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When I was younger, I was very socially awkward. I used to get anxiety when I talked to strangers. Travel forced me to get over that and become what is termed a \u201clearned extrovert.\u201d It\u2019s sink or swim on the road and, since I wanted to travel and be on the road so much, I decided to swim. I had to learn how to talk to people if I didn’t want to be alone.<\/em><\/p>\n For many, it\u2019s an even harder challenge. Many people are scared to travel and suffer from travel anxiety. My friend Lauren of Never Ending Footsteps suffered such bad panic attacks when she was younger that she barely left the house, developed an eating disorder, and never took public transportation. <\/p>\n Today, Lauren writes in-depth about her panic attacks and travel anxiety, how travel helped her cope with that, and what others can do to get over their fears and travel the world.<\/em><\/p>\n I was 16 when I had my first panic attack. I thought I was going to die. I was drenched in sweat within seconds, I had pins and needles everywhere, my chest was tight, and my left arm was tingling in a way that convinced me I was having a heart attack.<\/p>\n These panic attacks would take hold of my life \u2014 I was having as many as ten a day. I developed an eating disorder and was unable to leave my house for months at a time.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not alone \u2014 18% of the population in the United States suffers<\/a> from an anxiety disorder, with around a quarter of these cases classified as severe. Fewer than 40% of anxiety sufferers are receiving treatment for their disorder.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t seek out treatment either. Instead, I decided to travel, hoping that would make me the self-assured, confident person I longed to be and hoping that having a panic attack on a beach in Thailand had to be better than having one at home.<\/p>\n My family and friends disagreed and told me that traveling would be a huge mistake. They didn\u2019t think I was strong enough to deal with unfamiliar situations and were convinced I would be home within a week. In a way, their belief that was too scared to travel and their lack of faith in me spurred me on. I wanted to prove that I wasn\u2019t as weak and as they thought I was.<\/p>\n By the time I left, my travel anxiety had improved, but I was still suffering from panic attacks anywhere from once a month to several times a day. In the four years I\u2019ve been on the road, though, I can count the number of attacks I\u2019ve had on two hands. Despite what everyone told me, travel can <\/em>actually help you overcome your anxiety. <\/p>\n But how do you actually work up the courage to leave? How do you deal with anxiety on the road? And how does traveling actually help reduce anxiety? How to stop being scared to travel?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how to calm your mind, get over your anxiety, and get yourself out on the road:<\/p>\n Remind yourself why you want to travel – <\/strong>Whenever you think about canceling your trip, picture yourself in the place you most want to visit and tell yourself that you have to get there and see what it\u2019s like.<\/p>\n Imagine yourself in that place, living the life you\u2019ve dreamed, without any anxiety in sight. These positive affirmations will calm you down, and doing it repeatedly helps you grasp the idea that you can successfully travel the world.<\/p>\n Imagine your life a year from now – <\/strong>What will happen if you decide to cancel your trip? It\u2019s likely that a year from now, you\u2019ll find yourself thinking, Damn, I had the chance to travel and I didn\u2019t take it. <\/em>It was the fear of living with regrets that forced me to take a chance and leave.<\/p>\n Find a community – <\/strong>There are a dozen forums out there for anxiety sufferers \u2014 my favorite is No More Panic<\/em><\/a> \u2014 where you can post whenever you\u2019re struggling and receive help and support from community members, as well as calming tricks to talk yourself down. Integrate yourself into a community like this before you leave, so that if anxiety does hit you when you\u2019re on the road, you won\u2019t feel like you\u2019re struggling on your own.<\/p>\n Meticulously plan out your first few days – <\/strong>Anxiety often stems from feeling like you\u2019re not in control, so a way to negate this is to plan out every detail of your first day or two on the road. Some suggestions:<\/p>\n By focusing on each step at a time, you can feel like you\u2019re in control, and you won\u2019t fear the unexpected as much.<\/p>\n Remember you can always go home – <\/strong>If you try it for a few weeks and realize travel isn\u2019t for you or that this isn\u2019t the right time, you can always go home. It doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re a failure<\/a>; it means you tried something and you didn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re like me, your biggest concern will be over how you\u2019ll cope if you have a panic attack abroad. What if it happened in a dorm room or \u2014 even worse \u2014 when you\u2019re on a flight and can\u2019t escape? <\/em>You\u2019ll have to deal with these fears \u2014 on top of the ones nonanxious travelers face: getting lost<\/a>, getting sick<\/a>, not making friends<\/a>, and not enjoying it<\/a>.<\/p>\n I still experience occasional panic attacks on the road, but there are plenty of ways to reduce travel anxiety:<\/p>\n Form a routine<\/strong> – Travel can be stressful and disorienting, and it\u2019s often the lack of routine that increases your risk of anxiety. In order to feel like you have some control over your life, create a routine so that there\u2019s always a part of your day when you\u2019ll know exactly what will happen.<\/p>\n Try setting an alarm every morning and then heading out for a morning run. Even though the location changes, the simple act of doing the same thing morning after morning gives you something to expect and look forward to. Similarly, you could try eating a sandwich every day for lunch, or having dinner at the same time every evening. You could even set aside one day of a week as a \u201ctreat day,\u201d where you go for a massage and head to the cinema to watch a movie. It\u2019s all about staying in control, and these small constants help with that.<\/p>\n Ignore your intuition – <\/strong>Practically every article I\u2019ve ever read about staying safe on the road tells you to listen to your intuition. The problem for anxiety sufferers is that your instincts will always tell you something bad is always going to happen. If I paid attention to my intuition, I would rarely ever step outside my house, would have never gone on my trip, and would never have accepted an invitation from new friends on the road.<\/p>\n Set money aside for the bad days – <\/strong>Everyone likes to save money on the road, but forcing yourself to always go for the cheapest options can negatively affect your mental health. Staying in dorm rooms night after night, long bus journeys to save a few dollars here and there \u2014 it can all add up to one big panic attack. I recommend keeping a few hundred dollars aside for these situations.<\/p>\n In Laos, I experienced the unluckiest 48 hours of my life: it involved eating a cockroach, staying in the dirtiest accommodation I\u2019ve seen, watching a woman die from malaria, sitting next to the woman and her grieving husband for several hours, getting locked inside the next guesthouse I stayed in, having another cockroach run over my face as I slept, and being sexually assaulted by a backpacker.<\/p>\n I was on the verge of flying home, but instead I decided to blow a week\u2019s worth of travel costs on a night of recovery. I booked myself into the highest-rated hotel in the city, I spent a day inside catching up on sleep and watching movies, I treated myself to an expensive meal, and I got a manicure and pedicure. Taking time for myself helped reduce my anxiety and regain my confidence so that I felt able to travel again.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unlikely you\u2019ll ever be as unlucky as me on the road, but if you ever experience something stressful and traumatizing, book yourself into a fancy hotel room<\/a>, treat yourself to room service, and have a long, hot bath to relax. Take time out of your schedule to make yourself feel good.<\/p>\n The trick is to not allow yourself to do this for too long. Once I get into the habit of staying inside, it can be tough to pull myself back out of my hole and start exploring again. In cases of burnout, exhaustion, or bouts of anxiety, I recommend spending three days inside to recover and then doing something intimidating on the fourth day. (Note<\/strong>: Your mileage may vary, pick the time that works for you.)<\/p>\n Remember bad luck can often be good luck – <\/strong> Whenever I\u2019ve had to deal with bad luck while traveling, I\u2019ve felt disheartened and even considered returning home. What helped to keep me on the road was changing the way I viewed these unpleasant experiences.<\/p>\n Anxiety leads to irrational thoughts and will forever have you worrying about the worst-case scenario. Sometimes that scenario will <\/em>actually happen \u2014 and you\u2019ll survive it. You\u2019ll realize you\u2019re far stronger than you thought you were, that the things you were most anxious about are never actually as bad as you expected and that you\u2019re well equipped to deal with things going wrong.<\/p>\n Leave your comfort zone –<\/strong> Repeated exposure to your fears is more successful at treating anxiety than avoidance, and the best way to conquer anxiety is by doing one thing a day that scares you<\/a>. Travel is great for this!<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s figuring out the public transport in an unfamiliar city or accepting an invitation to hang out with a local, try stepping out of your comfort zone and doing something new every day.<\/p>\n But what if everything <\/em>is new and frightening? Google it! I had never been on a bus before I went abroad, so I spent half an hour researching how they worked and what you were supposed to say when you stepped onboard. It helped lessen my anxiety and made me feel more capable.<\/p>\n Calming exercises and simple tricks are also great for helping you gain the confidence to step outside your comfort zone. Try breathing in for five seconds and out for seven seconds. Or place an elastic band around your wrist and snap it against your skin to keep you distracted. If I\u2019m particularly intimidated by a new experience, the combination of those two things helps me take that step into the unknown. Avoid your triggers – <\/strong>Alcohol always makes my anxiety worse, so I tend to avoid it when I travel. Before you leave, come up with a list of everything that triggers your anxiety and try to minimize your exposure to it on the road. Not many people consider teetotaling when they travel, but if it prevents you from having a panic attack, it\u2019s well worth it.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t compare your experiences – <\/strong>It\u2019s easy to beat yourself up when you look at your friends\u2019 travel experiences or read a travel blog full of beautiful photos and glowing trip reports. It can increase feelings of inadequacy<\/a> and make you feel as if you\u2019re the only person who\u2019s suffering. If all you ever see is people having the most incredible time of their life, it can leave you feel like you\u2019re doing something wrong or not making the most of the opportunity you\u2019ve been given. Don\u2019t let these feelings lead to more anxiety.<\/p>\n Remind yourself that everyone curates<\/a>, so you often won\u2019t see the bad side of their travels. Don\u2019t compare yourself to anyone else, because you never know who\u2019s battling with anxiety behind the scenes.<\/p>\n Instead, the opposite happened. People related to my article and shared with me their personal stories of traveling with anxiety. I\u2019ve received hundreds of emails from those who have an anxiety disorder but decided to travel the world anyway (and succeeded!), and I\u2019ve received hundreds more from people who dream of traveling but are too nervous to take the plunge.<\/p>\n My story of how my travel misadventures helped me overcome anxiety even caught the attention of a major publisher. My book, How Not to Travel the World<\/em><\/a>, is about getting out of your comfort zone no matter how many panic attacks life throws at you. It\u2019s about dealing with unfavorable situations, learning to push yourself out of your comfort zone, and falling in love with life on the road.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Five years ago, I sat home and tentatively planned out an itinerary for my dream trip around the world<\/a>. I didn\u2019t ever really think I\u2019d be able to work up the courage to leave. <\/p>\n I was so scared to travel. <\/p>\n Today, I\u2019m in an apartment in Madrid, four years into my travels, with 60 stamps in my passport. I\u2019ve had a total of two anxiety attacks in the past 12 months.<\/p>\n Travel has been the one thing that helped me conquer my anxiety more than anything else. Sometimes it downright terrifies me, but it also challenges me by forcing me to leave my comfort zone and comforts me by giving me the freedom to do whatever I want whenever I want. The combination of all three has done wonders for my mental health. <\/p>\n I\u2019ve reached the point where I struggle to even think of something that would take me out of my comfort zone, and I\u2019ve proven that it\u2019s possible to travel the world with a debilitating anxiety disorder.<\/p>\n Lauren Juliff runs the website Never Ending Footsteps<\/a> and is author of the recent book How Not To Travel the World: Adventures of a Disaster Prone Backpacker<\/a><\/strong>. I finished it earlier this week and would definitely recommend it as good summer read. But I’m probably biased since Lauren is my friend so I’ll add that I gave the book to a girl on my Morocco tour and she hasn’t put it down. She loves it and now she’s talking about a solo trip of her own! I think that’s a big vote of confidence! <\/em> Book Your Flight<\/strong> Book Your Accommodation<\/strong> Don’t Forget Travel Insurance<\/strong> Want to Travel for Free?<\/strong> Need a Rental Car?<\/strong> Need Help Finding Activities for Your Trip?<\/strong>![\"Female](\"https:\/\/media.nomadicmatt.com\/anxiety02.jpg\")
<\/p>\nStep #1: Dealing with anxiety before you travel<\/h3>\n
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Step #2: Dealing with anxiety when you travel<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nStep #3: Turning my travel anxiety into a positive<\/h3>\n
![\"Solo](\"https:\/\/media.nomadicmatt.com\/anxiety10.jpg\")
\nWriting about my anxiety on my travel blog was the best thing I ever did. Until that point, I\u2019d hidden it from my writing, because no other bloggers were discussing mental health issues in public. I was afraid that people would judge me if I wrote about the panic attacks I\u2019d had around the world \u2014 almost as if it was a sign that I was a bad traveler or I wasn\u2019t making the most of my opportunities.<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n\nBook Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks<\/h4>\n
\nFind a cheap flight by using Skyscanner<\/a>. It’s my favorite search engine because it searches websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned. <\/p>\n
\nYou can book your hostel with Hostelworld<\/a>. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com<\/a> as it consistently returns the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels. <\/p>\n
\nTravel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:<\/p>\n\n
\nTravel credit cards allow you to earn points that can be redeemed for free flights and accommodation \u2014 all without any extra spending. Check out my guide to picking the right card and my current favorites<\/a> to get started and see the latest best deals.<\/p>\n
\nDiscover Cars<\/a> is a budget-friendly international car rental website. No matter where you’re headed, they’ll be able to find the best \u2014 and cheapest \u2014 rental for your trip!<\/p>\n
\nGet Your Guide<\/a> is a huge online marketplace where you can find cool walking tours, fun excursions, skip-the-line tickets, private guides, and more. <\/p>\n