Travel anxiety: five tips from major thinkers to calm your nerves

As an academic and journalist who has travelled extensively over the last 20 years – but also a diagnosed sufferer of generalised anxiety disorder – I’ve been researching the myriad triggers of travel anxiety.

Many readers will be familiar with the dread and panic that can stem from delayed transport, overcrowded streets, chaotic airports and encounters with officious bureaucrats. But there are also less obvious causes linked to ecological degradation, cultural miscommunication and the complexities of personal identity and experience.

Research for my new book, The Years of Travelling Anxiously, has led me to several writers, philosophers and psychologists whose insights offer remedies to travel anxiety. Here are four examples of common travel anxiety triggers, and tips from major thinkers for overcoming them.