Everyone who ever traveled knows the feeling of this certain amount of anxiety while heading to an unknown place. Even if you have traveled a lot, it is very difficult to get rid of all this blabla of your friends and the media in your head. The media are looking for negative headlines and most times highly exaggerate or even falsely report about many situations. Here are 8 steps on how to cope with the fear of traveling – Hodophobia.
Hodophobia – The Fear Of Traveling
Your friends pick this up and put even more interpretation into the whole pool of uncertainty. Stereotypes are anchored in everyone’s mind. Even Sigmund Freud admitted to suffering from Hodophobia, which is an irrational and complex fear of travel. Hodophobia is often connected to the exposure to other phobias such as the fear of flying, cruise ships, trains, and driving, claustrophobia, risk aversion, the fear of authority, and even performance anxiety. May this post help everyone whose anxiety level tends to rise uncontrollably when thinking about the open road.
The symptoms can range from mild anxiety to panic attacks and affects your mind as your physical state. The ability to function is lowered during a time you need to be at your best. The cause of this problem is very individual and may vary widely, but it is probably linked to previous negative experiences while traveling.
1. Be Sober and Avoid Any Kind Of Drugs
We recommend treating this disorder with anti-anxiety drugs, even though this might be the only option for some individuals. Life on the road is very fast and situations can change within split seconds. Sobriety helps you to be sharp and clear-headed.
2. Talk Your Way Out
A trusted travel buddy can help with your dilemma and will probably make your travel go smoother. Even talking to family members, friends or a professional beforehand might help.
3. Eat, Drink, Sleep, Repeat
Try always to be hydrated and eat enough during your time on the road. You will quickly notice that this will make your life much easier. Take rests wherever you can and catch enough sleep while traveling to avoid distress.
4. Don’t Stress Yourself
While traveling it is recommendable to take it easy. Things will go wrong, but believe us if we tell you that eventually, everything is going to be alright if you stay focused.
5. Be Prepared
Prepare yourself and plan everything down to the detail. The more you organize your schedule the easier it is. Plan your route if traveling by car, make a hotel reservation, and check out all other necessary information you could possibly need. The internet can help a lot to get familiar with your future surroundings and new environments.
6. Do your thing
It also helps to maintain certain tasks which one does in normal everyday life. Keep your routines if possible.
7. Believe in yourself
Visualizing your success in one’s mind can work wonders and reduces stress as well.
8. Dive In! / No Hodophobia – the fear of traveling!
Every beginning is difficult. Be brave and just do it. Think of it as the initial jump of a Bungy jump.
Most importantly, you should think about all the things you miss out not going where you want! Think about all the missed opportunities and imagine your life with new experiences as well as new people. Get your emotions together and believe in yourself. Be confident and hold your head up high! Others did it before and so will you. Once in a new situation, you will hopefully realize how unfounded your fears were and how enriching your courage was! Enjoy life, dont forget to be happy, and make the best of every second you are granted on our magical planet.
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Hodophobia – The Fear Of Traveling
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