Everything Is in Place Except How I Feel: Depression in the Experience of Immigrating to Vancouver

During the first months, an immigrant may appear highly active and hopeful. They attend training programs, submit résumés, learn about different neighbourhoods, and find a solution to every obstacle. This constant activity does not always indicate psychological well-being. Sometimes, the nervous system has simply not yet allowed the person to stop.

Over time, the gap between what the person imagined immigration would be and what they have actually experienced becomes clearer. Their qualifications may not be recognized, career progress may be slower than expected, new friendships may lack the depth of previous relationships, or daily life may feel less like freedom and more like the constant management of expenses and responsibilities.

At this stage, the person is not grieving only for Iran or family members. They may also grieve a version of themselves who was known in their country of origin, held a recognized position, and could connect with others without having to translate their personality.

Housing in Vancouver is not merely an economic issue; it can directly affect a person’s sense of psychological security. Rising rent, uncertainty about lease renewal, living in a small space, being forced to share housing, or moving to a more distant area may transform the home from a place of rest into a constant source of threat.

A person may work longer hours to keep their home, reduce their sleep and social contact, and feel that they cannot afford to become ill or take time to rest. Under these circumstances, depression does not develop only through a person’s thoughts. It is also reinforced by financial insecurity, lengthy commutes, and the absence of private space.

One of the less visible wounds of immigration is the loss of professional status. Someone who worked as a physician, manager, professor, engineer, or therapist in Iran may be unable to practise in their field in Canada for a long time. Others may be unfamiliar with their experience, and their ability to communicate in English may be mistaken for the extent of their actual knowledge.

This experience involves more than reduced income. For many people, work is a source of identity, credibility, connection, and a sense of making a difference. When this structure is lost, they may feel that part of their human worth has also disappeared.

Comparing themselves with friends who progressed more quickly, or with people who immigrated after them, can deepen this wound. Social media often shows only the final result: a new home, a new job, or a trip—not the repeated rejections, debt, loneliness, and fear behind those images.

Therapy should help create distance between a person’s “current position” and their “personal worth,” without denying the genuine difficulty of their professional journey. The goal is not to persuade someone to accept an undesirable situation. It is to prevent systemic failure or delays in their career path from becoming a final judgment about their identity.

Speaking a second language involves more than using different words. A person must simultaneously process tone, humour, irony, the pace of conversation, and the environment’s unwritten rules. Even someone with strong English skills may feel cognitively exhausted after a working day.

Some immigrants appear quieter at work than they truly are because they need more time to enter a conversation. Someone who was humorous, quick-witted, and sociable in Farsi may feel that they are presenting a reduced version of themselves in an English-speaking environment.

This gap can lead to a form of identity-related loneliness: other people see the person, but the person does not feel genuinely known. Under these circumstances, receiving therapy in Farsi is not simply a more convenient option. It offers an opportunity to speak about shame, anger, longing, and feelings of failure without linguistic self-censorship.

Vancouver can be both a social and profoundly isolating city. A person may have many colleagues, classmates, and acquaintances but no one they can call when they are having a difficult day.

Building friendships in adulthood requires repeated contact, time, and gradual vulnerability. Long working hours, the geographical spread of Metro Vancouver, and commuting between Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, or North Vancouver can make relationships difficult to maintain.

As contact becomes less frequent, a person may interpret it as evidence that they are unlikeable. However, the problem does not always lie in their social skills or personality. Sometimes, the structure of their new life has not provided enough opportunity for acquaintances to develop into close relationships.

Shorter days and reduced daylight during autumn and winter can affect some people’s sleep, energy, and mood. However, every winter decline in mood should not immediately be labelled seasonal affective disorder.

A seasonal pattern becomes a more significant consideration when changes in mood and energy repeatedly occur during a specific season, affect daily functioning, and improve as the season changes.

A therapist should assess whether reduced energy is associated with daylight and seasonal changes or whether working conditions, insufficient sleep, loneliness, and physical health concerns play more significant roles. Light therapy is not appropriate for everyone and should preferably be used in consultation with a physician or other qualified professional, particularly when there is a history of bipolar symptoms.

Whenever some immigrants experience a moment of peace or success, they simultaneously think about their family in Iran. Enjoyment may be accompanied by guilt: “How can I be happy here when they are struggling?”

Family contact is not always supportive either. A person may need to soothe their parents’ worries, manage the family’s financial problems, and conceal their own difficulties to avoid causing further concern. Gradually, they become a source of support for everyone else without having anywhere to receive support themselves.

Culturally responsive therapy is not intended to label family attachment as unhealthy or encourage the person to end contact. The purpose is to establish boundaries that preserve love and responsibility without turning the person into an unlimited source of money, reassurance, and problem-solving.

For an immigrant, low mood may be associated with several interconnected layers: grief, loneliness, discrimination, loss of status, housing insecurity, family conflict, and the gap between past and present identities. If therapy focuses only on eliminating negative thoughts, it may overlook an important part of the person’s lived reality.

Treatment can address several areas simultaneously:

Farsi-language sessions allow the person’s experience to be explored without losing important cultural nuances. However, a therapist should not assume that they already understand a client’s experience simply because they are also Iranian. Culture should be explored and understood, not imposed on the individual.

Online sessions can make specialized treatment more accessible to Farsi-speaking residents of Vancouver, North Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, and Coquitlam—particularly those dealing with lengthy commutes, demanding work schedules, or low energy.

Online treatment should not mean superficial therapy or an unfocused conversation. An assessment should consider symptom severity, daily functioning, any history of previous episodes, physical health, medication and substance use, sleep quality, social support, and the potential risk of self-harm. Clear and measurable treatment goals should then be established.

Perhaps the Problem Is Not That You Have Failed to Adapt to Vancouver

A person experiencing depression may place the entire responsibility for their suffering on themselves: “I am not sociable, strong, or adaptable enough.” However, mental health is not merely the product of an individual’s mindset. Housing, employment, language, relationships, discrimination, access to daylight, distance from family, and the availability of support all shape a person’s experience.

Therapy is not intended to prepare someone to tolerate difficult circumstances indefinitely. Its purpose is to help them understand what within themselves requires treatment, what needs to change in their environment, and where they need additional support.

If you feel that you have merely been managing life since immigrating, if outward achievements no longer feel meaningful, or if your connection with yourself, other people, and the future has weakened, you do not need to wait for the situation to become more severe.

To receive depression counselling in Farsi, you can book an initial online assessment. During this session, your experience of depression will be explored within the real context of your life, allowing treatment to be designed not solely around a diagnostic label, but according to your identity, immigration circumstances, and individual needs.