How to vacation with depression
Don’t just give up on the idea of a vacation away from home. If you do some planning and soul-searching ahead of time, it’s much more likely that you’ll have a good time, even with depression.
Have a realistic mindset
First of all, have a realistic mindset about your vacation. Make sure that you are not looking to this vacation to cure your depression, or even alleviate it temporarily while you’re traveling. There’s definitely a chance you will feel better when you’re on vacation. Most people, depressed or not, feel better when they’re away from the usual obligations and stressors.
However, if you’re counting on this happening and it doesn’t, you’ll be disappointed, and possibly on a vacation that’s not a good fit for a person with depression. You need to plan for the mood you might have, not the one that you hope you’ll have.
Spend a lot of time thinking about your vacation and how you might feel when you’re away. Don’t think of it in terms of colorful travel brochures or the great time you had on a vacation when you weren’t depressed. Think about what will be enjoyable and not overly stressful for you.
Do you feel wonderful just lounging in the sun by a pool? Or does another country, with new foods, culture, and history to absorb make you feel more alive?
Don’t go with what you think you should want. Don’t say to yourself, “Well, I’ve spent the last few vacations lying on a beach, so I really should go somewhere new.” When you’re depressed, you need to be true to yourself and to what makes you happy.
Do Your Research
Do some serious research and not just by watching travel programming. It might change your mind about potential locations. For example, you might long for a trip to Venice for the rambling walks in the tiny streets, the chance to lean on a bridge and watch the gondolas go by, shop for the famous Venetian glass and maybe enjoy a leisurely espresso at a cafe on St. Mark’s Square.
The reality is that Venice is now packed with tourists due, to a great extent, to cruise ships. It’s a small city, and on most days there are an average of 60,000 people, half of them tourists, crowding those tiny streets and bridges. For someone with depression, especially if they also have anxiety, the thought of fighting crowds like that just to get anywhere is overwhelming, not enjoyable.
Researching your possible destinations thoroughly, including when places like Venice will be less busy, can help prevent vacation disasters.
Plan for contingencies
You may decide that camping sounds like a wonderful idea, especially since you know that being out in natural surroundings is good for your depression. Hiking in the woods, fishing in a beautiful lake, sitting around a campfire at night before sleeping in a tent surrounded by nature and fresh air…it does sound wonderful.
But what happens if it rains, and you’re spending your vacation in a leaky tent just hoping the weather will change? If you’re one of those lucky people who are perfectly happy hiking and fishing in the rain, great.
If not, you can imagine what your depression brain will start saying. It’ll probably berate you for not thinking of the possible problems, and you’ll spend your time depressed and regretful.
Instead, you could consider staying in a cabin instead of doing the full back to nature camping. If it rains, you can hang out inside in front of the fireplace, nice and dry, and relax with a book.
The point is, think of contingencies in case nature or circumstances don’t provide that perfect vacation, and you’re much more likely to enjoy yourself.
Plan, plan, plan, and organize
Speaking of contingencies, get all the details worked out beforehand and plan and organize compulsively. Research backup plans for every location. Double-check and confirm everything a few days before you leave.
If you’re not the kind of person who would do that anyway, maybe that sounds like a lot of work, but having to find somewhere to stay in a foreign country when your hotel booking falls through will be completely overwhelming to you if you have depression and no backup plan. People with depression generally don’t handle spontaneity well.
Avoid the comfortable familiar
When you have depression, you tend to crave the familiar. When you’re traveling, you need to resist that impulse, or you’ll return home with a whole lot of regrets. Yes, you can probably still get your morning coffee at Starbucks, since they’re everywhere except Pluto, but you owe it to yourself to explore the local coffee houses.
Keep a travel journal
Consider keeping a travel journal. You may think that you’ll always remember how you felt when you saw fields of lavender in Provence, or the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, or ate lobster rolls on a beautiful day on a wharf with the tang of sea in the air. Photos certainly help to preserve your vacation memories, but writing down your feelings and thoughts at the time can bring more meaning out of the experience.
When you return
Even people who don’t have depression can have what’s called post-travel depression. Things are back to everyday normal, which can seem pretty blah after an enjoyable vacation away from the everyday. So people with clinical depression can really feel down after a trip.
There are a few ways to inoculate yourself against it, though.
- Before you go on vacation, plan some events for after your trip. Get tickets for something you enjoy, like a concert, a museum show or a weekend class, something you’ll have to look forward to.
- Start planning your next vacation. For many people, it’s the best part. Even if you don’t have a firm date, armchair travel can help to fill that need.
- Go over your travel journal and your photos. This is a great reason to keep a travel journal. It will help to cement those memories, which can be a little harder to hold onto for people with depression.
Above all, be proud of yourself for going on a vacation away when you have depression. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but it’s so much better for you than hiding away at home and missing out on the stimulation that travel can bring.