The Honest Guide to Traveling With Anxiety (From Someone Who Has It)

I’ve traveled to 40+ countries with generalized anxiety disorder. Not the Instagram version of anxiety (“I’m SO stressed about my Bali villa booking lol”) — the real kind, where boarding a plane triggers physical symptoms and checking into a hotel alone in a foreign city makes your chest tight.

Most travel-with-anxiety guides are written by people who had one panic attack on vacation. This one isn’t. Here’s what actually works after 10 years of anxious traveling — the strategies that let me keep exploring despite a brain that constantly invents worst-case scenarios.

The Biggest Lie: “Travel Will Cure Your Anxiety”

It won’t. Let’s kill this myth immediately. Travel doesn’t cure anxiety — it gives anxiety new material to work with. New environments, unfamiliar languages, unpredictable schedules — these are anxiety fuel, not anxiety medicine.

What travel CAN do: prove to your anxious brain that you survived situations it predicted would be catastrophic. Each trip builds evidence that contradicts the anxiety narrative. That’s not a cure — it’s a slow, imperfect accumulation of counter-evidence. It matters. But it’s not magic.

Pre-Trip: The Planning Paradox

Anxious travelers tend to over-plan (seeking control) or under-plan (avoiding the anxiety of thinking about it). Both backfire. Over-planning creates rigidity that shatters at the first disruption. Under-planning creates constant small decisions that drain your limited anxiety tolerance.

The middle path: plan your first night’s accommodation and transport from the airport. Know where you’ll sleep and how you’ll get there. Everything else can flex. That one certainty — “I know where I’m going when I land” — reduces 80% of arrival anxiety.

The 72-Hour Rule

Every new destination feels wrong for the first 72 hours. This isn’t a sign you made a mistake — it’s literally how brains process novelty. Your threat-detection system is on high alert because everything is unfamiliar. After 72 hours, your nervous system recalibrates and most of that ambient anxiety drops significantly.

Knowing this changes everything. Instead of catastrophizing on Day 1 (“I hate it here, I should go home”), you can label it: “This is the 72-hour adjustment. It will pass.” And it always does.

Practical Strategies That Actually Work

Anchor activities: Find one routine that stays constant regardless of location. For me: morning coffee at a local café, journaling for 10 minutes. This creates a portable sense of “normal” that anxiety can’t touch.

Exit plans: Always know how to leave. Airport locations, embassy address, how to call home. You’ll probably never use them — but knowing they exist reduces the trapped feeling that triggers panic.

Graduated exposure: Don’t go from “never left my hometown” to “solo backpacking through India.” Build: nearby city → familiar-culture country → short solo trip → longer unfamiliar destination. Each successful step makes the next one less terrifying.

The “good enough” room: Book accommodation slightly above your budget for the first night. Arriving anxious to a clean, comfortable, well-reviewed room with good wifi makes everything easier. You can downgrade to the hostel tomorrow once you’re oriented.

What to Do When Anxiety Hits Mid-Trip

It will happen. Not might — will. The question isn’t how to prevent it but how to respond. My protocol after years of trial and error:

1. Return to your accommodation (don’t try to “push through” — that escalates it). 2. Cold water on wrists and face (activates dive reflex, drops heart rate). 3. One grounding exercise (I use 5-4-3-2-1 senses). 4. Call someone — not to “fix it” but to hear a familiar voice. 5. Small food, water, rest. 6. Re-evaluate tomorrow, not tonight. Anxiety is always worse at night.

The Destinations That Helped (And Hindered)

Easier for anxiety: Japan (extreme orderliness, safety, clear signage), Portugal (gentle pace, familiar European framework, excellent healthcare), New Zealand (English-speaking, outdoors-focused, low crime), Thailand (tourist infrastructure makes everything easy, affordable comfort available everywhere).

Harder for anxiety: India (sensory overload, unpredictability), Egypt (intense haggling, constant approaches), Morocco (maze-like medinas, aggressive touts). These aren’t bad destinations — they just demand more from your anxiety-management toolkit. Build up to them.

You’re Not “Brave” — You’re Anxious AND Traveling

People say “you’re so brave” like anxiety travelers have somehow conquered fear. We haven’t. We travel WITH the fear, not without it. Every flight still spikes my heart rate. Every solo check-in still triggers that “what am I doing” voice. The difference isn’t courage — it’s deciding the anxiety doesn’t get the final vote.

You don’t have to love the process. You don’t have to be zen about it. You just have to keep going — anxiously, imperfectly, with your medications packed and your coping strategies ready. The world is still worth seeing, even through anxious eyes.