Is travel addiction a real thing?

After a trip do you just want to be alone?

“It can be an addiction. Whether this is a medical condition depends primarily on how it affects your life,” explains Dr. Art
Markman, a cognitive science specialist. “If the lows you experience after travel are so bad that you can’t really function in the rest of your life, then you want to get some help to deal with it. If you have to travel in ways that eat into the budget you need for life’s necessities, then that is a sign you should get some help.” On the other hand, he says, “if you don’t feel that your life is unmanageable, despite your real need to travel, then you are probably just at the extreme end of a continuum that includes lots of travelers.”

Sarah Bentley, a 28 year old former travel agent, explained that she feels the anxiety hit while she’s still traveling. “It almost impedes my trip because as my departure nears, my stomach forms knots and my mood completely shifts,” Bentley said. “I start to shut down before I get home, as a means to prepare myself I guess,” she adds, “which actually just makes the first week back even worse. By the time I’m leaving, the anxiety is so bad that I cry the entire flight back and am usually physically ill by the time I get home, with nothing to blame but my mental state. The next week involves a lot of anger and frustration.” 

Many academic studies address compulsive travel as a “behavioral addiction.” There are three elements to a compulsive behavior that make it a behavioral addiction, according to a study on compulsive consumption: a drive or urge to engage in the particular behavior, denial of the harmful consequences of the behavior, and failure in attempts to modify the behavior.

Travel addicts feel an intense urge to travel. There are definitely times when taking a trip can be harmful in more ways than one (think terrorism, environmental effects, monetary restraints), but we still hop on a plane, mostly because we are in denial of the negative effects travel might have on our lives. The terms “dromomania,” “hypermobility,” and “binge-flying” have all been coined by researchers and authors to unofficially to describe an addiction to travel.

According to Markman, the reason travel addicts are never satisfied is because, “Whenever you achieve a goal, there is an initial sense of satisfaction, but quickly your brain looks for something else to do.” Travel is a real “process goal,” Markman says. “There is not a particular outcome you are seeking, but rather a process you love, which in this case is travel planning,” he explains. The problem is that “you expect that the trip itself will have some set of outcomes that will create a sense of completion for you.”


For Further reading ; Can travel addicts be cured
Tag : New York Post