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Due to my long personal international experience I don't have any of the stress problems you mention except the administrative and bureaucratic aspects of the life in Portugal. As a Frenchman I thought France was the champion all categories! But no!!! it is Portugal so far, knowing that there are, most likely, other countries in the world having structured their administration and procedures in such a way that there is never a responsible person in the administration and that problems of the tax payer are not resolvable. In other words there never have problems!!!!

Hey Priscilla
We are in the process of moving across from South Africa. My husband is already in Lisbon and started working this week.
My biggest stresses at the moment are: finding him accommodation in the middle of high season!!!; arranging all the veterinary paperwork that goes with moving our big fur-boy across, and having to "delete" my life here (aka: sell everything!!!). I'm also stressing about getting myself and my daughter into Portugal as South Africans, with my husband being an EU citizen. I don't really want to have to do Schengen visas and buy return air tickets when we won't be coming back...

So - ways to deal with the stress:
- work through the processes a step at a time;
- walk my dog as often as possible in our beautiful Winelands mountain environment in the Western Cape for the last few months;
- visit and say goodbye to friends and family
- rely on the kindness of strangers in Portugal and on this site who seem so willing to help! (Shout out here to Tracie Shelley who was willing to give my husband a pull-out sofa bed to sleep on in an emergency!)
- BREATHE!!!!
- do yoga!

I'm not too worried about the language issue. We've already started teaching ourselves basic phrases, and I'm told that English is widely spoken, so that's not a major stress.

But probably the biggest factor for me is actually moving to a country I've never even visited, don't speak the language and never contemplated ever having to do this - especially at age 53!
Our government - politics and economy - has forced our hand, and it means probably leaving my 82-year-old mother behind; and my eldest daughter, who says she plans to follow, but who knows... 
There is no way of dealing with that kind of stress (or guilt), I'm afraid.

I have a blog, which I will have to be changing the name of soon, as it's called - and I think I'll be doing regular posts and / or vlogs about this whole process starting in the next few weeks

Btw, @Jean-Paul Burtin: try doing paperwork in Africa!!!!
We had a home invasion 2 years ago, in which my ID card was stolen (along with my whole life, carried in my handbag!) and I've been trying to get it replaced with our local home affairs office since then...

Hi Jeanine,
You must be right re: bureaucracy in Africa although I don't have any experience with any country except Egypt and South Africa. My point is that things get worse and worse regardless of the country in the world. This is the case of USA where, as I said I lived 21 years.
Regarding integration, I strongly recommend to learn a minimum of Portuguese. I know it's not easy for English speaking people compared to people originating from a latin country like me. But speaking reasonable Portuguese helps quite a bit, especially if you work.
Good luck to you and your husband
Jean-Paul

Thanks Jean-Paul
And yes, we definitely plan to learn the language properly - I want to be a citizen in 6 years'  time!
I've had many trips into Mozambique and sold the entire region as a Tour Operator, so I'm familiar with Portuguese on the whole. I've also studied French, German and Italian, so I'm looking forward to learning this language!

Whaoo! Having been in Mozambique is a big advantage. It is also my case having lived and manage a company in Brazil.
Best!
JP