mental. even a weekend in bahrain or dubai helps to blow off steam

Ali84

Yup those i have seen not last their probation tend think it will be like a working holiday in marbella

Standanista

It's like taking psychedelics: it can be a bad trip or an interesting and rewarding one, but ultimately none of it is real. Get a good shaman to see you through, hopefully with a bucketful of cash at the end of it.

Meow

Why is life in the ME not real?

I do a real job (well, kind of), live in a real house, go to a real supermarket, children go to real schools, do real laundry. My life isn't really that much different to when I was in London.

scrubbedexpat141

It is real life, completely.

Take the bills for example. They're 100% real.

Millhouse

Come on... the difference is exactly the reason why we are still here and not in London.

The basic issue is that people say that the "hard" bits of living in the UK is what makes it "real". Life is not any less real here, its just not as hard.

Standanista

It's not real because we're living in The Matrix. The trappings of life which maintain expats' mental health - the Friday brunches, the Western compounds, the pork counter at Spinney's, the highly-priced British curriculum schools - and which keep us here in relative perceived sanity so we keep the system ticking over, are the blue pill, but they're not representative of the Middle East. Yes it's easy, until you cross a line (which is not drawn by you) and then you find out how alien the place is, as co durham boy says. Granted, the further away you get from the shiny expat enclaves, out past the work camps on the city outskirts, the realer the place gets in one sense.

Kakawax

Some interesting perspectives...

Do you think that the expats who are more effected by mental health issues are those confined, as it where, to a single location, working and living in the same area with few opportunities to travel and experience other locales..?

Obviously there are more factors, such as disposition, accommodation, income etc, but I think it can get very demotivating to be in a role with limited contact to others outside the work group, and the daily grind can soon wear one down regardless of location, but must be even more frustrating given the difficulties of weather and culture in the ME.