Travel and Anxiety

[LittlePenguin89]

I am planning a trip to Japan next April and then I plan to do some long term traveling on my own the year after. I am nervous because travel is such an uncertain thing with many variables that are out of my control. (i.e. plane travel) I know that cognitive behavioral therapy has shown great strides in helping people with anxiety however from what I understand it has a lot to do with doing the thing that scares you enough that it doesn't effect you any longer. The problem here is I cannot practice plane travel or international travel without going into some serious debt. How can I train myself not to freak out when going on these great travel adventures?

[Xerosnake90]

Hello! I've shared your view majority of my life. It's been two or three years since my last plane trip and I'll admit I was quite nervous. The thing to understand is that we fear the unknown, uncertainty. It's something we need in our life as people, life would be quite stale if you knew every day what would happen. The mistake we make is we begin to feel uncertainty towards things that we fear making that fear more powerful. Ultimately it prevents us from doing the things we may actually enjoy.

When I stepped on that airplane and rose to the air I was amazed by how beautiful of an experience it was to rise above the earth. I took in the mountains, seeing whole valleys sculpted by nature. That was the beauty of it for me. THe key here is our focus, don't let the fears be the focus. A great example is this, news. News focuses on a bad event and now we fear that isolated incident. If you were to reverse that idea into how many times it didn't happen, would that give relief? Should it? Interesting way to see how the brain works. It's easy to focus on negative while positive is too often overlooked. Reverse your ideas and enjoy the flight :) why worry about the unknown, it's not guaranteed. But if you tell yourself you'll enjoy the experience and you truly believe that then you will. THAT is guaranteed because that you do control, your thoughts!

[AceParadox]

Hi there :]

I also traveled to Japan a few years ago when I was struggling with anxiety/Panic Attacks so I can understand what frusteration you must be going through trying to prepare yourself. What helped me is what Xero suggested; Tell yourself you'll enjoy this experience and that your in control. Anxiety and such is an all out war with your mind. It's like the minds rebellion, it's greedy and wants control over you. The fear will keep you from enjoying the greatest things in your life, the beautiful sites you'll see while traveling and such, and just all of lifes great experiences.

I've been completely, 100% anxiety free for 2 years just because I went full on cerebral spartan mode on the fear that ruled my mind. Spit in it's face and bashed it into submission. What you have to do is everytime you feel the doubts and fears come up, and you feel that "uh oh" feeling, you say "Anxiety, everytime you try this, I get 10x stronger. You will never, ever, ever win. I am the one in control. This is my life, and I don't have time for your BS"

Keep focus off of the fear, and on the great things you'll experience. Traveling is so much fun! Hope I helped a bit.

[Kixxi]

Totally unrelated, but I love your Minato avatar Paradox :)