{Yachats, Oregon}
Still on vacation and giving my brain a chance to rest. Will be back to reality and blogging more extensively when I return from my break next week!
Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!
{International Rose Test Garden, Portland, Oregon}
Okay, I’ll be honest. I’d much rather watch a documentary on Netflix (anyone have any suggestions?) and let my mind wander than write a blog post right now. Escaping to Oregon earlier this week for the first leg of my vacation provided a perfect combo of nostalgia, tranquility, and connection. Rather than psychoanalyze and process the impact that my trip had on my psyche (as I usually do in my posts), I’m instead going to reminisce and share pictures from my trip, which hopefully captures the essence of my time spent there. I still have one more week of vacation left, so if my writing doesn’t have as much structure and depth as usual, that’s because my writing is characteristic and reflective of my current, free-flowing state of mind.
{Washington Park, Portland, Oregon}
{Portland Japanese Garden}
{Yachats, Oregon}
{Devil’s Churn, Oregon}
{Miami Beach, Florida}
With the summer season fast approaching, many have upcoming plans for vacation, which may trigger high levels of anxiety related to travel. Several of my patients request medications to alleviate anxiety to have on hand for their upcoming trips (mostly a small supply of anxiolytics such as benzodiazepines or sleep aids). Though I travel often, I also experience feeling anxious with each trip and have a routine that I religiously perform a few days before in effort to minimize my anxiety. My routine seems pretty standard to me, but I’ve traveled with several people who are either much more last-minute and disorganized or plan everything months in advance and arrive at the airport 2-3 hours early. Long story short — everyone’s different, so find out which techniques/strategies work best for you.
In effort to find the most common causes of anxiety related to travel, I performed a literature search (the number of studies are limited and all of them pretty old before the year 2000) and discovered a research article titled “Anxiety and Health Problems Related to Air Travel,” a study led by Dr. Iain McIntosh which identified frequency of perceived anxiety at certain stages of travel and use of strategies to reduce the anxiety. The results are summarized as follows:
- Stages of air travel with highest frequency of perceived anxiety:
- Take-off and landing
- Flight delays
- Customs and baggage reclaim
- Strong relationship between overall anxiety and frequency of reported health problems
- Women have slightly more health problems related to air travel than men
- Most frequently used anxiety-reduction methods:
- Alcohol use (one third of the surveyed participants)
- Distraction or relaxation techniques
- Doctor-prescribed or over-the-counter medication (5%)
Since I’m always on the lookout for resources to provide my patients, I found the following links useful:
- Articles on tips to cope with travel anxiety: “10 Tips For Nervous Flyers,” “How to Relieve Flying Anxiety,” “10 Foolproof Tricks to Beat Flight Anxiety.”
- Apps specifically for anxiety: 5 Apps To Help You Cope With Anxiety
- Travel Apps: App For That!, Best Travel Apps for 2015
- I personally use the following apps, which decrease my anxiety about traveling to new places: specific airline carrier apps (to check flight status, etc), Uber, Yelp, Instagram (several travel bloggers have accounts & may even respond to any questions you post to their account), Skype, Kayak, Hotel Tonight
And, in conclusion, I personally recommend the following techniques to make sure your anxiety doesn’t get the best of you:
- Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to have the PERFECT trip. I used to be guilty of this and would feel bummed if I forgot to do something on my “must-see/must-do” list. Putting too much pressure on yourself creates more stress rather than being present and fully enjoying each moment of your vacation.
- Take some time-out to re-energize yourself. Especially to the introverts out there — visiting the most touristy places means LOTS of people and crowds, which can be manageable, yet in small doses. If you find yourself feeling exhausted after being around hoards of people, then give yourself permission to take some time for a solo activity right after (ie, chill and watch tv or do some reading once you get back to your hotel, etc).
Thought of the Day: Does travel make you anxious? And if so, which strategies help relieve your anxiety/stress?
{Miami, Florida}
I’m constantly testing my limits as to how long I can continue working before I become extremely stressed-out and less pleasant to be around, which usually indicates I’m overdue for a vacation. When I scheduled my vacation months ago, I had a feeling I’d be overexerting myself having too large of a time gap in between breaks. Well, I definitely learned my lesson this time around (yet again). Part of self-awareness and good self-care is recognizing when you’re in need of a break. Therefore, for the next ten days, I’ll be catching up with some much needed sleep, laying out on the beach, and doing nothing work-related. Next week I plan to head to Miami, which is the city I fondly remember as providing the most fun during my medical school elective rotations. Actually, I do have one task: learning how to use Snapchat and hopefully posting snaps during my vacation (if you’re on Snapchat, add me @freudandfashion and follow me on my journey towards wellness, balance, and self-care!).
Have a wonderful weekend!
After returning from a week-long vacation, I dreaded the pile of catch-up work and voicemails waiting for my much-needed attention. I assumed that I’d be in vacation-mode and perform sluggishly on my first day back, but surprised myself at how easily I resumed my normal routine. Even more surprising was noticing the level of comfort I had while interacting with new patients whereas in the past I’d be concerned about whether or not my patients would feel connected to me or question my knowledge being a mere resident instead of a full-fledged Psychiatrist. One word to describe this new-found feeling? — Confidence. Confidence may come easily for some, but for me (and most, I assume), it required self-evaluation and rising after feelings of inadequacy and failure. Once that feeling is obtained, savor the moment the way you savor a great vacation.
One thing I’ve mastered during residency is the timing of vacation and making the most of those few days of freedom. Four months without vacation is far too long, one month intervals is too soon, but a vacation every 2.5 months comes out to be just right. I’m at the point of yearning for some much-deserved time off, which I plan to spend soaking up sun to boost my Vitamin D and eating/shopping/partying in one of my favorite cities. My key to surviving residency incorporates a balance of combining work, relaxation, and fun, because the former can easily dominate over time, resulting in high anxiety, struggles to get up in the morning, a shorter temper, less sleep, and less people wanting to be around me.