Thailand and the expatriate experience

Thailand's citizens are heavy consumers of alcohol, and this suits the drinking culture of many expatriates who settle here. Alcohol is both cheap and plentiful.

Thailand is an alcoholic's haven. Expatriates drink unchecked, to the point where over drinking can become a problem. This sometimes within the tourist enclaves leads to bar fights, which cause damage and problems to local businesses.

There are also longer term problems of depression, anxiety, and sickness that are being left unchecked with retirees in Thailand.

Many expatriates marry local girls and settle in places like Issan where there is an embedded drinking culture. Boredom often leads to excess drinking in these remote villages, as expatriates find it very difficult to settle into the local culture. Many expatriates living in this region have alcohol issues, which escape assistance and treatment.

Unfortunately there are no programs available to solve the expatriate drinking problem in Thailand. This problem has not been formally identified in any health studies, and Thai authorities have no programs or resources to tackle this issue. Likewise foreign embassies have no responsibilities over these types of issues concerning their nationals, so this problem will most likely continue to grow and fester over time.

Another major issue is depression. Boredom, inability to adjust and settle in, a failed marriage, loss of savings, are some of the causes of deep depression in retirees. Some expatriates come to Thailand with existing problems such as debt in their home country, or leaving wives and children at home, in search of something better. Some just come with not enough money to retire on.

Almost every week there is a report about an expatriate death in a house or hotel room. This is common enough for Pattaya to be called the suicide capital of Thailand.

Many suicides occur because of depression. Some have suspicious circumstances where foul play from a spouse or lover may be involved, although murders tend to be rare. There are also the stories of those falling off balconies, where speculation about contract style murders is common in social media.

In addition, with the common demographic of retirees being over fifty, so many arrive in Thailand not in the best of health and die here. British figures indicate that there were 389 British deaths alone in Thailand in 2013.

According to statistics collated by the website "Farang Deaths", 25% of foreign deaths in Thailand occur from road accidents, 20% from drowning, and 12% through other accidental reasons. One of the biggest issues is the lack of training and emergency accident treatment resources available. Very few people are trained in CPR and other methods which can save lives in accident situations.

From the Thai point of view as summed up by my informant, many deaths occur to people with little or no financial resources and/or next of kin. Under resourced Thai Police and other authorities have the thankless task of dealing with all these cases, which often occurs under heavy criticism. As my informant said, "We didn't cause these deaths, but in the end get blamed for them".

This leads to crime. Foreigners are operating fraud schemes, scams, passport and credit card fraud schemes all over Thailand. "Foreigners do the crimes and Thailand gets the bad reputation for it", said my informant.