Anxiety during the move: how to control it?

Changes and modifications in life cause anxiety to any person, and it is natural to feel it when leaving the comfort zone. In fact, the most common situations in which this emotion is felt are the death of a family member or a move. When analyzing these situations, both are different in their totality, however, they present a common aspect, which is to leave or feel abandonment, that is, in the first one -death of a family member- evidently it is to start a new life without that person, which means change, in the same way as moving.

While for many people moving can be exciting, challenging and even an adventure, for others it is the complete opposite. And, actually, according to psychology professionals, it is -normal- to feel that way. However, it is important to think about how to combat and cope with anxiety at times like these.

So, what to do, where to start?

First of all you have to know briefly, what is anxiety?

It is a feeling that accumulates other feelings such as fear, dread, insecurity and stress. It is generally provoked by stressful situations such as moving to a new place. It can get worse over time and begin to interfere with daily activities, whether in the work, academic or social area.

Its symptoms are:

  • Concurrent thoughts that are difficult to control and cause restlessness.
  • Having headaches, muscle aches, stomachaches, or unexplained pains.
  • Withdrawn behaviors.
  • Trouble breathing.
  • Among others.

How to avoid and control anxiety in the moving process?

Anxious people tend to overthink and worry more than they should. Therefore, one of the most effective solutions is to plan the entire move very well. This will help to take care of the tasks that need to be done.

Therefore:

  1. Being proactive: every anxious person has a million thoughts. Therefore, the best thing to do is to work around it. That is, find a way to channel and deal daily with the tasks that are pending. Even if the activity is small, it is important to do it.

  2. Planning: as previously mentioned, planning is a fundamental part of the moving process. Without it, everything would turn into chaos, which would cause other types of emotions to arise, such as worry, fear, insecurity, among others.

  3. Delegate: one person cannot take care of everything, even more so in the case of an anxious person. It is advisable to look for any kind of help or increase tasks to the other people involved in the move.

Anxiety can be a very difficult emotion to cope with, in fact, within society it can be very normalized to feel that way when it is not. Psychologists give many practical recommendations in this regard, such as breathing, counting numbers, touching, listening, among others. Ideally, if the person does not know how to deal with the moving process, they should seek a mental health professional to offer them tools to channel their feelings in relation to the context.