Whether it hits full force those first few days on foreign soil or starts to simmer below the surface weeks or months into your work, culture-shock is an equal-opportunity malady that can make even the most culturally-savvy and resilient individual feel like a homesick yokel that just wants to be back to where things feel stable and familiar.

These are all common expressions of culture shock that play themselves out in your head. You might even find yourself feeling a bit ashamed of how culturally insensitive your inner-voice can sound. You can evaluate the thoughts rationally and you know better than to let these petty feelings interfere with your work, but that built up frustration—both conscious and unconscious—that grows when working in situations where the rules you’ve lived by your whole life suddenly don’t apply is enough to push many to their breaking point.