Kind of depression?
 

Hi guys,

Kinda just wondering if i am a lone in this. We have now finished our 3 continent , 26 countries, almost 18 month trip. We landed in Perth Aus. and for various reasons decided to give it a go here. We have spent the better part of everyday since trying to find jobs, (MrsX successfully, me not so much). The problem is that for me at least almost nothing seems to get my blood boiling. My bike even needs a far bit of work and I just cant seem to drag myself in to the shed to do it, cus I know it is just for around town riding which has even lost it glamour. I cant sit still. The worst part though is that I don’t even want to talk about the trip. When I hear people talking that have done a trip, I simply don’t like to compare. Other people it just seems like bragging, and even though it was only about two months ago.. if feels like a different life. A different person even. I am even having a hard time posting on the hubb?



Has anyone had an experience like this?
Did it ever go away?
Is the chronic travel addiction that strong and is the only way to “be happy” now to travel constantly (i have always had a bit of the itchy feet but now....)? If so the next hub t-shirt should be…

Warning: Overlanding is highly addictive and there is no known cure…..



Yours lost in the known world
Xander

growing roots
 

So you're FOB (Fresh Off the Boat) and head in the gutter. It sounds very familiar and for us at least I think it gets worse before it gets better. I think that when you change your lifestyle (for the better) for 18mnths so drastically that you become accustomed to the new life and when you go back to putting your roots down, it just doesn't feel natural because, lets face it with all that experience behind you, you are both changed people. The difficulty is finding the motivation to stay stuck. For us now in Switzerland, originally from Sydney Australia, the cultural differences and languages not to mention the landscapes are huge. We are biding our time and making the most of it always trying to turn our situation into a positive one. A bit like you need to do on your trip when you break down and waiting for parts on your trip... Like some (read most) people on here also believe, the real life is not the one you live 8hrs a day stuck behind a a boring office job, it's the one you live for, to save and have a life changing experience. You've had that, now the difficulty is coming to terms with those changes in you. Let's face it the people around us don't really change, its us that changes. My motivation was and sometimes still is at an all time low, and now its been 18months since our big trip from Sydney to Oslo. But sometimes what you need is just a good'old kick up the bum to get on with it.

You left the UK? so you can't blame the european weather, Perth is great and relaxed you just need to pull yourself back together and get on with it. Let's face it you could be in a much worse place looking for work.

Work to live and live to ride. :scooter:

Get yourself a project. Being "workfree", you could go for a trip north along the coast, or anywhere, there is a lot of land to cover in Australia. Maybe get an offroad bike.

The only thing that is keeping us sane is saving hard/planning for the next one.


Pete

Aye... Thats pretty much how it works.

Keeping busy and trying to do all the good things "home" has to offer really helps too.

I really missed bacon sandwiches and good Tea when Im away so I always pig out on them when Im home.

Its the little things like that that help !

Ted

I had very similar symptoms myself. They dull a little with time but never go away. I've found as long as I get regular fixes and can see the next fix on the horizon(sumlimited) then I can cope with the daily grind.

Good luck,
Chris

Yes, I'm glad you posted that, most of what you have written is very familiar to me, back here since 3 months after a year in Africa.

But there's a slow improvement now which I think will accelerate as spring comes round.

All my bikes need just small jobs doing before I can ride them, but I've hardly touched them, partly because the garage was surrounded by snow for a while, and lack of enthusiasm since.

So have bought a cheap ticket to Spain for a few weeks to re-charge with sunshine.

After many years of travelling, each trip bigger than the previous, I've learnt, on returning home, "When it's time to do things, the motivation will arrive."
And I'm sure it'll arrive again soon, and I'll be immersed in some new adventure - with no known cure.....

But here's a lesson I think I've learned - think carefully when planning what time of the year you'll return home.
This is the second time I've returned home in the middle of winter, and the effect was the same last time, also requiring a big dose of foreign sun to get going again.
(But you have summer there, so that statement isn't much use to you!)

All the best.

Xander
 

Good day Mate,

Sounds familiar with many blokes aged 40 plus.

Get in touch with a fellow Ulysses member Steve Andrews, he moved to
Perth recently. Black Dog Ride around Australia (raising awareness of*depression)

He's got lots of contacts, to get you back into the real world.

Cheers
Helgo

I don't think it's an age thing - I'm still in my twenties (for a while), but for me the joy of the trip (and the pleasure of feeling 'alive') lasted for a long time after I got back. It took a few years for the colour to get washed out to grey and the noose of a tie to make it's presence felt around my neck - time to plan another big trip! The problem now was that I'm still paying off my last trip so am using an old bike donated by Domino's to cross the Sahara, problem solved!!

Now that I'm absorbed with the planning the only thing bugging me is Valentine's Day. Bloody happy couples everywhere, GRRRRR....

I'll lumber in with my two-cents on this as it's something I've just finished writing about in the epilogue of my book (not published yet).

I, like pretty much everyone else that has replied to this thread, suffered a bit (and am still in some ways) after the ending of my 'big trip'. It was three years of my life after all, not all of it on the back of my bike, but the return to 'normal life' was a shock.

I came to a number of realisations whillst I was away, specifically when I was riding across the deserts in Australia. There was a lot of time for thinking and other introspective nonsense as I was there by myself. I won't bore you too much with most of the realisations I reached, as a lot of those were very personal, but the long and the short of it?

It's all in your head.

The so-called 'adventure' I mean, it's all in your mind.

It's about how you view what you're doing at any given time. My own experiences on my travels taught me that anything can be an 'adventure', it's just about how you view it at the time. If you approach what you might term 'every-day' life as a chore, something to be endured rather than experienced, that's exactly what it will be.

Not to sound like I'm so far up my own arse I can check my teeth for fillings, but there was a quote from a French philosopher that I identified with quite a lot as I was approaching the 'end' of my expedition, and I'll paste it here in the hope that you might find it as relevant as I did:

"Something begins in order to end: an adventure doesn't let itself be extended; it achieves significance only through its death"
(Jean Paul Sartre)

The end, that's what gives it value.

I took my experiences, the things I'd learned whilst expeditioning all over the place and let them shape me as a person. Sounds like psycho-babble twaddle, but at a very basic level it's true.

To rail against what you now deem 'normal' everyday 'mundane' life is pointless as it's only in your head that it has no worth. Best bet, approach the next stage of your life with as much vigour and enthusiasm as you did your 'big trip'. After all, anything can be an adventure.

Never forget what you did, where you went, what you achieved. Take those experiences, let it shape you and how you approach life from now on.

Adventure? It's as much a state of mind as anything else.

..a kind of depression.
 

Hi Xander,
I dont think it is a 'kind of' depression - I think it IS depression.
This takes time to work through and unfortunately it is only you who can work through it. Anyone saying 'buck up', 'things aren't that bad' etc...'put your mind/body/soul into something'...have your best interests at heart...
(BTW - Im not knocking anyones advice here!! as its all good stuff and kind of everyone)
but it is only time that is needed and an alteration in your frame of mind and that is totally down to you. no amount of being told by someone else that you are lucky/have been lucky, had a great time/having a great time and so on will make a blind bit of difference.

You 'have' had an amazing time - and you will do so again - however this is not going to help you at this moment right now!

so - not having a focus is currently your main problem. Schedule your day. Make a timetable and stick to it. Your partner has a job, make part of your job being the 'housewife'! (as a modern guy you probably do anyway!), then another part of your day out on a cheap small dirt bike ( or push bike!) - get fit. have a general keep fit routine that you can do at home if you cant afford or dont want to go to a gym. keeping fit and feeling fit is an amazing booster to both mind and body.
and do as McGiggle says.....start to plan towards the next one....this could just be a plan (a focus) for a short camping trip away, 2 months short trip etc. It doesnt have to be a 'big' one.

we have some close friends who did a big trip. then they stopped. it took them a while. they eventually found jobs and a routine. they then made their own jobs ie self-employed. they now work really dam hard for jsut over half a year and then the rest of the time -usually two 2 or 3 month periods - away doing whatever it is they have longed to do during the time they work their bits off!

yes, I have thought about this a lot.

I hope some of my babbling will help.

This is great advice and what I did when I got home from South America. I was in the gym two days after I landed burning off all the steak and wine.. It really lifted my "bummed" out feeling.

I am one week away from flying home from Africa after a fantastic six months out here. I'm really not looking forward to being home at all but I've already started up a gym membership and i'm looking ahead to the next trip with gusto... It's the only way to stay sane.

Long term travelling is a total mind shift from most peoples home life. It takes time to be re-institutionalised. To be plugged back into the "Matrix" !!

It is not the trip.

I was laid off from work a few years ago, went of a bit of a ride now and then never more than a few weeks never some place I need to fly or a passport (pre9-11).
When you at home you sit there looking for work or something to give you a reason to get up, some days I dint. Just sitting there looking at the phone filling out another form for a useless job. Some times kids call you in and talk to you about some job a dead cat can do and all you want to kill the useless buggers gust to stop from talking about how important there job is.

On the trips it was all about me! I was paying for the gas I want to see what sunrise looks like on a pass in the rocky mountains I went and looked. See what is down this road I went down the road. It did not mater when you come back no one is missing you nothing is there anyway so I stay out a few days more no harm in that. I had a goal I had to get to it.

Right now you do not.
You have the people that for all your trip where in the background now looking at telling you what you need to do if they find you useful. And like me you do not like them. Boring life people if they die it will make no difference to you or them. Stupid mindless drones and you are one needing them. But the world tells you you can not kill them and to get a job but you cant do that.
It will send any one in to a depression or a blood filled killing rage. Men are what they do there life made and framed by the work they do, defined by there work. We have been born in a world that beats this in to us from the day we are born till the day we die. You broke out and trying to force you way back in. Wonder why many men die so soon after retirement?

You need a goal something hear and now. Id get on the bike and go someplace far away someplace not easy for you to get to. It will get you up on the morning and that is a start. Some times we need that little bit of stress that drive the carrot or stick to push forward, or to stop the slide down.
If that dose not do it get a some help or drugs.
This may seem a harsh to some but I have been there. I know what it like not get out of bed and know you have no reason to.

Get better Xander life is still worth living on the other side if this.

I can sympathise
 

Hi Xander, You are not alone in Perth.

I arrived from the UK on my KTM 640 about 4 months ago and have also set up home here. I was offered a job as an engineer and since I only just graduated before my trip really need the experience to have any future chance of working in engineering, thus i've settled here for a bit.

1 month after I arrived another friend fron Norway on hist 640 turned up.

A month ago another friend from the UK on his 640 turned up.

There are now 3 KTM overlanders here in Perth getting up to the same no good that we always have across 3 continents. Breaking down at every other traffic light, leaking oil and trying to score girls.

We are very good at the first two.

We went for a ride south over the last bank holiday weekend with some other bikers that arrived here. My bike did what it had done during my trip, ran badly and leaked. Another KTM broke down for a change. It was good to be back in the saddle for a bit but we're all in agreement, there are worse places to be and Perth is a relative paradise. We hit the beach every weekend.

We all live pretty close to Fremantle which is a bit of a hippy bohemian place, just like some of those backpacker places in SE Asia and India. If you want to meet some travellers, head down to South Beach and camp in the park there. We are even considering staying in a hostel occasionally to meet some folk.

I'm glad I'm being kept busy at work. I do occasionally have 'flashbacks' of random parts of my trip. A desert road in pakistan I had forgotten about or a long forgotten meal.

It's funny how despite how upset and lonely and generally p*ss*d off riding alone through india I was, I miss the place though.

Maybe I'll travel again in a few years. My life mantra has changed since my trip though. I don't see the point in owning anything I can't get onto the back of a bike.

I've finally had enough of my beast of burden that has carried me halfway around the world and put a deposit down on a shiny new one. It feels like I'm cheating in some way.

Anyway enough rambling. Basically I was gonna post and say give us a call if you fancy meeting up with a bunch of over egoistical Katoom drivers and we will hit the bush. :palm::scooter:

As someone mentioned though, bacon is a good rememdy for most things....

Duncan

Feeling funny
 

been there ,felt that too until I then realised that what we are missing is not the trip itself but the way we felt while travelling and living on the road , we can feel the same no matter where we are and what we do and we just have to look at the feeling and look for it itself and no think that the trip is what make us feel good ( was that clear or ....), I often dream of my futur trip or remember my past ones but I do not let these dreams become my life ,I just live my dream life about every single day ,on the road or not .
.

Hope this help.

PS :it maybe easy for me since I am going away on the road in September and that my house is in Florida just 3 mn from the beach and that I have coffee in my pool almost everyday and...........:innocent:

Surely water is better in a pool. Coffee should be in a cup ;)

We too have just got back from our six months in Africa. Mrs bob-lad and I are both feeling the blues.

We've realised that for us it seems to be the daily challenge that we are missing, so we've decided to busy ourselves gardening and planning some building projects around the house whilst saving and planning for the next expedition destination and vehicle. Haha. easier said than done, I know.

As others have said hopefully keeping ourselves busy will help alleviate the desert pangs.

bob-lad

:stupid:
There is no escape. You'll never stop.... (at least I think I will never)

Well it has been a few weeks now since I wrote that first post, and it has been an up and down road. Thanks for the comments some really useful to me others not so much, but all appreciated. (except for the one who said i am over 40..doh. i got a few years to get there yet :biggrin3: )

The funniest part was I got a job and had the bike serviced (badly BTW) but 3 days with out my ride and I was going though withdrawals. Like a crack addict I was so very happy to get it back.

Most of my feeling are the same, I still cant go a day with out wanting to get on the bike and just go. I miss the travel more then I though I could, even the bad stuff is now bliss in my head (now i know that is insain). Having a job has kinda helped, but the job is not perfect and that part does not help at all. I spend my nights editing photos of the trip(s)and living in the past (which I know is bad) but the editing needs doing so it is a trap I cant escape. Besides i like it (the photography part).

I don’t think I will ever not be thinking about travailing and planning (or maybe scheming is a better word for it). I can say I have stabilised if not improved. I still find it hard to talk about my trip and don’t really spend anytime here, which I feel guilty for. So many people have help me with my trip and I don’t feel I have given enough back, but I am working on it. So thanks again and I’ll see you on the road.
Cheers
X

Me and 2 buddies took off for 6 months traveling the world as far as our money would take us. Upon returning, we all kept up the same pace of exploration here on weekends while looking for work during the week. We spoke of all the great times the trip offered to our friends constantly and to this day still do, but not frequently. This allowed me to keep the trip fresh in mind while also keeping the reality of real life balanced. Coming back off a long road trip did not depress me, it made me yearn for more, which I did on weekends.

So, get up, shake off the road dust and then go out and collect more dust on your days off. Believe me it will settle your mind, bring back great memories, and relive the experience to a small degree.


As for me. I don't see myself ever doing that again, but I'm fine with that because I am always out doing something fun.

MofS

Life
 

I hope things have improved for you the last year. I left Australia in 63 and travelled and worked for 5 years overseas, rode across Nth Africa, drove from London to Herat, sold the car and backpacked back to Australia. I arrived broke and had to work in the Northern Territory to pay my way back to Sydney, but the work in the NT opened up a new world of paid tourism that lasted for the next 30+years, I'm now approaching 70 and still thinking maybe I'm not too old to do it again. I hope you didn't resort to medication. Sometimes the cure can be worse than the cause. But the curse of having "travelled" will probably never leave you. You need to adjust to that.:scooter:

Me and my friend call this the 'lassoo effect'... when you are on the road, everything makes sense. Your friends all look dumb for living in the grind and you feel like you are the smart one... free, rejuvenated, excited, stimulated - you have it all figured out. Then your rope runs out, you're cash runs dry, the good times stop rolling and come to a abrupt halt, you're lassoo'd back into the real world.

I guess the key is to be a millionaire eh? Or just suck it up. It's life eh. Wouldn't enjoy trips so much if you didn't have to work for them.

3 years around Africa, down west & up east coasts, arrived back in London a few weeks ago....

I always remember this quote from 1899:

"I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretence because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew. Their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend. I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces so full of stupid importance."

(Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 1899)

I have heard, and this may just be heresay, but it makes sense. That NASA Astronauts suffered post mission depression in the early days. Basically what they were doing was the pinnacle of their career, what they had worked towards, and well, once you have been in Space, what more is there to achieve right??

So what they make the Astronauts do now is set post-mission goals. Because they need something to think about and focus on to ensure they don't drop into depression post mission.

I am about to finish my trip in a fortnight and am going home. I have written out a few different goals, creative, fitness and career goals that I am looking forward to getting stuck into - have even begun working on some of them.

It also helps for me that I made a big list years ago of all the things I wanted to do in my life, and travelling by motorcycle was only one of many, maybe make a similar list and consider the things you want to do in life that will make you happy, that are not on a motorbike. I am looking forward to going home, it isn't daunting.

To be honest though, if you were using your trip as a form of escapism to get out of a situation you were depressed in, you can't go back to that situation and then expect anything different. Eventually you are going to have to change that situation.

Anyway, in a couple of months I will let you know how I feel.

These are some really good ideas. Although I haven't been on a big trip yet, your words inspired and somehow warned me - thank you for the advice! I hope that they are working out for you, too...

Maybe this could be helpful as well for some who want to prepare for a trip...?

About 10 yrs ago I was on the road and met four different types of traveller:
1) Gap year kids who saw it as a big holiday and would drop back into society (with financial assistance from their family)
2) Those (like me) who left for adventure, to see the world or with a particular goal in mind
3) People who are able to take 3 weeks off at a time & maintain a normal life
4) People who started out as types 1,2&3, but never managed to re-integrate into normal society and are on the road 15 years later

I'm a type 4. I returned home when I was 25 and managed 4 years in the UK, moving every few months and living out of a bag (I also did a degree at the time). Since then, I've relocated to Western Australia, Canada, the UK and now back to Western Australia

I can't stop travelling. By going where the work is, i keep earning and when it's time, I move on

A fifth type exists, maybe rare, but I've done it for 15 years.

Steady job, volunteering for travel work and lots of overtime.

Gets paid for travelling

Takes 2-3 months off, for private holiday every year :-))) sometimes starting out from a stationing in foreign countries.

Very astute Andy.

I was a type 2, now a type 4 also.

Looking to ditch more and more work and ride more as time goes by....

"I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretence because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew. Their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend. I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces so full of stupid importance."

(Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 1899)[/QUOTE]

Oh ho I can relate to the above !

I have not had the pleasure of extended touring, I have managed 45 days at most. This year I managed 2 jaunts, 45 & 30 days. On returning home I experienced and still do to some extent exactly that which you have described. I have made the decision to sell everything I own and go touring permanently. It has improved my disposition although I'm still a little apprehensive. Marketing lot, stock and barrel is a mission to say the least.

love that quote
 

am in the same boat....... again.
i have had a life pattern of this living and then normality and the normality always feels like the slumps.(i have travelled by foot,backpack,yacht for 7 years and of recent years by bike and its the same pattern).whilst travelling you have sensations of hieghtened experience good and bad and also meet with likeminded eclectic people.once you get home that kind of dulls and for most hampster wheel walkers washing the car on saturday and who won the local football game seems of a hieghtened importance to them.even if you try you can never really re connect to this (if you were ever connected in the first place).
a wise fellow yachtie (3 circumnavigations on a yacht called upyurs!!) once told me once you get the sand between your toes you can never wash it away.travelling by any means is exactly like this and with bike is no exception.
i have always found that you have to pay the ferryman and thats what i consider the slumps but in that time ....you can slowly and quietly draw your plans.re group,consolidate,repair, and then go!!!
whens the best time to plan the next trip i always feel its when you are actually on the one you are on.if that makes sense.
the first step is always the hardest but the rest will follow and then all of a sudden you have the 'flow' once again.

i am washed up on the beach (meterphorically) in perth also at this time alas 2013 will be better for one and all.
happy new year!!bier

So very true, decision made, waiting on the house & toys to sell..........

A yacht, now theres an idea for a base, mobile too :) Just need something under 47' with sails that I can fit a GS on. Mmmmmmmmm?

:funmeteryes: ?c?

Cheers Dave

Hi My name is Xander and I am and Overlanding Addict.

Well it has been a long time since my first post:

Since then I have found what could only be described as my dream job.
I have bought a house. Rebuilt 2 motorcycles from the ground up. 1 more on the go. We take weekenders and fortnight trips.

I have only (like in the last month) been able to start re-reading the hubb. I now feel that my experience is so out of date that i don't have that much to contribute to the Hubb, and i feel bad about this. I have started to edit the blog that never got uploaded. :oops2:It will one day get uplaoded (maybe). In many ways, my life is back to normal.

HOWEVER: the addiction has not gone away. I look at my panniers on the floor and get sad (no other word for it). I love my job, but almost every morning (on bike or not) I look at the road ahead and have to force myself take the left hand turn to work and not go to the see what i can find beyond the horizon. And although at times i hated (yes strong word but accurate) the traveling, I think it was when i was truly to my core happy.

Conrad's quote from "Hart of Darkness" (which BTW has always been one of my favorite books and think that Apocalypse Now trashed it) it as true as it can get.

I still dont talk about my trip much, I answer questions but that is about it. Odd huh? It is a huge part of my life that is now almost become private.

Summing it up I am happy, but still highly addicted. I know I cant take an other big trip for a few years, I am okay with it. In a bad way though I dont plan or dream about the next one, a bit like an alcoholic cant take a taste. I have to think small, and not compare.

I have re-read all the posts here, and one thing that strikes me as odd I never called my trip an adventure, although many people here did. I dont think of it as an adventure. To me it was travel, i dont want to say for others it is not an adventure. But to me it was more then that, and never had a goal o plan... it was just just me and my wife and the world to see. Truth be told I dont know what my point is..

That is not true at all..... There is a lot more to the hubb than recent exchange rates and shipping prices.


I know EXACTLY how you feel on that.... You dare not dream the dream as in contrast the world around you soon starts to look really dull.

Everyone here needs to read The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin. You'll learn that sedentary life is not necessarily 'natural'. All my life I had a hunch I belonged on the road (as opposed to going on 3 month jaunts/adventures, or living as an expat), and in 2003 I took the plunge and began working/living on the road. As others have said, sometimes I hated it. It wasn't easy. But it felt 'right'. Two years ago for numerous reasons, I bought a house in Chile overlooking the Pacific. Dream view. I'm no where near as productive with my writing. I cannot wait to be on the road again! Getting all my ducks in order first...

Lorraine

Sounds like you are also suffering from what they call "Culture Shock" I had it bad when I got home after 22 months, Some People, Most Things & Many Situations that I used to relate to no longer had the same relevance they used to, what kept me sane was planning the next big adventure... Remember, You've looked behind the curtain &/or took the Red Pill

I got back home about 5 weeks ago after a 25month trip through the americas on my old XT and later, when I had to sell what was left of it, a smaller bike that I picked up in Chile.

I can´t possibly explain how incredibly bored I am with being back "home". Im working 40hours a week... learning new stuff... and everyone I meet, that somehow heard about my trip is telling me how awesome that sounds and how much they´d love to do something like that but they probably never will because of whatever reason.

Same with the sharing of my experiences. I think I´m a completely different person.. I took about 18.000 photos in those 2 years+, and I havent looked through any of them, and when people (even close friends) ask me to show them pictures I usually tell them I lost them (partly true) or that I haven´t bothered going through them yet.

Reading other peoples experiences on this seems to show that its gonna get better but right now living here seems so pointless. Just kinda felt like ... making progress or something ... getting somewhere... being able to just hop on the bike and leave... go somewhere else where youve never been.

Ah well... even thinking about deleting this after thinking about "replying" to this thread for a good 5minutes.

On one hand you´d think you´d become a more experienced/better/whatever person so the trip must´ve improved you somehow but then again if I wouldn´t have left I would´ve always kept looking forward to it but guess I woulda never noticed how pointless shit is here.

Worst is, tho, that for several reasons I know that I cannot travel again, for longer than 2 weeks at a time, for AT LEAST the next 4years. Gonna be interesting how I´ll get through that.

Oh, and it´s good to know that "it´s all in your head" but I think I´m somebody that doesn´t get any help from a statement like that. Not just because its so obvious but also because theres never really an explanation on how to get it out of your head, even though Im not entirely sure I even want it out of there....

It gets easier after the first year or so doh

You will find a way to make those two week holidays turn into two month holidays... If you REALLY want to !

still trying to get back to normal whatever that is
 

Its been 5 months since I got back after 4 and a half months on the road. Some things have changed, my expectations now are way beyond that of a week here or a week there.

It took me 6 weeks to get into it in the first place, I still had my head in work and other responsibilities. The shedding of worries about stupid work things and small stuff at home was the most liberating. The day then consists of finding food petrol and somewhere to stay, in the meantime having a simple purpose of heading in a general south east direction.

Now I have all those small stupid things to deal with again. This time, though, I know what to expect in future but I still feel rather down with normal life.

Another thing, after living this way for only a few months you'd expect to be able to share it with many people, this is sometimes not the case as not many are really interested in the adventure. As my mate said, "they ask you about your holiday so they can tell you about theirs"! Not many go on 4 month holidays. Despite this I occassionally get to relive some of it working on the video. Yes still working on it after 5 months. Next time I'm not taking a bloody video camera.

I have a picture of my bike in the desert in Pakistan on my screen at work. Not sure if this is a distraction to make me happy or getting me down.

Still counting down the days to the next one 677 days till Alaska to Argentina :)

for those that took the red pill
 

My name is Peter and I am a recovering travel-holic...

Last trip, 9 months, 21 countries. I haven't added up the financial costs, but whatever the total, it was worth it. Adjusting to the post adventure life is difficult. Been back 4 months now, having spent large portions of that time looking for work. The energy and excitement to be back was slowly pushed down with struggling to find work. Started a consulting contract a few weeks ago, which could lead to a full-time position. I am very grateful to be back to work, but to be honest, I would rather be on the road again. Adventure travel will happen again, but its depressing to think it will be several years in the future before I can ride off into the sunset towards a new horizon. I guess its buck it up time.

Make a new goal and work towards it. I think that will help with my post adventure blues. I appreciate all the posts to this thread.

I have been fortunated to be type of persons number 3. a flexible work that allow me to go abroad twice a year just for the sake of travelling. on the other hand my longest journey ever last 110 days and it the final days I was longing for home.
I will try to keep my life style always like that. Always based in my hometown but keep travelling aborad and aroung my country whenever possible.

Road2nowhere,
 

The long ride after…..
Lost in world of micro celebrity, a legend in my own mind, the thoughts of What Now , became a 24-7 theme. I have contracted the after-rideitis gene , a strange illness that afflicts the few.
I have done a big one, ( I restrict this to ‘a’ as I hope to complete many more) .
I rode my bike for only 9000 miles in 6 weeks in a mixture of loneliness, joyful experiences, and fantastic riding. To boot a media madness that created a strange addition to the event that turned out to be a blessing and a curse.
Busy times before the trip were not restricted to planning routes, saving the money, booking the time off, getting family blessings sorted, this was a three month wait and a mad month of press calls, radio interviews, TV film crews in my lounge, bike show attendance and all with a slight unknown element of just how long I was going for and with *whom. ( *but that’s another story).
The ride was fantastic, life changing and after many interviews and mini celebrity moments across the USA, the return to the UK resulted in another week of media coverage ending in a TV appearance at the One Show. What a rush, all that sensation overload was fantastic.
Then, that was it. The months ahead were busy whilst family and friends became my audience the thoughts of what next became paramount. I had no job and only had the thought that what if brewing in my head. Can I do more?
There was a degree of self-imposed celebrity within a very small audience of others that are riders, making plans and reading the magazine articles etc: I remember the words of another world scale rider who announced a ride of over 20,000 miles to visit someone who only invited him to stay if he ever passed through. “They want to meet me”. He said with no consideration of the bit in between.
Having done a small trip in comparison, there I sit getting thoughts of going somewhere, now. Other things in life become less important, there is a need to complete, to carry on, to return to the road. The riding, the places, the people all add to the list of why, the issue is when or if. Family, wife, work, mortgage, futures, all pail into insignificance as the depression gets hold. You can, you won’t, you want to, you can’t, all pass through the mind and the more this happens, the harder it becomes. On the road, you make up your mind what you are doing today, no others to consider. Back home the requirements of responsibilty get in the way of your need to be independent, to travel or is it to be alone.
First step is to find out why you feel depressed about being back. What is missing?
Is this the reason that so many ‘around the world’ riders are single, divorced, alone. The whole concept of travelling long term on your own requires a great amount of self-reliance and if the return to that other life that has dictated your being for so many years is not able to accommodate this need, you may be in trouble.
Call it depression or call it wanderlust, but the need to have the option is important, you may never get to go, that is up to your circumstances and willingness to take the plunge.
I got over my own demons regarding ‘getting back’ into the groove, but it’s still there. As I reach my late 50’s. I do not have much time left but rest assured that the likes of Ted Simon, Ian Coates and Simon Gandolfi are all older than I. In a stable relationship of 34 years and unless my wife kicks me out, I still have ties, still have reasons to only do short trips, most of all I can still plan in my head and dream.
My reason for the depressive state I was in for 2 years might just be the need to travel, the need to see if it is what I thought it should be, or just an age thing. (or struggling to find that job), one thing I know is that planning, dreaming, having the right bike all before you go, does not include the return kit, whatever that is.
Vicious circles create wild currents and thoughts of running away from it all has never been a good reason, and I can think of nothing worse that burning bridges, upsetting the status quo or setting out with issues back here as one day you will be back.
If you have been, returned and feel lost, maybe get some medical help. Once back ‘in the groove’ you can take another look at the madness of a long distance biker, and maybe just maybe start planning.
A few hours, days, months later you will see that the light at the end of the tunnel is not a 40 tonner heading your way in a single lane tube, it’s a new horizon which needs reaching.
found out today Mrs might have MS..... now I didn't expect that

Pete Johnson

That's it you know.......

Before you leave on a trip you have focus, direction. A reason to get up in the morning. Something definitive to aim for. There is no drifting through monotony. You are leaving on THAT date and you have THIS and THAT to do before you leave.

And when you're on your trip you are constantly on an adrenaline buzz. Every day is different. You never know what will happen next. Even being bored can be exciting.

You have become accustomed to the adrenaline. A junky... It might not be the same huge hit that jumping out of a plane might give you but you have been on an adrenaline drip for months on end. And as you get home, the drip has been turned off.

It's called Post traumatic Stress disorder.

Adrenaline and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) | Veterans Today

They are the two main things that I contribute to the 'Back home depression"... Focus and adrenaline.

If you have a busy, stimulating job then you might be okay. If you have a mundane repetitive job it's really not going to plug that hole is it.

Join a gym, start a DIY project, start an exciting new hobby or romance your lady...

I think it takes a very unique individual who can just do one big trip and go back to their past lives like nothing has happened and be happy with that. In my experience, these people have A LOT going on in their lives to fill that gap..

I'll second that!

Post trip Blues

Well you did it, you took life by the handlebars and you steered your way around your fears, you took on the challenges put in your way and now you struggle with the mundane and ordinary of life? Well you almost certainly aren’t alone, just as a soldier comes back from a tough tour you are conflicted between the uncertain place that inspired the best in you and the safety of normality, and you can’t relate to anyone who doesn’t understand because they weren’t there and you don’t want the memories invoked by others who are currently living their dream journey because it’s like a kick in the ribs of your decaying bloated roadside carcass, the yesterday man, the has been, the fool full of tales and bitterness that time marched past as it cast you into obscurity.

Well who told you to quit? What was the point of your journey? Was it to learn or to inspire? Do you think you know everything? or have stopped being able to give to others what you know?

That listlessness is because you have been given a greater you and you are failing to utilise that, damn right you should be depressed, and embarrassed and ashamed!
Look at the adventures in front of you, to be a success in business, in love, as a father, the next trip.

Did you really think you would be gifted a better world by your indulgence? Your gift is the knowledge of a greater world, all its joys and all its faults, the greatness of mankind and the inequality, your potential.

Now what are you doing about it? You’ve returned to find the mean average of life unsatisfactory, what are you going to do to change it? Or do you think that this is someone else's responsibility?

Go out and make it all mean something or float around and go on another trip to escape the reality that will still be there when you stop running

Change the world? that sounds kind of impossible, so here is the thing, change somebodies world, and for the better, that you can do! don't sit by doing nothing because you cant do everything, look at something that is wrong and fix it because one thing you must now see is that we are all on the same rock spinning through the universe and there is a lot to be done before our house is in order.

not only after a big trip my mood always gets worse after even one day trips when returning home :(

Well One sure cure is have kids! After travelling I worked throughout Africa and argentina, and just couldn't do an office job. Going to Europe or America bored me; too crowded, too many rules, tame house cat land. I had to get away. When kids came I was happy to be with them. Now I do 1 long solo trip per year and one shorter one. My son is now old enough to come with. Once he turns 18 well then, maybe we go across Russia or something on 2 bikes.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Sorry I had to...

Well, I´m not writing frequently, but I´m travellng for 30 Years+, in different ways.
What I learned from travelling and coming back, was that I had to adapt to the situation.
After my first travel of 6 months to India etc. I didn´t accept the new situation, and going with the flow I ended up working at my aunts business, marring (a wonderful wife for more than 30 years:D), and having a 26 years old daughter), sounds like I changed pace, but no...
I went all over Europe, USA and Asia, for months, without my wife (she let me go and visits me i.e. in Japan during her holidays).
And the only cure to the depression after returning was to learn how to live different lifes and switch very quick.
Now I work 400+ km away from home, and it´s like changing lives on a weekly basis. My two lives are so different from each other as possible. I couldn´t deal with that if I couldn´t switch in an instant.
And the key was for me to be aware that I´m still the same person!

And I agree that once infected it becomes your fate to travel.
But it´s easy for me right now, as I´m leaving for a month riding in Marocco in about 2 weeks, and in april 16 starting for a ride to Japan and back.
I´ll report after my return in 2017 :clap::cool4:

dont cry that its over,but smile at that it happened.
this applies to much.

good luck
kp

I am happily married, over 65 and Ive been home from a trip to Ushuaia for over 2 years, since then after having done multiple rides across the US and South America I wish I was back on the road long term. I want to be back down in Central America, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Argentine, Chile ,anywhere!. Adventure never seems to have left me. :eek3:

Is there a reason you're not going?

Aside, Adventure doesn't have to be in a far away country suffering heat/cold and eating weird stuff. You can find new and fun stuff not far from home usually. Maybe not the same but is will sooth the adventure lacking heart :)

Take care!

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

I was sad enough that I kept traveling. I have been on the road for 7 years so far. I have been about 150,000 miles in 60+ countries in Latin America (4 times), Europe, and Africa where I had to leave my wrecked DR650 after a head-on collision in Ghana. The only good news to my (latest) crash in Ghana was that the idiot driver was arrested and my DR destroyed his car as my head trashed the windshield.
As a retiree on a Social Security pension (at least until the Republicans take it away) I stay with friends, Couchsurf, and stay in cheap hostels. I save enough to usually fly back annually to see family.
What's next? I have some interest in riding around OZ, and maybe seeing a few parts of SE Asia that I have missed (Bhutan, Myanmar, Vietnam, & Laos again). Since I am older now, at 69, I will probably stick to Latin America.

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Inspiring .... come to India

You can get a bike on hire for peanuts n travel cheaply in this most amazing beautiful country side.

I've not did a big tour as such yet but I've been through depression, I had about three months of it can't say why it started and I can't say why for sure it went, but I can say what helped me was I gave up my time for free to coach a bunch of young kids football team that were getting beat by cricket scores every week to winning team, it gave me that well being knowing that I was Helping people in this case u10's.
As you say you have that spare time then that's something to think about.

A good suggestion Lowrider

Hell yeah. I know exactly what you mean.. but re-entering the corporate world I'm finding having 4 T shirts, and a pair of zip-offs to be somewhat limiting..

Depressed?
The reason you're depressed is that you have told yourself all this time that you're free until {enter estimated time at destination} . Now that you've past this milestone you have reached the "until" and your mind perceives you as trapped because it can't fix in the past.

To fix it, set a date, any date, just as long as it is at least two months ahead, and tell yourself daily, hourly, minute by minute, just like you did for the last ride, how you're going to be free for a time (say a weekend). Then rinse, lather repeat. Build the plans further away.

Why two months? You have to say that to yourself long enough for it to become the habit that will replace the one you have now - because the one you have now has a destination date in your past,

And the last thing about depression - you don't have to fix the depression today, you do have to set a goal, set a time, and go and do it. Like a single item checklist. Tick it off, and you'll feel light years better. Tomorrow you put two items on that list. Tick two items off, and you'll find your psyche letting in twice as much light.

Make the initial goals tiny and make them out the house. eg 1. get a coffee for MrsX, tick.

Go to the movies more. The tour you did is being filed by your subconscious into the same area these let you into. Escape.

I am glad i am not alone in this, i also been on the road, and out traveling for extended periods of time on motorcycles, semi trucks on two continents, and just whatever i could get my hands on old cars, and even small boats when i was younger.
I've met so many great people along the way.

Ever since i came back,what i regard to as home some four years ago, i got really depressed, relations never worked out, i even got fired one time for fixing a technical problem on my own, because this was not allowed within company rules, the fact that i saved my employer half a million, by taking action, the way i did was ignored, so i even got up to i point i really didn't trust myselves into doing anything, properly, not even replacing an, innertube on a bycicle .

The loyalty i've experienced out on the road just isn't there.

I have some friends from the militairy that experience the same.

Now i find it hard to imagine, that i used to repair my own semi tractor in minus 40, somewhere in Canada the US or Europe,or completely rewire the the smoked up electric cables on my Tenere, some where in New Foundland.

Or so much other stuff i can look back at, now that i am reprogrammed again, for normal live as i look at this myself.

There's no one to share your story's with i find which makes normal life so difficult, so now i've stuffed all my belongings into storage and getting ready to be out traveling again, on a motorcycle, my energy, self confidence, and just joy of getting up is gradually coming back.
So not sure, if this is just me, or more people that think like me, if a normal or regarded to as a normal life, people dedicating themselves to just consumerism is really the way to go.

Or should the majority like us all be out there, like nomads, helping each other and others out, when help is needed,and staying away from swamping ourself in materialism as much as we can?

I'm glad i'm not the only one suffering from this, Aloha!:palm:

On the road again
 

Well said! :thumbup1:

Even after the last year in hospitals having four operations due to a bike crash, I can't wait to be on the road again. I leave this week for Latin America and have already agreed to buy another motorbike. :clap:

Good for you Ted, bier for the fact that you recovered, and brave enough to be out there again:thumbup1:

Something similar happened to me in San Diego, where i was in a hospital for 3 weeks, before being released back to a motel just a mile from the border, where complete strangers invited me into their home to recover, drowned me with their kindness and warmth for about a month, and never asked anything in return, anything but being friends for live, before i was being flown back home.

I want to be back out on the bike again by the end of september, just buy a plane ticket to the US get a bike and go from there, and write a book about my dad, who's led an exceptional live.

Thanks my friend, biggest compliment i've had for awhile.
Maybe we'll meet sometime on two wheelsbier

According to ancient beliefs of Tuareg people, the only way to be free is to move from place to place all the time, according to them staying at one place for more than 40days can bring misfortune.

More about this you can find in Ibrahim al Koni books.