Transition Fatigue
entry by Julie M. Marx, Global Family Expert at Expat Valley
A state of emotional, cognitive, or physical exhaustion resulting from repeated or prolonged experiences of major life transitions, particularly relocation. May manifest as reduced resilience, difficulty engaging with new environments, or reluctance to invest in relationships or communities perceived as temporary.
Comparable terms
Mobility fatigue (HR/mobility, coaching) · Relocation fatigue (destination services, HR) · Cumulative transition stress (clinical, research — emphasizes the additive nature of repeated transitions) · Moving fatigue (informal, community) · Chronic transition stress (clinical — contested; some prefer fatigue over stress to avoid over-pathologizing)
Why this matters
Transition fatigue can look like apathy, irritability, or refusal to engage again. It often hides a backlog of unprocessed grief and stress. Naming it helps families slow the pace, seek rest, and create closure instead of just pushing through.
Cross-references
Cumulative Loss (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Departure Cycle (Transitions & Mobility); Relocation Cycle (Transitions & Mobility); Resilience (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Sojourner (Wellbeing & Mental Health); BRAT (Identity & Belonging). Cumulative loss is the emotional substrate beneath transition fatigue — the accumulated, unprocessed grief of repeated mobility that manifests at the surface as exhaustion and disengagement. The departure cycle and relocation cycle entries describe the structural events that generate transition fatigue over time. Resilience describes the capacity whose depletion transition fatigue represents; sojourner captures the psychological dimension of impermanence that compounds fatigue in those who internalize temporariness as a default. BRATs are among the populations most vulnerable to transition fatigue given the non-negotiable frequency of military-ordered relocation.
Sources
“Transition fatigue” is widely used in practitioner and coaching literature but has limited dedicated academic sourcing under this exact term. The closest academic framing is cumulative stress in the context of repeated relocation. Closest source: Pollock, D.C., Van Reken, R.E., & Pollock, M.V. (2017). Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds (3rd ed.). Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
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