Moving home can be an incredibly emotional and stressful time. The emotional stress of moving house can seriously affect the mental health of many individuals. It is vital to recognise anxiety about moving house and address this when it becomes apparent. Ignoring your distress can leave you struggling for weeks and months even after you’ve moved.
Moving Sorted want to offer all home movers a simple and stress-free moving experience. We typically do that is by offering convenient services such as conveyancing, home surveys and removals. However, we know that the process can become overwhelming even with these processes in place. In this article, we’ll share our top tips to reduce your stress and hopefully encourage a happy and exciting move.
4 Reasons why moving can generate anxiety
Moving house inevitably has an effect on the mental health of so many individuals that are planning to move. Whether it be due to complications of buying and selling a home or the exhaustion of the big move day. Pushing these feelings aside often seems like the easiest option but seriously affects your mental and physical health.
There is a range of emotions that could influence your feelings of anxiety. We have shared just a few of the commonly reported causes of anxiety associated with moving house.
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Changes to your lifestyle
Relocating can change several components of your lifestyle. This might include adjusting to a new environment or altering your daily commute. Any change, no matter how big or small can throw a spanner in the works. Struggling to adjust, or feeling some anxiety before your move is completely normal.
Many people become accustomed to our daily routines and the people around us. Any alteration to this can generate stress and anxiety for different lengths of time.
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Money
There’s no doubt that the cost of moving house can be overwhelming for many individuals. Without fully budgeting for each component of moving costs you can easily become concerned by the rising expenses.
Conveyancing, mortgage fees and removals teams have varying costs depending on your property and requirements. Realising you are over-budget can generate plenty of anxiety.
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Time
Moving house takes a considerable amount of time and effort. For many people, a sense of anxiety is created when you feel like your life is put on hold. Just like alterations to your routine, feeling like you haven’t got much time for your normal life can feel overwhelming.
Changes in the time spent with your family or doing activities that you normally enjoy is distressing. The moving process often sucks you in and consumes all your energy, leaving nothing for the people and hobbies that you would usually engage with.
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Physical aspects of moving
There are certainly some movers that have a great deal of anxiety focused on the actual moving day. Whether it’s feeling unprepared with your packing or concerned about how you are going to complete DIY removal in one day.
Symptoms and effects
Whether or not you have experience with feelings of anxiety, recognising and connecting the dots between physical symptoms and the thoughts behind them is challenging. This can leave you feeling confused as to why you are feeling run-down, overwhelmed and exhausted by the process of moving house. Below are some of the key symptoms that are reported during moving that might help you recognise that something isn’t right.
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Difficulty sleeping
This one is incredibly common if your mind races at night. You might be thinking about all the tasks that need to be done or how close to finishing you should be already. What’s worse, getting a bad night’s sleep will only escalate feelings of stress and anxiety the next day.
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Agitation/irritability
As you become more and more anxious about moving house, you might start to realise that you don’t quite recognise yourself or your actions. This might include lashing out at loved ones or pushing people away more than usual.
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Feeling unproductive
Even when you most want to be preparing, packing and actively moving towards your goal, the feelings of stress can cripple your ability to be productive.
Some of these symptoms only scratch the surface of the outcomes of anxiety. Increased heart rate, sweating and panic attacks are additional symptoms commonly associated with periods of anxiety. Whilst these feelings can be incredibly distressing, they don’t have to stay this way. Take a look at our top tips for reducing feelings of stress and anxiety whilst moving house.
5 Tips to reduce feelings of anxiety
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Get in the right frame of mind
It might sound generic, but a positive mental attitude goes a long way in changing your day-to-day mood. Ignoring your stress won’t eliminate the anxiety. But, reminding yourself why you’re moving and what’s to look forward to certainly will.
It might seem daunting at first but try thinking about the smaller details to ground yourself during the moving process. Imagine how you might decorate your new home or take a visit to the street you are moving to. These small positive actions will help you become accustomed to your new home.
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Do some research
Discovering your new area is key to getting used to and comfortable with your new location. Utilise online maps and search for your local supermarkets, pharmacies, cosy pubs and walking routes. The more familiar you become with your new area, the less stress you will experience surrounding the unknown
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Be prepared
If you’re particularly struggling with feelings of being unprepared, it is essential that you allow yourself to stay organised and finish tasks earlier than required. Establishing a checklist might help you to keep on top of certain tasks that have been completed, as well as recognise your accomplishments.
Moving house isn’t an easy task. There are lots and lots of things to remember that can become overwhelming and time-consuming. Planning what you will complete during certain days or weeks or having deadlines for different activities will ensure that you feel in control of your moving process.
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Ask for help
If you’re moving alone, speak to parents, friends or colleagues about your feelings and experience. They might have some experience that offers reassurance. If you are moving with your partner or family, remember that they are also going through the same experience. They might also be trying to hide their feelings of anxiety, just as you are, to protect each other from additional stress.
Having a conversation about these feelings might bring you closer and share the load.
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Give yourself time
Moving and its associated tasks takes an incredible amount of time and energy. Some individuals don’t have experience of how difficult it is to disassemble and assemble a home within a matter of days.
Allow yourself to take several days from work and focus on preparing before the move and settling into your new home after the move. Running yourself ragged will contribute to feelings of anxiety when you’re already under pressure. Try an organised yet relaxed approach by giving yourself time to process the moving experience
Conclusion
Moving house is incredibly difficult, no matter where you are moving from, or who you are moving with. Relocating your life to another property takes an exertion of effort that can manifest anxiety for many individuals. In this situation, it is important to recognise when you feel anxiety about moving house and understand the cause. For some, it isn’t always so simple. If you feel significantly distressed and are struggling to engage with your daily lifestyle, it might be appropriate to speak to your GP.
At all times, it is important to reach out for help no matter what level of anxiety you are facing. If you have friends and family to lean on, you’ll discover that your anxieties can be lifted. Moving doesn’t have to be an isolating experience. Instead, involve your friends and family, stay prepared and remind yourself of the reasons for moving to keep a positive mindset and enjoyable moving process.
