How to Deal With Relocation Depression After Moving

When moving to another home, the preparation stage is usually an action-packed period that will leave you little to no time whatsoever to think about what’s really happening.

Regardless of whether your residential move has been planned for years, months, or even weeks, the chances are that you will be too busy completing one move-related task after another to let any negative thoughts fill up your head.

On the contrary, the excitement of moving to an unknown place and meeting new and interesting people may be the predominant feeling in a cocktail of mixed feelings over the upcoming relocation.

Interestingly enough, keeping yourself rather busy until after the relocation is over is not a bad thing at all.

The adrenaline of that life-changing event will keep pushing you forward until you reach your destination.

However, once you find yourself among piles and piles of boxes waiting patiently to be unpacked, an unexpected and unfamiliar feeling could sneak behind you and startle you – a feeling of anxiety over the loss of your former way of life as far as friends, family, and familiar places are concerned.

A feeling known as separation anxiety, or more commonly as relocation depression.

Read on to learn about relocation depression, its symptoms, and more importantly – how to overcome relocation depression should you ever happen to meet that unwelcome guest face to face.

You may also like to read: How to Overcome Emotional Overload When Moving Home. Moving home can expose us to a whole raft of different emotions, some familiar, some not so familiar. In this guide, we look at what is emotional overload and the steps you can take to manage all those different emotions.

What is Relocation Depression?

Post-relocation depression can be described as an overwhelming feeling of sadness and nostalgia that can get a hold of you when you’re already inside your destination home.

You might first feel its pangs immediately after moving into your new house or apartment, or even in a few days or weeks’ time.

Your familiar environment is gone, and the comforting closeness to good friends and loyal family members is also nowhere to be found.

If you’ve moved to the new residence together with your own family, you will still miss your old pals but you’ll probably get away with a slight case of separation anxiety thanks to the outstanding support of your partner and children.

On the other hand, if you’ve just moved to a new city alone, then you should be extra careful and get familiar with the relocation depression symptoms in order to protect yourself.

You may also like to read: How to Avoid Culture Shock When Moving Home. Whether you are moving a few miles or to another part of the country it is not unusual to suffer culture shock when in a new and unfamiliar environment. In this guide, we look at all aspects of culture shock and how you can avoid it.

Symptoms of Relocation Depression

Moving long distances and moving to another city on your own are two cases that can easily amplify the feeling of separation and displacement.

House moves are usually pretty emotional affairs so you may not easily recognize that you’re suffering from depression due to relocation, at least not in the very beginning.

To help you see whether you might be a victim of its vicious grip, here are the most common relocation depression symptoms:

Abnormal sleep patterns. If you suddenly realise that you sleep a lot more than you normally do, that could be a sign that you may be suffering from relocation anxiety. Similarly, uncharacteristic instances of insomnia may also indicate a post-relocation problem on your hands.

Constant lack of energy. Another indicator that you may be a victim of depression after relocation is waking up after an 8-hour sleep really tired and with no energy to go about your normal everyday activities. And if that is the case, the cause is probably not a lack of vitamins either.

Fear or unwillingness to socialise. If you find it hard to leave the comfort of your new residence and the mere thought of meeting new people strikes fear in your heart, you could be down with a case of severe relocation depression.

Abnormal behaviour. By now, you should know yourself quite well. And because you are well familiar with your habits, it won’t be particularly hard for you to spot something that is way out of the ordinary, like increased levels of anxiety or even panic attacks.

If you get really worried about your health, then you should speak with your doctor immediately.

On the other hand, if you’re not overly worried but still have doubts that you may be suffering from depression from relocation, read on to learn what you can do to cope with relocation depression.

You may also like to read: What to do When You Regret Moving Home. Part of the reason why you may be experiencing relocation depression is because you regret leaving your old home, area, or your friends and family. In this guide, we look at ways to overcome the regret of moving home.

How to Deal With Relocation Depression

Luckily, there are proven ways to overcome relocation depression and get back on the right track.

Some people tend to handle change much more easily than others and until you find out how well you cope with change in the upcoming months after your relocation, here are the 7 major relocation depression strategies to keep in mind, and actually use to feel much better in no time.

1. Stay in touch with your old friends

The disruption of your daily routine, the split from your familiar world, and the distance from your comfort zone can all lead to a bad combination of uncertainty, sadness, and nostalgia.

However, it’s mostly the separation from your good friends and beloved family members that will ultimately hurt you the most.

The good news here is that the Information Age gives you a great deal of options to keep in touch with the people you love and care about.

E-mail messages, phone calls, and online chats are all great ways to not let meaningful relationships fall into ruin just because of great distances.

Applications such as Skype and Viber make long-distance communication not only as easy as ABC but also perfectly affordable or even free through an active Internet connection.

Still, nothing compares to sending a traditional postcard or a hand-written letter to a friend, so get down to it and say Hi to your best friends.

Can relocation cause depression? Yes, it can. But keeping in touch with the persons who have mattered the most in your previous life chapter can really help you combat relocation depression.

2. Find new good friends

It’s important to keep in touch with your dear friends after your house move, but the only way to get over relocation depression once and for all is to look forward and try hard to make new friends.

Of course, that’s always easier said than done, but it’s enough to just start from somewhere.

A good start to coping with relocation depression is to visit your neighbours and just say Hi to them.

Who knows – maybe you will find a bunch of common topics to talk about with the folks next door. Remember that even the longest journey begins with small steps.

Next, be friendly with your co-workers and take every opportunity to get to know them better – after all, oftentimes a person’s best friends happen to be present or former colleagues.

A third good option to meet new people and possibly befriend some of them is to become a member of various clubs /sports clubs, dance clubs, gyms, etc., or sign up for various indoor and outdoor activities such as biking, swimming, hiking, and so on where you will certainly bump into other people with similar interests and hobbies.

You may also like to read: How to make friends in your new neighbourhood. In this guide, we suggest ways and places to meet new people having moved to an unfamiliar area.

3. Explore your new city

Moving into a completely new and unfamiliar city can be unsettling and even a bit frightening.

To get over that nervous feeling of unfamiliarity which might bring about relocation anxiety as well, your best bet is to be brave enough to step outside your door and expand the perimeter of what you know and what you are familiar with.

In other words, set on an exploratory tour around your new city as a proven method of dealing with relocation depression.

If you’re not sure where to begin, visit first the best green areas of your new place and take pleasant walks in them.

Then, taking a look at the historic landmarks of your new destination city is a good idea, as is going on a therapeutic shopping spree in the largest shopping centers or shopping streets there.

As you’re getting to know your place better, you should also take a mental note of where the most important places are located – hospitals, police stations, post offices, and so on.

You may also like to read: How to Make a New Place Feel Like Home. In this guide, we look at various ways to become familiar with your new neighbourhood so that you feel like you belong there.

4. Pursue your old hobbies or take up a new one

Getting into a familiar routine is another good way to overcome relocation depression.

The idea here is to do something that you enjoy and are well familiar with at the same time. For example, if you have a favourite hobby or hobbies, then you are strongly recommended to pursue it after the tasks of unpacking and home organisation are over.

This way, the daily consistency you get will surely ease the period of transition and will let you sail into familiar waters once again.

On the other hand, if you can’t think of any favorite pastime to get over your relocation depression, then that period in your life offers the perfect opportunity to take up a new hobby.

Be mindful that the possibilities of finding and practicing an activity that will both give you joy and build up your confidence are practically endless and are only limited by your imagination.

You may also like to read: The Health Benefits of Moving Home. Moving home is a great catalyst to start doing all the things you want to do and to create new good habits. In this guide, we look at the surprising health benefits of moving home.

5. Get yourself a pet companion

This very strategy to fight relocation depression is especially effective if you’ve just moved to a new and strange city on your own.

Get yourself a pet – most pets are awesome companions and can become one of your best friends over time.

What type of pet you choose to share your days with depends entirely on your preferences.

Still, the animal friend who will best help you during that emotional transitional period is a dog because the regular walks you will take with them will not only encourage you to explore your surroundings, but they will also help you meet other dog lovers in parks and other green areas in the city.

Moreover, the time you spend playing with and caring for your new pet will take your mind off any negative thoughts and thus, speed up the process of post-move adaptation.

This basically means that the faster you get accustomed to the new city environment, the greater the chance of skipping altogether any symptoms of relocation depression.

6. Re-design your new home

Ultimately, the issue of how to deal with relocation depression comes down to creating meaningful and enjoyable distractions for your mind until the latter finds a good way to adapt to the new setting.

And, if these distractions happen to be productive, then that’s even better in the long run.

An excellent way to keep yourself busy and away from any dark thoughts is to re-design your new place to feel more like home.

You may choose to follow the proven therapeutic method of arranging and decorating the new residence as closely to your old familiar home as possible.

The interior recreation of your former home will, without a doubt, introduce that sense of familiarity that you have just lost and will let you preserve, to a large degree, the inner harmony that will prove so important in the end.

You may also like to read: Which are the Best UK Home Blogs to Follow? If you need inspiration for your home or garden, need some organisation or cleaning tips, want to live a more sustainable lifestyle, need to save money, or to make your home more energy efficient, then in this guide you will find our top picks of the best blogs to help you.

7. Gift yourself more time

To give yourself more time is probably the best weapon to fight post-relocation depression.

You can’t possibly expect to feel perfectly fine just a few days after surviving one of life’s most stressful events. You need more time.

Instead of being too hard on yourself, just take it easy at first and go only one little step at a time.

The months of busy pre-move preparations have certainly taken their toll on you, and it’s only normal that you may be feeling drained physically and emotionally.

Make yourself the best gift after the move is over – give yourself more time.