Post Trip Depression
Finding “Bliss” in Amorgas Greece
Post Trip Depression (PTD) is the real deal. How to avoid the blues after the trip of a lifetime.
Years of dreaming, 9 months of planning, 10 days of bliss, 30 days of post-trip depression.
This was the trip of a lifetime. Greece had been on my vision board for years. My 17-year-old daughter shared the vision of going to Greece, and this was her surprise graduation present. And to sweeten the moment, my mom went on the trip as well. We called it our “Mamma Mia” trip. Three generations traveling the world together. Truthfully, the trip was better than I had ever imagined or expected! It fulfilled my expectations in every way possible, and then some.
My friends watched me share the anticipation of the trip on social media, and then flood their feeds with “live vicariously through me” photos for 10 days.
And then I went silent.
Completely silent.
It’s likely that nobody even noticed. Other than planning my daughter’s graduation party, I shut down. At first, I thought it was just jetlag. And there really was jetlag. And the other women in our group reported experiencing it too. But then the malaise about getting back to regular life continued. Why did I feel so unmotivated? Why was I so blue? Why did life feel so hard? After doing 2-3 yoga classes per day at the Greece retreat, 2 weeks passed without me stepping foot on my yoga mat. I just had no motivation.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Greece. I wanted to go back. I was sad that the experience was now a memory without the anticipation of what was to come. What was wrong with me? After several weeks, out of curiosity I did an online search. Lo and behold, I discovered I was not alone. Post-trip depression actually is a “thing”, especially after much anticipated, long trips, far away from home… just like this trip was for me! There is a term for it; post-travel depression (PTD). Symptoms include tiredness, loss of appetite, strong feelings of nostalgia, irritability, depression, and jetlag according to Wikipedia.
I remembered that I had also had this issue re-integrating after mission trips that I had done in the past. Those made sense to me because we were witness to extremely different living conditions compared to our lives at home. Those trips were humbling, and I came home feeling more privileged than before I had gone.
But this trip was not like that. So, what was so amazing about Greece? We attended a yoga retreat on the island of Amorgos, one of the more remote Greek islands. It was a 3-day adventure of planes, ferries, and automobiles to get to the island. The island was 18 miles long, with around 2000 inhabitants. Surrounded by the chilly Aegean Sea, it was beautiful, tranquil, quiet. We were served gourmet meals at the resort, made from scratch with hundreds of fresh grown herbs, vegetables, and local fish. I didn’t see processed food the entire time I was there. I ate spinach pies every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I did yoga 2-3 times per day, had multiple massages, swam in the giant ice-bath of the Aegean Sea, walked in nature. My eyes were constantly taking in the beauty of the sea, the white buildings and blue doors, and flowering shrubs. We could smell fresh herbs alongside every trail or sidewalk. I was with two of the most precious women in my life, along with 25 other like-minded lovely women that became friends. The demands of daily living had ceased for the moment. My eyes didn’t see a TV anywhere in site. And my engagement with electronics and social media was minimal.
It wasn’t a vacation.
It was a complete nervous system reboot.
And every cell in my body relished the experience.
Returning home felt hard. Taking care of the demands of daily living. The hustle. The pace. The to-do lists. Deciding what to have for dinner was hard. Back to reading labels to avoid unnecessary chemical ingredients. Fitting yoga into the schedule. Making time for stillness. There was no crowing rooster every morning or beautiful Aegean Sea to wake up and see every day. There was no more planning. Or anticipation. The dream had been achieved.
As I discovered from the research I did, there actually is a psychological explanation for what I was experiencing. It’s dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that carries signals withing the brain. Among its many duties is a crucial role in signaling the feelings of enjoyment we get out of life’s pleasure,” writer Ed Yong explained for Discover magazine. It’s a key part of the brain’s ‘reward center’, which affects how we react to good experiences—and, according to a study in 2022, bad ones too.
When you have an experience, you anticipate and love, like a vacation—dopamine pathways activate the reward center of the brain, and cause feelings of happiness and fulfillment. And the reward center particularly responds to novelty as with the case of an adventure to a part of the world you’ve never experienced. Unfortunately, there’s a downside to all this. When the exciting trip is over and you’re back to a regular routine, the resulting lower dopamine levels can lead to a mood crash. “Low levels of dopamine are linked to reduced motivation and decreased enthusiasm for things that would excite most people,” according to Healthline.
So, what do you do if you have a big trip or highly anticipated event coming up and you want to avoid what happened to me? The experts say use dopamine’s qualities to help! Plan a new vacation or something similarly fun and kick-start anticipatory dopamine. Create something to look forward to!
Wondering what else you can do if you find yourself feeling like I did after a big trip or event? Or have one coming up and want to be prepared? Here are some simple strategies for boosting your dopamine levels.
Allow yourself time for reintegration when you get home (Plan a couple “recovery days”.)
Plan your next trip, or even an enjoyable leisure or social activity.
Document your trip by writing a journal or creating a photo book.
Bring elements of your trip into your environment.
Surround yourself with positive people that will lift you up.
Keep up physical activity and relaxation techniques.
Specifically, I did several of these things to help me navigate through the feelings and integrate back into normal life. Without realizing that dopamine was the key, I began a project I called Project Blue Door to remake my outdoor porch and deck areas into an oasis that reminded me of Greece. I started with a project of painting my front door blue to remind of Greece. That project ended up taking on a life of its own, but it did help me move on from the Greece trip. You can read about it in detail in my blog post “Project Blue Door”.
The scenery in Greece was so spectacular and I wanted to preserve the memories and images of that experience, so I created an online photo book using the Canva App and had it printed and mailed to me. It serves as a great conversation piece and lovely book to have on the coffee table, so the images don’t get lost in the digital world of my iphone.
I decided to plan a spontaneous trip to the mountains for the family. One of our favorite places to visit in the summer is Estes Park, Colorado. While it will be a short trip, the thought of a few days breathing the fresh mountain air and taking in the beautiful scenery felt invigorating. It gives us something to look forward to.
After doing yoga 2-3 times per day in Greece, I realized 2 weeks after returning home, I hadn’t stepped foot on my yoga mat. And so, I made a commitment to get back on the mat. Take early morning walks. Drink my daily green juice and begin breath work practice. All the things that could help my nervous system in the ways that it was supported during that week in Greece.
And finally, spending time with other people, talking about my amazing trip and being honest about my struggles after returning home was helpful. Leaning into the feelings I was having and being aware of them, helped me to understand areas of my life that I wanted to change and adapt so that I could feel more peaceful and relaxed like I did during the week in Greece.
I realized that the 10 days I spent traveling to Greece wasn’t just about having an extravagant vacation and escaping day-to-day reality. It really was more about the “feeling” of being fully relaxed and how my body reacts to slowing down, removing stress, eating nourishing food, and being surrounded by the beauty of nature. I helped me to know that I want more of this in my day-to-day life, regardless of what city, state, or country I’m in to experience it.
