The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
ANNA HART THE HYPE
In the rush to describe all travel trips as ‘amazing’, we often fail to admit that they can be destabilising and isolating too
Ihave never regretted going on a trip, but my five-night work trip to Abu Dhabi came close. Thanks to jet lag, deadlines and meetings, I averaged four hours’ sleep a night, I barely saw the city because of appointments, I didn’t know anyone at the (unproductive) event, I was missing a friend’s birthday party in London, and I was staying at a bland and airless hotel. It was winter in the UK and I’d felt low and fragile beforehand, and I returned even more chewed up. I was considering asking my doctor to put me back on citalopram, an antidepressant I’ve been prescribed a few times.
That first night back, I travelled across town to join friends in the pub, thirsty for friendly and familiar faces, and trying to muster the courage to ask for support.
“Well, Anna, we don’t even need to ask you how you are,” my friend said. “Abu Dhabi! Lucky you! It must have been amazing! Gosh, I’d love some sunshine right now.” Faced with gentle, jealous ribbing, I felt there was no way I could admit I’d had a terrible trip.
That was when it hit home that the British are primed to view all travel abroad as a carefree holiday for the unjustly blessed. We can’t help it: we are raised convinced that the moment someone steps off sodden British soil, their troubles evaporate, their responsibilities disintegrate, and their lives resemble a Wham! music video. You can say: “I’m a bit anxious about that four-day medical coding conference in Eindhoven,” as much as you like, but to British ears, you’re humming “Club Tropicana, drinks are free…”
This is compounded by social media. Scroll through Instagram or Facebook and it seems like 80 per cent of the population are away having the best holidays ever. I can’t blame my friends for their response to my Abu Dhabi trip; I’d posted pics of cocktails, blue skies, and white sands. I didn’t realise until too late that by posting a few misleading Instagram pics, I was waiving my right to tell friends how I really felt, and ask for help.
The myth that travelling is automatically pleasurable and immediately relaxing is a problem. Because whether it’s a work trip, family holiday, group break with friends or a solo adventure, travel can be awful. And the culture of polite silence – fearing an “Oh shut up, you’ve been travelling” – makes it perilously hard for regular travellers to ask for help when we’re struggling with mental health issues.
The world reacted with horror when travel and food writer Anthony Bourdain took his own life in a hotel room whilst filming his travel series Parts Unknown. As if it were unthinkable that someone could be successful, travelling the world, and also troubled. But the truth is that travelling is regularly physically exhausting, mentally challenging, emotionally destabilising and socially isolating.
I’ve been on some trips where travel has proved a palliative, thanks to the combination of sunshine, new faces, rest and the opportunity for a spot of reinvention. I’ve also been on trips where my anxiety worsened; where pleasure and connection remained tantalisingly out of reach.
These days, I’m fussier about when and where I travel for work, and I stick religiously to the hippyish rituals that keep me healthy and happy back home, packing my Manduka yoga towel and a scented candle in my suitcase and making sure I have time for some rest and fun. But the thing that has made the most difference to my mental health when I travel? Telling the truth. I banned the word “amazing”. And promised myself to be honest about my moods with people I love and
If we can’t talk about the bad along with the good, we’re missing the point
trust. As a travel writer, it’s my job to make travel look appealing. I am travel’s biggest cheerleader, and I believe that responsible travel can transform both individual travellers and the communities they visit.
When we travel, we’re searching for new experiences, inspiration and enlightenment, life lessons to share with the people we love back home. If we can’t share how we feel when we travel, and talk about the bad along with good, we’re missing the point.
To read more articles by Anna Hart, see telegraph.co.uk/ travel/team/anna-hart