Life transitions
Life changes, reaching a significant age, relationship difficulties, divorce, problematic friendships, feeling lonely, immigration, bereavement, family difficulties.
Life transitions
Transitions always bring changes; some may run smoothly some may not. Even the most positive transition generates changes and sometimes it can be stressful, difficult to manage and generate emotions that are not pleasant.
Life transition can involve a lot of changes in one go and the changes can be unexpected, for example, moving together with your partner could be an exciting time that involves lot of planning and positive expectations, but when you and your partner move together the reality could be far from what you imagined it would be.
Or you could experience new situations that you were not prepared for; originally moving with your partner was only a positive experience but once you moved reality showed you the positive experience you anticipated was not the whole picture.
Life has natural and inevitable transitions, we all transition from childhood to teenagerhood and to adulthood. Teenagerhood is a difficult time, the changes usually are very drastic, and children and parents find the changes very sudden, usually parents say that it happened overnight and the child was not the same in the morning. Our society also brings transitions, moving out of your parent’s house or seeing the “children” moving out of the family home. Other transitions and changes could be:
- Reaching a significant age
- Changing jobs
- Moving to a different country or back to your home country.
- Getting married.
- Having a new-born.
- Adopting a child.
- Divorce.
- Someone close to you being physically or mentally ill.
- Changing career.
- Bereavement.
- Retiring.
- Having to move a family member to a care home.
- Family difficulties that could lead to changes.
Recently we have all been forced make massive changes to our lifestyle due to COVID-19, changes that have impacted everybody and a lot of people have found this hard to cope with.
Sometimes changes can be beneficial in the long term, but it can be extremely hard to see it when you are experiencing the change with sadness, anxiety or other unpleasant sensations or emotions.
Dealing successfully with change may allow you to be more confident, with more resources, emotionally stronger and in a better place than you were before.
If you are finding it hard to adjust to a life change, you may find it helpful talking to a psychologist or therapist who can help you develop or recover strategies to deal with the changes better and adapt yourself to the new reality.
