what is pre travel anxiety

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5 tips to ease pre-travel anxiety

Author: Cheryl Carmin, PhD

• Health and Wellness
• Mental and Behavioral Health
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• Try to figure out what it is about travel that is making you anxious. What are you saying to yourself? Can you identify your “What ifs?” Once you’re able to understand what you’re afraid of, ask yourself if the fear is realistic. Even if your worst-case scenario is something catastrophic, does the very small likelihood of its occurrence outweigh the severity?
• If you have traveled before, what has your experience been? Did any of the things you’re worrying about happen? If they did, how did you manage? There’s a good chance you’re not giving yourself credit for being an effective and resilient problem solver.
• Is the over-planning, list-making or other strategies really helping? Everyone has their own way of preparing for travel. Making others conform to your way may cause arguments with your traveling companions and more stress.
• Do you have strategies to help you to relax? Slow, paced breathing is one strategy that many people find to be effective. Try an app for your smart phone, or one of the free relaxation recordings available from Ohio State’s Center for Integrative Medicine that help you to restore your calm equilibrium.
• Don’t skip the self-care activities. Just because you may think you’re in a time crunch the week before a trip, build in time for exercise. Physical activity is a great way to manage stress. Pamper yourself. A haircut or a manicure may be an important part of your pre-travel preparation to help you de-stress.

What provokes anxiety differs from person to person. This is definitely not a ‘one size fits all’ phenomenon. It may be useful to separate out if you’re afraid of the act of traveling or the destination.

• Our mental health experts are here to help you. Learn more

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How To Overcome Pre-Trip Anxiety – 13 Life-Changing Tips!

Pre-trip anxiety can be utterly debilitating – trust me, I know from personal experience. But it’s still something that’s so rarely talked about by… well, anyone.

 After all, travel is meant to be easy, breezy, and beautiful, right? If you believe some of the images of travel that we’re presented with, you’re meant to glide through an airport like an international jetsetter, relax on a plane in first class with a martini and a perfect smile, then have a totally perfect experience on a beach in the tropics. But… you don’t feel like it’ll go that way, do you?  You feel like you’ll miss the plane, be involved in an awful crash if you do get on it, and then probably be mugged in your destination.

Don’t worry – everything I wrote in the above paragraph is a lie . All of it. No-one’s travel experience is perfect – but it’s very rarely a total disaster, either. And there’s plenty of simple, actionable things that you can do to help it go as smoothly as possible.

I’m going to give you my best travel tips for squishing pre-trip anxiety for good – and it doesn’t even require over the counter anxiety medication.

What is pre-trip anxiety? Is it just a fear of flying?

Although it’s often confused with the fear of flying, pre-trip anxiety can be a completely different beast. After all, there’s people who suffer with travel anxiety but have no fear of flying, and vice versa. Instead, it can be an all-encompassing fear of what lies ahead of you, on your journey into the unknown. 

If we take a look at the official definition of trip anxiety, it’s categorised as a persistent sense of worry and impending doom when thinking about upcoming travels, with the following symptoms:

• Rapid heart rate, and difficulty with breathing
• nausea or an upset stomach
• restlessness and agitation
• Difficulty focusing on everyday tasks
• Difficulty sleeping
• Panic attacks (and if you’re reading this because you’re feeling on the verge of an attack, please read my guide on how to overcome panic attacks when traveling )

If any of the above sounds familiar – don’t worry, you’re in the right place! I didn’t travel for years because of travel anxiety, before I worked out simple ways to overcome it. I even lost a large amount of money because of it. So settle back, because I’m going to tell you my story!

My experience

Ten years ago, I booked a solo trip for myself. I was going to the fly to the United States on my own, then join a guided tour and see the Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, Sedona, all that good stuff. I was super-excited for it, was absolutely in love with the thought of it (after all, I’d flown to the States twice before, to Colorado and New York). I didn’t foresee any problems.

A month before I was due to leave, I suddenly developed a total, and incredibly upsetting, vacation anxiety. I worried about literally everything – I couldn’t stop thinking about the flight, and the chance of developing blood clots in the fifteen hours it would take me to reach Phoenix. I worried about not meeting up with my group, or not getting along with them. I worried about snakes, scorpions, and my accommodation near the Grand Canyon being involved in a landslide into the abyss. Seriously.

With two weeks to go, I was frantic. I couldn’t concentrate at work, and kept having to dash to the toilets because I felt sick. With one week to go, I cancelled the trip. Because it was last minute, and because there was no medical reason I couldn’t fly, I lost my fee of £1500. Ouch .

I regretted it almost instantly, and swore that I’d find ways to overcome that feeling of irrational fear. It took a long time, and a lot of years, but I worked out what I’d been feeling, and how to counter it. Now, I’m going to share those proven tactics with you!

How to overcome pre-travel anxiety

Okay! Let’s take a look at some pretty simple concepts, which can be so completely mighty when it comes to changing up your mindset, reassuring you, and generally chasing all those anxious thoughts out. Because heck, we take enough stuff with us when we travel; we don’t need a whole bunch of anxiety to come along too!

Identify what is making you anxious

There’s some things on this list that will grab you immediately, and others that you might not be so keen on. And whilst you should definitely check all of them out at the very least, this entry is a MUST.

In order to defeat pre-trip anxiety, you have to know what it looks like. Grab a piece of paper and a pen (or your phone, whatever floats your boat), and write down a list of all the aspects of your trip which are causing you travel anxiety. Don’t edit: even if some of them sound silly, write them down.

Now, you’ve identified the enemy. You might have a wide-range of aspects that are causing you fear, everything from packing, to the flight, to eating different food abroad . All of them are legitimate aspects of fear. Sure, fear of flying might be a little more recognised than “what if my resort is invaded by giant human-eating moths”, but these are your fears, and now you recognise them, you can tackle them individually. 

Keep your list at hand, and keep reading. Now you’ve found the aspects that are causing you anxiety, this is going to be a breeze!

Remember that you’re not psychic

First, before we dive into some actionable activities, a reminder: you don’t have superpowers, and you’re not psychic. No, really, you’re not.

Let me guess: every time you feel anxiety symptoms flaring up, your fear-ridden brain says “this is a sign from the universe/God/my deceased granny. They’re trying to tell me that I shouldn’t go.” You start seeing images in front of your eyes: a newspaper with your face on the front page, or news footage of a stricken plane, or your loved ones crying.

Stop that right now.

I hate to tell you this, but you can’t see the future, and you don’t have superpowers. The universe/God/your granny wouldn’t send you a warning message, only to spitefully crash a plane because you dared to ignore it. Banish those fears and images from your mind, because they’re one of the biggest causes of pre-trip anxiety, and they can be safely ignored. Don’t feel like you’re a leaf adrift in the river of destiny – when it comes to your trip, you’re going to make your own destiny. And it’s going to be awesome!

Research everything!

One of the best ways to control travel anxiety is to research everything you can about your trip. After all, part of the anxiety is the fear of the unknown – what will the flight be like? What kind of area is the hotel is, and is it safe? What kind of food will you have to eat? Are there any particular dangers to look out for?

Well, research, research, and research some more! I’ll bet you that if you start looking for the answers to your newly-identified fears, you’ll discover that a lot of them were never a concern in the first place. You’ll discover that the hotel is in a fantastic area, and the food looks great. Simply tailor your fear to your trip, and see if they apply to your destination. Typing  “are there giant human-eating moths in Mexico?” will give you all the info you need to dispel your worries.

You can go into even further depth. TripAdvisor will allow you to look up hotel reviews (don’t panic too much at any bad ones – people love to complain), check out possible places to eat nearby, or plan your itinerary out. Phone apps such as TripIt are a must: not only do they organise your flights, but you can research the safety score of a neighbourhood .

Once you’re more comfortable with your travel anxiety, you’ll feel more confident to do something a little spontaneous. But in the meantime, plan. Make yourself a list of things to do, and schedule them out. Know what you’re going to do each day, know that they’re safe, and even plan out where you’ll eat. You’ll feel so much more in control of your situation!

Sign up for online therapy

Getting therapy for travel anxiety, or any kind of anxiety, is always a good idea – no one is going to be able to help you as much as a trained professional can, and the results are real.

But if you’re worried about feeling extreme anxiety while you’re traveling – after all, who wants to be crippled by fears when you’re in another country? – you might feel like therapy isn’t a viable option for you. After all, you might be a in a situation when you need help now . How is taking a round of therapy before you leave going to work? Should you just buy your therapist a ticket, and bring them along?

Good news: there’s no need to do that, saving you both ticket money and an awkward vacation! Online therapy is a thing, and there’s no-one more experienced and trustworthy than BetterHelp . They offer professional care, and a therapist who can be there for you wherever you are in the world. Thanks to their excellent telephone counselling service , you’ll get all the help you need – and all you need is a phone in your pocket.

And I know what you’re thinking – yes, online and telephone therapy has been researched by psychologists, and found to be just as effective as face-to-face therapy. This makes it an absolute must in your anti-anxiety weapon locker!

Check a flight tracker

Fear of flying can be a major part of pre-trip anxiety. I suffer from it myself; although I’ve largely beaten it thanks to the SkyGuru app, it still creeps in whenever I’ve gone a little while without a flight. You know it’s a safe form of transport; you know it for a fact. But it can still be difficult to reassure yourself.

I don’t know about you, but I like to see some visual reassurance. Such as, lots and lots of planes going about their business, doing their plane thing, having no problems whatsoever. It just makes me feel a bit better when I’m up in the air myself, knowing that I’ve seen with my own eyes how safe air travel is. The good news is that you don’t need to hang around at airports to get that confirmation – you can do it from your computer or phone!

Go to FlightRadar 24 , and you’ll see the world – and all of the planes currently in the air. Seriously, click on it, and take a look – you see how many are there? How many are in the air on a single moment, in a single day? And all of those planes are going from A to B quietly, safely, and efficiently. No big dramas or problems; they’re just coasting on jet streams, like big metallic birds.

It may not work for everyone, but using a flight tracker to see how many flights are safely making their way around the world gives me major reassurance!

Take an online anxiety course

Whenever I write tips on how to overcome pre-trip anxiety, I like to include a link to Lauren Juliff’s How To Overcome Travel Anxiety course . Why is is it my go-to? Simply, because it worked for me. 

Lauren is one of the most awesome people I know, and I first learnt about her by buying her book How Not To Travel The World on a whim. She overcame anxiety so severe that it prevented her from leaving the house, and threw herself on a journey around the world in order to satisfy a lifelong desire to travel. Every sentence resonated, and made me think “that sounds like me!”, and it inspired me to take my own journey back into traveling.

When I discovered that she had a course dealing with pre-travel anxiety, I snapped it up. And I was not disappointed! Every section gives practical advice on how to prepare to travel, especially if you’re considering doing it long-term. There’s tips on what to do if you run into trouble abroad, and how to just take time away from your stress. It’s just all wonderful, useful advice.

I wouldn’t be where I am now without Lauren. It’s that good. Go get it!

Get all the items you’ll need

The thought of an small emergency happening whilst you’re abroad is a big part of pre-trip anxiety, just as much as the thought of a major emergency. You know how it goes; those feelings of “what if I hurt myself, and it gets infected?” “what if my phone runs out of battery, and everyone thinks I’m dead?” “what if the giant human-eating moths steal my luggage?”

Thoughts like these can seriously psyche you out, and convince you that you’re just better off staying at home. It’s just too much stress, right? Well, that’s not true – if you plan, prepare, and get all of the items that you’ll need in the first place, then you’ll be equipped to deal with anything that occurs when you’re traveling. 

One way to do it is to Google packing lists, or to download packing list apps on to your phone. You don’t necessarily have to use them religiously, but you can look at all the item suggestions. Do you need that, or would you feel slightly safer if you had it? If so, pop it on your list. Don’t leave it until the days before you travel: do it as far in advance as you can, and you’re almost guaranteed not to miss anything crucial.

If you want to make life even easier, pop your email address into the subscription form at the top of this page, and I’ll send you a packing list specially designed for anxious travelers. Or you can check out a curated list of items for your anti-anxiety kit – no nervous traveler should be without them!

Pay special attention to your health before you travel

Remember that expression, “you get out what you put in”? Well, the same goes for your body when it comes to travel anxiety.

Eat a ton of processed meats, candy, fried foods and drink a bunch of alcohol and coffee in the week before your flight, and you’re more likely to feel a build-up in anxiety. Ditch the alcohol in particular: you may feel like its numbing your nerves and helping you through it, but it’s actually just making the whole thing a lot worse. Instead, eat whole grains, vegetables, and fish – foods proven to keep anxiety levels down, and your body feeling good.

Similarly, make sure you hydrate as much as possible. Nothing makes you feel strung out and on edge quite like being dehydrated, and keeping yourself well-watered will help a lot. It’s also a huge boon when it comes to the flight, because air travel is hella dehydrating. You’ll feel less anxiety, and feel much better when you get to your destination! Bonus!

Also, step up exercise in the week preceding your trip, and get those muscles working. It’ll get you feeling good, and help with sleeping at night. A hydrated, rested, well-fed body is going to cope much better with the effects of anxiety – it’s a small change, but it can have a massive effect!

Get to the airport early

Travel anxiety doesn’t get spoken about enough, but you know what gets talked about even less? Airport anxiety. Think about it: how many people do you know who hate airports, or get actively anxious when they have to go into one? 

I’m actually one of those weirdos who like airports (I can’t help it; they’re so international-feeling, and looking at expensive perfumes in the duty free is kind of my thing), but I know so many people who absolutely despise airports, and get nervous about the whole trip purely because of having to overcome that big hurdle before the trip even begins.

If you want one, simple tip to defeat airport stress, here it is: get there early. Aim to arrive about three hours early – two, at the very least. It gives you more time to deal with the queues, check in at your leisure, have a bit of food or drink to settle yourself, and not have to run around like a maniac. And a top tip from a friend of mine who works at an airport – getting there early reduces the chances of your baggage going missing. Baggage handling takes a while, and often gets backed up due to volume; the majority of bags that go missing are from passengers who arrived only an hour before their departure.

If airports are a big contributing factor in your pre-trip anxiety, take a look at my guide to airport anxiety for some in-depth tips!

Create a kickass playlist

Music is an underestimated aspect of travel. Songs can take you back to a specific time, place, or moment – I’ll bet that you can think of plenty of tunes which remind you of that trip to Spain in 1995, or what was playing on the radio when your first boy/girlfriend broke up with you. Hey, these things happen.

But I’ve found that you can take advantage of the mood-altering affect of music. Just as that break-up song can affect us negatively, you can use music to affect you positively. Sign up for a free Spotify account, or playlist supplier of your choice, and think about the songs which make you feel really pumped. What makes you feel like an utter rockstar? Or what are some songs that remind you of your destination, and get you excited about going there?

I do this myself. Although I’m pretty much cool with flying these days, I still get a bit nervous on takeoff. So  I bust out my phone, plug in my earbuds, and listen to Dragonette’s We Rule The World . It’s got the right amount of tempo and awesomeness to make me feel like one cool cat, and taking off and looking down through sunny skies becomes a breeze. Works every time.

You can use music any time you’re feeling anxious about your trip – plug in, turn it up, and let those bangin’ tunes take you to another place.

Keep moving forward

Although it’s useful to keep your mindset in a state of moving forward – not staying stuck in time, stuck in anxiety and worry – it’s equally good to keep yourself physically moving forward!

When I flew to the USA for the first time, I was feeling understandably nervous, and when I got to the airport I really wasn’t sure if I could go through with it. I was waiting around in the airport, and I got mentally “stuck”. It’s that feeling of being rooted to the spot, like you can’t do anything because you can’t move, and therefore getting on a plane feels absolutely impossible.

My parents, wise things that they are, took me to walk laps of the airport, swinging by the departures gate each time but walking straight on if I didn’t feel ready. After five laps, I finally felt okay to keep moving forward and go through security – and I was fine. Physically moving forward cleared my head, and got me out of that mindset. Moving forward mentally naturally followed.

You don’t just have to do this in the airport. Any time that pre-travel anxiety strikes in the build up to your trip, take yourself off for some exercise, or give the dog an extra walk (they won’t complain); you’ll find that your mind clears super-fast!

Tell a flight attendant about your fear of flying

Believe me, way more people suffer with a fear of flying or trip anxiety that you ever thought.  The estimate is that 1 in 3 people will suffer from travel anxiety at some point in their lives, and 25% of Americans have a fear of flying. That’s a lot .

This means that flight attendants are well-used to having passengers who are absolutely terrified, and they’re trained to reassure you so that you can have a comfortable flight. They want you to have a good time, just as much as you do! So don’t feel scared or too shy to tell a flight attendant about your fears as you board; you’ll generally find that they’ll keep an extra special eye on you, and be on hand if you’re feeling the fear.

I had a gaggle of very lovely attendants look after me when I flew with Delta to the States, and they really couldn’t have made me feel better. Apart from feeding me every single meal they had available (they even left snacks on my tray table when I was napping), they would stop and check in on me as they were doing their rounds – and it just makes you feel safer. They’ll even explain all those weird engine noises, and reassure you that it’s totally normal.

Never underestimate flight attendants. They’re not just there to hand out coffee and duty free; they’re highly trained, fabulous at reassuring you, and general badasses!

Remember that you’re not alone

Even the most experienced travelers experience pre-trip anxiety. Every single one of them. If they tell you any different, they’re probably lying.

Never feel like you’re alone in your fears; you’re not crazy, you’re not stupid – it’s a completely natural reaction to an unknown or unfamiliar situation, and your fight-or-flight reflexes are putting you on high alert accordingly. Even people who have dreamed of travel throughout their lives feel that sense of trepidation or fear, and it doesn’t matter if it’s the first time or the fiftieth. I carried out an interview with Nomadic Matt, a longstanding travel blogger, and even he goes through it. It just happens.

But remember that you’re never alone. Talking about travel anxiety helps; sometimes is just takes that friend who says “of course you’re not going to be attacked by giant human-eating moths! Those don’t even exist!”, and it can help melt those fears a little bit. Reach out to people – parents, friends, therapists, random strangers on Reddit.

There are always people there for you, to help you talk through things. And you’re always welcome to email me!

Share this article!

That wraps up our list of tips on how to overcome travel anxiety! You don’t have to suffer through pre-trip anxiety, and I genuinely hope that the techniques I’ve described above help you. Some of them require a little bit of financial investment, and some of them are completely free, but they’re all simple, life-changing things you can do to make your life better with very little effort. Let’s beat this thing!

If you’ve enjoyed this article, how about giving it a share on social media? Give those buttons on the side a hearty click, and you can plaster it all over your favourite social media network – you could be helping someone in a tight spot.

If you’re looking to be super-awesome, share the below images on Pinterest! That way, this article gets a share and helps more people, and you get a ready-made bookmark leading back to this page, so you can access the tips when you need them most! 

Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think in the comments!

Pssst! This article may contain affiliate links. These incur zero extra cost to you, should you choose to purchase the service provided, but they do give this blog a bit of commission which goes towards running costs. Any extra money earned gets spent on pampering my beloved cat, and keeping her in the manner to which she is accustomed.

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Pre-Flight Anxiety: What Causes It, What Stops It

Commitment stops anxiety. for a person who sits on the fence, anxiety persists..

Posted July 5, 2018 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

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Recently, someone emailed about pre-flight anticipatory anxiety . As I began thinking about what to tell the person, my thoughts went back to being nine years old. Every summer in North Carolina, a typhoid fever shot was required. One day each week, the county doctor, Dr. Bullah, and his nurse, set up a table on the sidewalk by Nowell’s Drug store, a block from my home in Wendell.

At the beginning of the summer, I planned to walk down the block and get the shot so it would be over and done with. But, when I looked at the number of people lined up, my resolve melted. I would have to stand in line all that time thinking ahead about the needle. I bailed out.

I went back next week. The same thing happened. This went on all summer. Commitment is not a 9-year-old’s forte. The summer was partly ruined by anticipatory anxiety.

Finally, the last day Dr. Bullah would be there, I got the shot. Why? Because the rule was, if you missed getting a shot, next summer you had to get three shots. Anxiety about three shots next summer overrode anxiety about getting the shot on that last opportunity this summer.

Remembering how difficult it is for a kid to deal with anticipatory anxiety, I wondered if there was a lesson there about flying. I think so. Anticipatory anxiety builds while waiting to board a plane like it does waiting for a vaccination. A worse alternative can help a person stick it out. For a kid, three shots next year was a worse-enough alternative to do the trick. Three shots versus one can push even a 9-year-old into commitment.

Is there a worse-enough alternative that can help when boarding a flight? If you bail out, you get instant relief. The relief lasts a couple of minutes. When it fades, it is replaced by guilt and shame that last for months. When thinking of the instant relief, throw the lasting feelings into the calculation.

It is commonly thought that control keeps anxiety at bay. That isn’t necessarily so. If you have control but can’t commit to a plan, anxiety continues unabated. When Executive Function (the high-level thinking responsible for our decision-making ) commits to a plan, it ends anxiety by signaling the amygdala to end the release of stress hormones . The fearful flier is in a position to determine what they do, but so long as they sit on the fence, they suffer anxiety due to lack of commitment.

If we are fortunate, we are automatically calmed by internal resources. If we lack adequate internal resources, we may turn to others to calm us. Or, as stated, Executive Function can control stress hormone release through commitment. Otherwise, the person — or their proxy — must control the situation at hand so that nothing happens that is upsetting. That doesn’t work in the air. Turbulence causes anxious fliers to think the plane is out of control or may go out of control. The fact that pilots can’t always predict and avoid turbulence is highly disturbing.

A new app can help with that. SOAR In-Flight allows an anxious flier to enter their flight data. The app then researches the flight path and determines where turbulence is expected. As the flight proceeds, the app lets the user know when turbulence is coming up, how strong it will be, and how long it will last.

But what about anxiety during the flight? Since emotion cannot be controlled by being in control or by escaping, what can help?

• One, inhibit up-regulation. The sympathetic nervous system up-regulates us when stress hormones are produced. Oxytocin inhibits the release of the stress hormones. Prior to flying, an oxytocin-producing memory is linked to the events that will take place on the flight. As the events take place, oxytocin is produced by association.
• Two, activate down-regulation. The parasympathetic nervous system down-regulates us when the vagus nerve is stimulated. Prior to flying, a vagus-stimulating memory is linked to the events that will take place on the flight. The vagus nerve is stimulated by the face, voice, and touch of an attuned and non-judgmental friend.

Once these links have been established to inhibit up-regulation and activate down-regulation, arousal is automatically controlled during the flight. (To sample my book on how to set up these links, click here .)

When I work with a client on fear of flying , I make sure these links are established. I know the client will be fine on the plane. But, from their point of view, this new ability to self-regulate automatically on the flight is untested and unproven. If, instead of making a commitment to fly, they sit on the fence, they experience anticipatory anxiety.

Anxious fliers are used to controlling feelings by being in control of the situations they participate in and being able to escape a situation where control is not assured. Taking a flight requires setting aside control and escape, the two things they have learned they can depend on. Taking a flight means trying to control feelings with newly established internal resources. They know that if this works, it will open up the whole world to them. But, if they have tried other methods and not gotten good results, naturally they will have doubts whether what I have taught them will work.

Instead of depending on control and escape to control feelings, some clients depend on others to calm them. A person who must fly alone has anticipatory anxiety for another reason. Dr. James Masterson found that people who depend on others for calming find it hard to take action that is in their own best interest. In technical language, Masterson said, “self-activation leads to dysphoric affect which leads to defense.”

In layman’s terms, the emotionally dependent person runs into trouble when they decide to act independently. As they begin independent action, separation from the people they depend on causes them to feel alone. When high anxiety, or panic, results, they bail out to get relief.

Commitment, the one thing that ends anticipatory anxiety, is hard to do. It requires going forward with a plan, instead of sitting on the fence thinking, “What if?”

Masterson laid this out clearly. He made sure clients saw the whole picture, and understood its implications: To commit is to discover the satisfaction of directing the course of one’s life rather than be the victim of circumstances.

Masterson said people who avoid commitment are like sailors who, instead of steering their boat, allow it to be blown by the winds and the currents. Then, when they don’t like where they end up, they blame the conditions — rather than their inability to direct the boat — for where they are.

Flight anxiety can be controlled by inhibiting up-regulation and stimulating down-regulation. Anticipatory anxiety can be gotten rid of by commitment.

Captain Tom Bunn, LCSW , is an airline pilot and author who has dedicated 30 years to the development of effective methods for treating flight phobia.

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Sticking up for yourself is no easy task. But there are concrete skills you can use to hone your assertiveness and advocate for yourself.

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