Moving house is a challenge no one can escape; unfortunately, it’s quite often related to causing moving anxiety. Whether you want to change the place where you live or the time for the family to buy a new home has come, everything has to be packed and transported to the new destination.
This takes time, effort and high expenses. What’s more disturbing is that relocation often causes moving anxiety, also known as post-moving depression. The symptoms are easy to notice and should not be ignored at any cost. Otherwise, there is a risk of causing severe harm to your psychological state and health.
Moving Anxiety Depression
Moving anxiety depression is a psychological condition that makes a person feels sad, hopeless and anxious about an upcoming, ongoing or recently completed relocation. Usually, such negative feelings do not last too long but often appear out of nowhere. Their source remains unidentified until the people suffering from moving anxiety return to their standard condition.
While under the influence of relocation anxiety, many tend to find it difficult to keep up with their responsibilities at work and home with the same success they used to. If the depression is major, it may cause significant disturbance to the individual’s work and primary everyday activities such as sleeping, eating and socializing.
Typical for any major depression, people who suffer from it may feel upset and unwilling to live completely. While other types of depression make people harm themselves, the anxiety from moving a house is far easier to handle and does not pose any significant threat to those with it. It will make your move easier and less stressful, avoiding moving anxiety.
Moving Anxiety Symptoms
The post moving depression is often related to many of the following symptoms:
- illogical worries
- problematic sleep
- headache
- Enteralgia (stomachache)
- problematic concentration and difficult decision making
Anxiety attacks are episodic moments of excessive increase in the scale of the symptoms. Fortunately, anxiety attacks are very rare among people who experience emotional stress from moving and are characterized by symptoms such as:
- Increased heart rate
- Respiratory problems (breath shortness)
- Sweating
- Minor paranoia
Symptoms like these are to appear in extreme conditions related to the moving out process. Alternations in the fixed schedule, price changes, and lost or broken belongings during the move are some of the most common issues. They may build upon a person’s moving anxiety symptoms.
If you find yourself in such a situation, try to calm down and ask someone close to deal with the details or take a long break to make the anxiety attack stop. After this, attempt to talk to the company’s customer support and arrange fair compensation.
If the symptoms continue for too long, try exercising first - do not take any medications until it is the only way to stop the anxiety attack.
Dealing With Stress During a Move
If the techniques provided above seem not to look reliable, refer to any of this advice on how to deal with the post moving depression and stress:
- Reduce the consumption of nicotine, alcohol and caffeine;
- Avoid eating manufactured foods that contain refined sugars;
- Take frequent walks outside. Do some physical activity to the extent that will not make you feel too tired.
- Restrain from food that is rich in sodium, such as salted butter, butter, margarine, olives, pickles, bacon etc.
Both - diet and regular exercise are essential for fighting stress effectively. If you follow the advice of being physically active and careful about what food you consume, the stress of moving out will disappear much faster than using alternative methods.
Plan and Organise Your Move Well
- Give yourself enough time to carefully plan your move.
- Prepare a to-do list with all the tasks you have to complete before your moving day.
- To lessen your burden, you should give each member of the family a couple of tasks to do.
- And make sure to include days for resting and having fun with your family.
See our article about the best day of the week to move house and make the best decision.
Remember the most important things to do:
- declutter before you start packing
- stop council tax when moving house
- find a reliable house-moving service
Moving House Stress Level
Stress levels help you determine the scale of your anxiety problems. Do not try to conclude how stressed you are, based entirely on personal beliefs.
If you need to see the exact stress levels, simply make a like this one. Basically, there are about 20 questions that are highly related to anxiety symptoms. You receive a final score of how stressed you are based on how you answer them.
Do not panic if the score is high. Instead, seek professional help or use proven techniques for relaxation from stress.
Moving to the countryside vs moving to a big city might help get over the anxiety problems faster.
Relaxation Techniques for Post-Moving Depression
Fighting relocation anxiety requires a lot of determination, patience and effort. Don’t expect to deal with this kind of anxiety effectively without using at least one of the following relaxation methods:
Deep Breathing
This technique works well in stressful situations, and moving anxiety is no exception. To execute deep breathing properly, do the following:
- Do it several times during the day by following a schedule;
- Take a breath slowly;
- Do meditation along with deep breathing for maximum efficiency;
- Take a breath as deep as you can;
Daydreaming
If going out in the wild or any other peaceful place is not possible during the house move, but your anxiety strikes again, try to relax by imagining positive things. Picturing things such as wild sceneries, animals, and marvellous sights is a proven method for relaxation that requires nothing but time and a little effort.
Do this whenever the stress is too overwhelming to handle, but the current situation provides many alternative options. If you're moving to another country alone, inform yourself about the culture, food, social norms, and start learning the language if it's not an English-speaking country.
Read more:
Moving to France
Moving to Spain
Pleasant Scents
Sensing the pleasant aroma is considered to help with relaxation. There’s even a name for it - aromatherapy. This technique is used primarily in spa centres and other specialized places for relaxation.
If fighting the emotional stress from moving is more difficult than you expected, we highly advise you to try any battle-tested aromatherapy techniques.
- Place candles cleverly inside the premises;
- Use a home diffuser;
- Regularly clean the rubbish bins and disposals;
- Spread some plants that purify the air. Palm trees and orchids are good choices;
Talk About How You Feel
Share your feelings with your spouse. Encourage them to share theirs, too. If you have kids, ask them how they feel about the move and get them involved in the process.
Worrying about relocating is absolutely normal, and everyone feels nervous to some extent. Talking with your family will be helpful to all of you.
Get to Know the Area
Go out and explore your new neighbourhood. Meet your new neighbours. You may even throw a party to get to know them. Take a walk and find the nearest park, grocery shops, local pubs and restaurants.
Maintain Your Routine
Everyone has their own daily routine. Try to keep up with yours as much as possible. Wake up and go to bed as usual. Save time for your hobby. New places and change, in general, can be scary to most people.
Hire Professional Movers
If you are planning a move overseas and don't know where to start the process, you can contact us, and we'll lend you a helping hand with your European removals.
Booking a professional removal company such as Strong Move will save you many causes that lead to moving depression, such as effort, time consumption, packing, transportation and more. Leaving the most back-breaking tasks to professional packers and movers should lessen the burden on your shoulders and give you peace of mind that the tasks will be handled diligently.
