How to Cope with Feeling Depressed After Moving

Moving to a new place can be a challenge. From missing your old home to settling in, here’s how to cope with feeling depressed after moving.

I’m pretty lucky: both my family and my husband’s are all here in Los Angeles within driving distance to our home. We also grew up here, went to colleges nearby, held jobs in the area, and still have a few friends to call on.

I can’t imagine moving to a new place and losing all the roots and ties I’d developed all these years.

But for many people, this is a reality. They move from everything they’ve ever known and settle in to a new place, with little to remind them of their past. My parents moved from the Philippines to Chicago—in the middle of winter—decades ago for my dad’s MBA, all while raising my two eldest sisters on their own.

Maybe you could relate. Perhaps you moved for you or your spouse’s job, adapting to this huge change. You’ve uprooted from the only life you knew—your friends, your job, all the familiar and comforting places.

Or let’s say you moved across town and are now dealing with the hassles of new home ownership. Moving to our new house a few years ago, despite the excitement, also came with plenty of stress. These hassles seemed to happen within the first few months, all while we were still dealing with the emotional and financial toll of the move.

Whether across the ocean or a drive away, you find yourself feeling frustrated, depressed, and impatient with your spouse and kids. You feel lonely and yearn for the familiarity you left behind.

And the most painful part? Yelling and losing your temper with your kids. Despite meaningful attempts to start each morning with a promise to parent with calm and patience, your days don’t always end well. You want to carve a new place for them, parent more peacefully, and keep your family happy.

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How to cope with feeling depressed after moving

It’s no wonder parents who move, whether from far away or just a drive away, find themselves feeling down. If you can relate, you’re not alone.

These are huge changes, not only of settling in a new place, but saying goodbye to the old. Leaving everything you’ve known to come to a new environment with no one you know is a challenge few people experience. It’s understandable that it takes a toll on you and affects your interactions with your kids.

You may be aware of how your behavior doesn’t line up with how you want to raise them. That awareness itself is key: Progress starts with knowing where you are and where you want to be. Then, keep in mind the following tips I suggest to help you get through it:

1. Find your triggers

Yelling has always been a challenge for me. I think I’m doing a great job keeping my cool, but after a long day, I find myself yelling and saying things I shouldn’t have.

And when you’ve just moved to a new place, when you’re already tired from so many changes as it is, yelling becomes harder to stop.

It doesn’t help that we often yell at the very people we love the most and would do anything and everything for. At that moment, we lose all composure and raise our voices, maybe even assuming it’s the only way to get through to our kids.

One of the best ways to break the habit of yelling is to find your triggers. Like all habits, we yell as a reaction to something that happened. Each time you yell, ask yourself what happened right before you did that made you do so.

At first, the reasons can seem so scattered, from the kids fighting about the same toy to throwing a tantrum because they don’t want to go to school. But after a while, you’ll notice common themes among the events that set you off. These are your “triggers.”

Once you defined your triggers, give yourself an action plan of what you’ll do when they happen. This is the “pause” you give yourself between when the trigger happens, and when you typically yell.

It’s in that pause you can then replace your old reaction—yelling—with a new, more positive one.

Free download: Exhausted and feeling guilty from constantly losing your temper with your child? Even if it seems like you’ve tried just about everything, you CAN stop losing your temper… if you start from the inside out and change from within.

In How to Finally Stop Losing Your Temper, you’ll learn how to reflect on who you’re being and your habits and triggers. You’ll get ideas on what you can do when you feel that rush of anger rising within you. Join my newsletter and download your PDF below—at no cost to you:

2. Accept your grief

As moms, we put a lot of pressure on our shoulders. We feel responsible for keeping our families intact and our households humming along just fine. When difficulties arrive, we’re compelled to carry most of that burden and shield our kids from things they don’t need to know about.

So, it can be hard to let out guard down and reveal our vulnerabilities. We put on our strong faces only to lock ourselves in the bathroom to cry alone.

But then we allow the difficult emotions to build up so much that they explode, whether in a resentful comment or harsh words to our loved ones.

Give yourself permission to grieve for your old life. Cry as long as you need to, whether alone or with your partner. As terrible as it is to feel down, don’t deny that you feel this right now. Remind yourself that emotions come and go, that you won’t feel stuck this way forever.

Accept the sadness in saying goodbye to people and places you’ve known all your life. Reassure yourself that settling into a new place isn’t easy, that it can feel downright lonely and frustrating. Write in your journal about your frustrations and anxieties, as this simple act will help you sort your thoughts.

Rather than brushing your emotions under the rug, accept them for what they are—normal feelings many people in your shoes would feel.

3. See your family as being on the same side

For many parents, a big move happens because of one person’s circumstances. Maybe you’re like my parents who moved because one of them pursued a post-graduate degree. Or your family could’ve moved from one coast to another for your spouse’s job.

When the reason for the move falls on someone else’s agenda, it’s easy to cast the blame on them. If only he didn’t take this job, I wouldn’t be here, you might think. This is happening because of that darn job.

Then, the blame starts to point to the kids for the most innocent offenses. You snap when they argue about whose turn it is on the scooter or heave a heavy sigh when they leave crumbs all over the table.

And while resentment and frustration are normal, they’re also unhealthy. They pit the most important people in your lives—your partner and children—on the opposite side.

Instead, see your family as people on the same side as you. Let’s say the reason you moved was because of your partner—even then, he likely feels just as lost and lonely as you. In fact, he may even feel more pressure and guilt for bringing his whole family to a new place because of his circumstances.

Imagine what it’s like to be in your partner’s and your children’s shoes. Your partner might feel like he’s the sole reason you’re all here to begin with. Your kids are now the new kids in school, and may not grow up with the same family ties you may have been lucky to have as a child.

The more you see how they feel, the more you’ll realize how united you are in this new journey. You’re all on the same side, going through the same challenges. In banding together and reaching out as teammates instead of adversaries, you begin to open up, be more patient, and find solutions.

4. Stay in touch with old friends

Keeping in touch with friends and family from a distance is never the same as having them nearby, but even this little tie can make a huge difference. With so many ways to reach out—email, video chat, phone calls—make it a daily or weekly habit to reach out to your loved ones.

Not only does regular contact remind you of your old life, it also allows you another place to open up about how you feel. Be honest with your friends and family about your struggles, and remind them how important they are and will continue to be moving forward.

I’ve had several friends move away over the years, but each time we reconnect, it feels like we picked up right where we left off. Don’t let distance convince you that friendship isn’t possible when you’re miles away. Often, your true friendships will grow stronger because of it.

5. Build new social ties

No one will replace your friends and family, but that shouldn’t keep you from making friends in your new neighborhood.

It may be difficult, especially if you’re like me who can find it hard to approach people in person. Other times, you feel like you’re imposing yourself on other people, especially if they’ve known one another for a while.

But even if these new relationships aren’t the same as your old ones, continue to reach out to others for company and support. You’ll feel less isolated and will have a support system, no matter how new. And if the thought of making new friends scares you, remind yourself that all friendships had to start somewhere.

A few suggestions include:

Meeting other parents at your child’s school. Many schools offer volunteer opportunities, whether it’s working on the school garden or walking with a group of kids to school. I’ve made “mom friends” both ways, especially those in my kids’ classes.
Set up play dates. Has your child made new friends at school or other activities? Invite his friends and their parents for a play date at the park. While the children play, you can chat with the adults. Another option is to find mommy groups with children around the same age as yours. Meetup.com is a great place to start your search.
Attend a meet up with people from your old area. Whether you came from another country, state, or city, see if you can find social gatherings of people who came from back home. If you didn’t move too far away, visit old hangouts and familiar faces once in a while, or encourage old friends to visit you, too.

Conclusion

I can’t imagine what it was like for my parents to travel from a hot, humid climate with everyone they knew to cold, snowy Chicago, raising two girls alone. But many parents—perhaps you included—experience a similar change every day.

Feeling depressed after moving is common but not permanent, especially when you take a proactive approach to settling in. Begin by showing empathy towards your children and partner and see them as being on the same side as you.

Don’t deny your own grief, and instead accept it, as well as the fact that it will pass with time. Find your triggers to keep yourself from losing your temper. And maintain old friendships while making new ones in your new home—both will remind you that you’re never truly alone.

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