HEALTH ANXIETY WHILE TRAVELLING OVERSEAS

[lillphilt]

Evening All!

As a person who loves to travel - I’ve noticed a couple of things on my last 4 International trips that are not becoming more common each trip and more frequency.

I have general Health Anxiety which is quite pronounced at home and i live like 5 minutes from the best Hospitals in Melbourne... (yes i do use that to calm myself LOL)

But I’m noticing my enjoyement of trips is being effected.

Im worried about having some health emergency and not be able to get to a hospital.

It started mostly on USA trips - silly as its the USA, with a Western Medicine but i was travelling in quite remote areas and i started to wonder “if something went wrong I’m hours and hours away from a Hospital - Ill die”

this then is turn resurfaced on 2 family trips to Thailand - (panicked also about level of medical care and state of the hospitals, and how far they were and that they wont understand me.....as i write i realise how unrealistic it is....)

Mostly i start to panic and hyperventilate on trips at night when i cant sleep and my partner and family are in bed and i cant get my mind off it....then give it an hour or so and i am so exhausted I usually finally fall asleep.

SO!

I want to hear from anyone with similar experiences and how they’ve helped themselves or any tips for travel to cope with this?

I have a family trip to vietnam (I’ve looked up hospitals already lol) but i want to enjoy more remote areas like Sapa that really test my Health anxiety paranoia!

Thanks in advance 🙂

[Peppermintbach]

Hi lillphilt,

Like so many other people, I also think a love of travel is wonderful. There’s so much of the world to see; I like your adventurous spirit 🙂

Although it must be awful to have to deal with the heightened health anxiety when travelling. It sounds like it has been very stressful, draining and exhausting. Anxiety can be so debilitating...good on you for opening up and reaching out here though 🙂

Perhaps I can offer some suggestions, and you can see if you like them or not:

• Planning is key - before a trip, if you know that your health anxiety is likely triggered, maybe research local medical facilities & services. The idea isn’t to fixate on those facilities and services, but it’s to know where they are & to know how to access them, which would hopefully reassure you and lessen some of the anxiety.
• people often find grounding and mindfulness techniques useful to reduce anxiety, both as the anxiety is happening and in general terms.
• consider looking up a BeyondBlue thread called, self help tips for managing anxiety. It’s full of suggestions by various forum members, and while it’s not travel-specific, maybe you can draw inspiration from it and adapt it to your travel needs accordingly. Just type the title in the BeyondBlue search if you’re interested. It’s very long so you might like to just skim read and/or only read the 1st and last page.
• Make additional appointments with a health professional in the lead up to a trip to discuss coping strategies e.g. make an extra appointment with your psychologist.

I hope this gives you some ideas.

Is it okay if I ask how have you been feeling since your opening post?

There’s no urgency or pressure to answer, but in your own good time (and only if you’re feeling up to it), it would be wonderful to hear how you’re going.

Kind and caring thoughts,

Pepper