How to Cope With Friends Moving Away

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsThe Importance of FriendshipHow to Cope With Your Friend LeavingHow to Stay in Touch With Your Friend

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

The Importance of Friendship

How to Cope With Your Friend Leaving

How to Stay in Touch With Your Friend

Learning that your good friend is moving can be shocking. Rest assured that you won’t feel this bad forever. You can still have a close, long-distance friendship with your friend.

Find out how to cope with your friend moving away.

How and Why You Should Maintain Friendships

According to researchpublished in theBritish Journal of Psychology, a single supportive and close friendship can help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds thrive in challenging circumstances.

The study looked at both adolescent girls and boys. While boys in socio-economically vulnerable environments faced pressure to be macho, these intimate friendships were especially helpful in building theirresilience.

Friendship Reduces Stress Levels

Friendship also reduces your stress levels. In a recent study,scientists looked at communication and stress levels in the communication of younger and older women.

After observing study participants wind through a number of conversational challenges with both friends and strangers, researchers discovered reduced levels ofcortisol, the stress hormone, when friends communicated together.

6 Benefits of Friendship and Why It’s So Important to Stay Close

Friends have a deep connection and enjoy getting together and sharing experiences. During normal circumstances,friends might grow apartor one changes and thus the friendship ends. Sometimes friendships end due to a fight orconflict.

In this situation, you may feel like you have no control over the circumstance. You may view the situation as simply: youlost a friend.

While change is inevitable, you didn’t necessarily lose that friend. Focus on the control you have in deciding how you view the situation, and how you manage your perceptions and activities and move forward.

Accept Your Feelings

It’s normal to feel sad orabandoned, especially if you were close to your friend. You might bebereaved. You’re experiencing a major loss and it’s OK to acknowledge that. You might worry about the future of your friendship.

Recently, a small studyexplored the relationship between grief and best friends among adolescent Danish girls.

Friends Feel Left BehindFindings showed it’s challenging for the friend left behind. The bereaved one alters their way of responding to their friend which affects the expectations, quality and maintenance of the friendship.

Friends Feel Left Behind

Findings showed it’s challenging for the friend left behind. The bereaved one alters their way of responding to their friend which affects the expectations, quality and maintenance of the friendship.

Celebrate the Positives

Though you’re down, you might focus on the positive aspects of this move. Even though your friend will now be miles away, due to their father’s promotion or an opportunity for their mother, here are some ways to stay focused on the positives of the move:

Managing your feelings during your friend’s absence can be challenging. It’s not uncommon to feel anxiety.If your friend relocated for good reasons to a great place, you may feel jealous. Or you may feel guilty for wanting them to stay.

All these feelings are OK to cycle through. If youmiss your frienda lot, too, there’s no reason to hide it. Admit it to yourself and also tell your friend.

Are You Feeling Lonely? Take the Test

This fast and freeloneliness testcan help you analyze your current emotions and determine whether or not you may be feeling lonely at the moment:

It’s easy to stay in touch with your friend via text. Be sure to FaceTime or Zoom with them if you can’t visit. Communicating with your friend will not only sustain your relationship, but it will also reduce those negative feelings.

Reach Out Even If It Feels Awkward

If theconversation seems awkwardat first due to time passing or the distance between you both, don’t quit.Begin with an inside joke that your friend will understand right away.

Reference a shared memory. Listen to your friend’s news about her new living space and neighborhood, and respond withempathyandinterest.

Reflect on Your Feelings

A good way of getting your feelings out is journaling.Journaling can help you manage your negative feelings, too. Take time to process this big change in your life. You may no longer run with your friend every Saturday morning. Or you can’t shoot hoops anymore. It’s OK to realize you’re hurting or a bitlonelywithout them.

Take Care of Yourself

Find self-compassionnow and be kind to yourself as you navigate this new normal. Eat well, get enough sleep, keep exercising and be sure to rest.

Allow yourself the time to get through this. Know that you’re not alone in feeling the way you do and remind yourself that you can cope with a friend moving away.

A Word From Verywell

During trying times, turn to your family and your other friends for the support andaffectionyou deserve. It’s not farfetched to feel like you justneed a hugright now either. It’s understandable why you might not be ready to make new friends just yet, but you will be in time. And seek out the help of alicensed therapistif you need further guidance on dealing with this issue.

5 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Graber R, Turner R, Madill A. Best friends and better coping: Facilitating psychological resilience through boys' and girls' closest friendships.Br J Psychol. 2016;107(2):338-358. doi:10.1111/bjop.12135Rodrigues MA, Yoon SO, Clancy KBH, Stine-Morrow EAL.What are friends for? The impact of friendship on communicative efficiency and cortisol response during collaborative problem solving among younger and older women.J Women Aging. 2021;33(4):411-427. doi:10.1080/08952841.2021.1915686Winther-Lindqvist DA, Larsen IO. Grief and Best Friendship Among Adolescent Girls.Omega (Westport). 2021;83(3):545-562. doi:10.1177/0030222819856146Cleveland Clinic.Anxiety Disorders.Harvard Health Publishing.The Power of Self-Compassion.

5 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Graber R, Turner R, Madill A. Best friends and better coping: Facilitating psychological resilience through boys' and girls' closest friendships.Br J Psychol. 2016;107(2):338-358. doi:10.1111/bjop.12135Rodrigues MA, Yoon SO, Clancy KBH, Stine-Morrow EAL.What are friends for? The impact of friendship on communicative efficiency and cortisol response during collaborative problem solving among younger and older women.J Women Aging. 2021;33(4):411-427. doi:10.1080/08952841.2021.1915686Winther-Lindqvist DA, Larsen IO. Grief and Best Friendship Among Adolescent Girls.Omega (Westport). 2021;83(3):545-562. doi:10.1177/0030222819856146Cleveland Clinic.Anxiety Disorders.Harvard Health Publishing.The Power of Self-Compassion.

Graber R, Turner R, Madill A. Best friends and better coping: Facilitating psychological resilience through boys' and girls' closest friendships.Br J Psychol. 2016;107(2):338-358. doi:10.1111/bjop.12135Rodrigues MA, Yoon SO, Clancy KBH, Stine-Morrow EAL.What are friends for? The impact of friendship on communicative efficiency and cortisol response during collaborative problem solving among younger and older women.J Women Aging. 2021;33(4):411-427. doi:10.1080/08952841.2021.1915686Winther-Lindqvist DA, Larsen IO. Grief and Best Friendship Among Adolescent Girls.Omega (Westport). 2021;83(3):545-562. doi:10.1177/0030222819856146Cleveland Clinic.Anxiety Disorders.Harvard Health Publishing.The Power of Self-Compassion.

Rodrigues MA, Yoon SO, Clancy KBH, Stine-Morrow EAL.What are friends for? The impact of friendship on communicative efficiency and cortisol response during collaborative problem solving among younger and older women.J Women Aging. 2021;33(4):411-427. doi:10.1080/08952841.2021.1915686

Winther-Lindqvist DA, Larsen IO. Grief and Best Friendship Among Adolescent Girls.Omega (Westport). 2021;83(3):545-562. doi:10.1177/0030222819856146

Cleveland Clinic.Anxiety Disorders.

Harvard Health Publishing.The Power of Self-Compassion.

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Friendship Reduces Stress Levels#

Accept Your Feelings#

Friends Feel Left Behind#

Celebrate the Positives#

Are You Feeling Lonely? Take the Test#

Reach Out Even If It Feels Awkward#

Reflect on Your Feelings#

Take Care of Yourself#

A Word From Verywell#