I decided a few months ago to go ahead and book an overseas vacation. I hoped that it would give me something to look forward to, and that it would help to finally put a dent in the anhedonia that's been such a challenging symptom of my depression. I decided to go to Italy because … Continue reading The pros and cons of travelling for mental health
For the last 2 weeks and a bit while I've been travelling in Italy, I've had my phone on airplane mode. No phone calls, no text messages, and for large chunks of the day I have no wifi access. Part of the reason is a desire to run away from the world, and part of … Continue reading I like airplane mode
I have mostly felt pretty safe travelling alone as a female. Sadly, there have been exceptions. One of those exceptions happened today. There was a staff guy at the hostel where I was staying who said that he "liked" me and would joke that he was "stalking" me, doing things like popping into my dorm … Continue reading The downside of being a solo female traveller
I've been in Florence that last couple of days and I'm not much of a fan. There are a shit-ton of people here crammed into a small area, many of them in large obnoxious tour groups. I've been having quite a bit of derealization to get me through it. Yesterday I walked right over some … Continue reading Going through the motions
Despite the happy-sounding title, I'm talking about falling in a very little sense. The combination of lithium-induced clumsiness and cobblestone streets was bound to catch up to me. It was around 6am and I was walking to the train station to catch an early train to Pompeii. I was crossing a street and completely wiped … Continue reading Falling head over heels for Italy
I'm in Rome, the first stop of my Italian vacation and home of amazing art and history. And by amazing I mean more along the lines of "meh". I'm finding the crowds hard to handle. At the Vatican museums all I could think was get me the hell outta here, and my response to the … Continue reading Sometimes “meh” is the best I can come up with
Later today I'm heading off to spend 3 weeks on vacation in Italy. This trip is what has been keeping me going through a rough stretch with my depression over the last 6 weeks or so. Not that my depression is allowing me to actually feel excited about it, but I'm hanging on to the … Continue reading Leaving on a jet plane
Travelling has always been a major passion of mine. Unfortunately depression makes it rather hard to feel passionate about much of anything, but in an attempt to get myself a bit more excited about my upcoming trip to Italy I thought I'd do a post covering the places I've managed to tick off my travel … Continue reading Places ticked off my bucket list
I don't know that I've ever actually written down a bucket list before. It was probably around age 20-ish that I started ticking things off my nebulous bucket list: got a tattoo, went skydiving, bungee jumped, started travelling. Travelling became my greatest passion, and even though the current depressive haze has taken away some of … Continue reading It’s bucket list time
Travelling has always been a passion of mine. In the 10 years since I developed depression, my illness has certainly gotten its hands dirty interfering in my travel plans and hopping along for the ride. So much for trip cancellation insurance In 2007, I had planned to do an organized tour across China, Mongolia, and … Continue reading Travelling with depression as a carry-on
Last night I got back from a week-long vacation at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. The vacation came at a very good time. I was starting to get really mired down in negative thoughts, thoughts that convinced me that I was being used, wasn't cared about, and was a failure. The rainy darkness that is … Continue reading Pressing reset (or maybe just pause)
Wahoo! Tomorrow I leave for a week at an all-inclusive beachfront resort in Los Cabos, Mexico. Not a vacation from work, because I haven't been working that much recently, but a vacation from my life. A vacation from myself, to some extent. A much-needed vacation from myself, at that; the last couple days in particular … Continue reading It’s vacation time!
I guess I should start by explaining what Uzbek is. It's the language of Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic in central Asia that was part of the Silk Road that once wound through Asia. It's an area of the world where there are still people living the traditional nomadic lifestyle involving yurts, riding horseback, and … Continue reading How do you say antidepressant in Uzbek?