It’s now been approximately two (now four at time of publishing) months since I returned home from my cycling adventure in Vietnam and life has entirely returned to normal: my tan lines are evening out, my work schedule is balanced, summer ultimate frisbee season is in full swing, hot summer weather has finally arrived, and my post travel blues have fully dissipated. Or as a fellow cyclist and friend ATowne wrote in a facebook post on May 6th:
“The ride is over, and our ‘normal’ lives have started to resume. Inevitably, there is this post-H2H gloomy cloud that lingers over each and every one of the riders. ”
Fellow cyclist and friend, ATowne, refers to a “post-H2H gloomy cloud”, but another rider used the phrase “post-H2H PTSD”. I ended up executing a google search and going down a rabbit hole and there I discovered that ‘Travel PTSD’ is a common enough phrase that there is an urban dictionary entry for it. ‘Travel PTSD’ as a phrase doesn’t even make sense to me, but according to both urban dictionary and some other websites I looked at, ‘Travel PTSD’ is “similar to PTSD but occurs once you return from traveling” and symptoms include:
reverse homesickness
missing the vacation place
inability to focus on everyday tasks
feeling disconnected
dreams about traveling
boredom, insecurity, uncertainty, and frustration
Those are all familiar feelings for those of us that travel quite a bit, but as a medical professional, I vehemently disagree with the phrase ‘Travel PTSD’. PTSD stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and as it’s a legitimate medical issue caused by experiencing a traumatic event, it’s ridiculous to use it to describe the “off” feeling a person may experience when returning from a trip (never mind the fact that it doesn’t even make sense as a phrase). I prefer to use “Post Travel Blues”, but I do think ATowne was on the mark when she called it a gloomy cloud.
I have definitely experienced the post travel blues on other trips, not often, and usually on longer, more meaningful trips. My post-H2H blues were delayed, owing to the fact that I immediately went back to work, cramming 80 hours of work into about 7 days. It wasn’t until later in the month, when I had two days in a row off that the Blues hit me like a freight train. Oof.
There are many ways to deal with these blues and the first step for me was to finish going through my pictures and uploading the good ones to our shared photo drive, which allowed me to reflect on the experience because that can be hard to do when you’re in the midst of it. Even more helpful than going through my pictures was the fact that it was my birthday and one of my fellow riders came to my party so we reminisced about the ride and he gifted me the book “Fifty Shades of the USA” by Anna McNuff. The post-H2H blues were still very much present after uploading my pictures, so I sat down and started reading my new birthday book.
In this book, Anna writes about her cycling journey in which she rides her bicycle, Boudicca, in every single state in the USA. I felt an immediate kinship when I realized that Anna had named her bike because I have done with same thing (my trusty steed is Sasha). It was wonderful to get back into the saddle, so to speak, even if it was just through the pages of a book. You can read more about Anna’s adventure here.
What finally helped me get over my post-H2H blues was shopping around for a new bicycle (I gifted mine to the spouse of a fellow rider). Sasha had been with me for ten years and had been my bicycle on the first H2H ride back in 2009. There were a lot of memories and leaving her behind actually ended up being harder than I thought it would be. But it was time . . . that particular bike frame was in all honesty a little too small for me so it’s truly shocking I was able to bike the length of Vietnam not once, but twice on her. So I went shopping at my neighborhood bike shop and found the most perfect bicycle: All City Cycles 10th Anniversary Mr. Pink. Yes, her name is still Sasha, but her whole name is Queen Sasha the Third. Once Sasha was delivered into my waiting arms, the H2H blues were behind me. I had a new ride and the remainder of the summer ahead of me to make new memories with her.
And I’ve already started planning my next adventures, cycling and otherwise. Did someone say Rwanda & the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
“You have to get back into your original routines, back to your jobs and out to your old haunts. Lives are forever changed and your inner circle of friends start to get annoyed because the only thing that comes out of your mouth is “on the ride . . .”. It truly is a beautiful thing where the only thing you have to worry about is how far you have to pedal that day. No deadlines, no proposals due, no people pleasing, no entertaining, etc. Modern society breeds all of these pressures, and it feels like stepping back in time where you just have to get from A-B in one piece.”
