Moving to a new city is overwhelming since you are responsible for packing everything into boxes, moving furniture, and making a budget to look for your expenses.

After you finish all the heavy work and finally shift to a new place, all you feel is exhaustion, loneliness, and depression.

But is Moving To a New City depression real? Scroll down to discover what symptoms you will have when suffering from it and how to cope.

Moving To A New City Depression–Is it Real? Statistics

Millions of people around the globe suffer from depression; among those, some experience relocation depression or moving depression.

Relocation depression is a sort of situational depression that develops after relocating or moving and is classified as a depression subtype.

 A study suggests that moving is regarded as one of the most stressful events in adult life. The study was backed by the fact that there is an overburden leading to mental and physical distress.

Another study indicates that loneliness can be a risk factor for many other physical illnesses as it increases the stress hormone leading to inflammation. 

Complications of chronic inflammation include diabetes, arthritis, and cardiac disease.

So if you are struggling to adjust to a new place, you are not alone.

“Embrace healing, get therapy, and reclaim your life from depression’s grip.”

Common Symptoms You Have After Moving To a New City

According to Psychology Today, a 2016 study published in Social Indicators Research revealed that relocation causes a perfect storm of sadness. 

However, because moving involves so much excitement and rush (and frequently panic for the unorganized few), grief feelings can become hidden or forgotten amid these other emotions and are not always noticeable. 

So, how can you detect and reorganize your feelings so that you can correctly cope with all of your emotions and care for yourself as needed?

As per the National Library of Medicine, you can have the following symptoms if you have relocation depression.

• Anxiety
• Confusion
• Hopelessness
• Loneliness
• Losing interest in your usual activities
• Trouble with concentration and focus as well.
• Mood swings
• Getting into alcohol, smoking, and overeating.
• Weight gain, loss of appetite as well as weight loss. 
• Avoiding social interaction and activities

Is it Relocation sadness, or depression?

Feeling down after moving to a new city is not the diagnostic factor for relocation depression. Though there are chances you may feel depressed after moving.

The differentiating factor between sadness and depression is the time period. Sadness is for a short time, while depression is persistent. 

It can be diagnosed as depression if the symptoms:

• Persist for more than two weeks
• Have adverse effects on performing your everyday tasks.

Whether you are experiencing sadness or depression, it is always a good idea to get medical attention and visit a mental health expert.

How To Deal With Moving To New City Depression

The ideas given below can help you cope with the relocation depression:

1. Facetiming with friends or family

By doing this, you will feel connected to your friends and family and have less homesickness than you might otherwise experience.

2. Explore new areas

Explore new places like restaurants, shopping malls, and some natural places. It will help you to be familiar with the area you are living in, and you can hang out whenever you feel low. 

Find local shops where you can go to buy groceries or other supplies. Exploring new places might help you find new people and connect with them.

3. Psychotherapy

You don’t have to go through all of this alone. Consulting a therapist will give you a comfort zone to vent and develop coping skills to relieve your symptoms.

These are some NIMH-recommended therapy methods for depression:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT for depression helps people identify how unpleasant feelings and emotions affect their behavior. A therapist can help a client address these thoughts and constructively reframe them.
• Color therapy: Color therapy can be beneficial when moving into a new place. This includes using specific colors in one’s environment to bring about happy emotions and serenity.
• Grief therapy: After moving to a new place, one may grieve for the parts of themselves that were left behind. Grief counseling helps a person in processing this loss.

4. Support groups

You may find some support groups in the local area where you will meet people who have gone through similar challenges.

Finding such groups will benefit you since you get insights from them and might also learn some coping mechanisms for your loneliness.

They may belong to different areas, but you might develop close friendships with them, and that will be helpful to you in the long run.

5. Self-help activities

Self-care practices are a must after moving in and differ from person to person. By practicing self-care, you allow yourself to focus on yourself and your needs.

Some research-based strategies for self-care that help you deal with relocation depression are:

• Getting an average of 8 hours sleep daily
• Working out for 10 minutes everyday
• Few-minute medication everyday
• Eating mood-enhancing foods
• Limiting the use of alcohol and drugs

Identifying the self-care techniques that work best for you can help you deal with the negative effects of relocation depression.

6. Allow Yourself the Time to Grieve

Grieving is a part of changing and adapting. When you relocate to a new place, you naturally feel sad about your previous life and how you had to leave it.

Give yourself time to heal, and don’t try to avoid it. Rather acknowledge and address it so that you can cope with depression in a better way.

7. Make New Friends

Making new friends is no easy job, especially when you are going through a phase of depression. But rather than trying hard for this, try to let this happen naturally.

Hang out at a nearby coffee shop, join gym classes, or go to the morning park for fresh air. All these will help you meet new people, but you must be open to forming new relationships.

Bottom line

Relocating can be exciting, but it sure does have its adverse effects. It exhausts and drains you both emotionally and mentally.

After you have moved to a new city, all the excitement takes a back seat, and all you feel is uncertainty, stress, exhaustion, and doubt.

If your symptoms last any longer than two weeks, we recommend speaking with a mental health expert. 

It was all about moving to a new city depression, and yes, it is very much real.