The Mental Health Challenges of Digital Nomadism
The digital nomad lifestyle is often characterized as one that offers a better balance between work and leisure. Many people assume that it will be better for their mental health than remaining trapped in a corporate 9-5 existence. But, as with most things in life, the reality is far less simple.
Lack of Routine Undermines Stability
Having no routine at all can leave us feeling adrift and out of control.
- While you don’t want to fall into the trap of over-scheduling your life, introducing some routine can help you feel like you are more in control of your time.
The Verdict
The digital nomad lifestyle is an alternative to the corporate 9-5, but comes with its own mental health challenges.
- If you need help, reach out and get advice from a mental health professional. If this is not available to you locally, try virtual counselling services like BetterHelp.
Loss of Self-Care Routines
While the digital nomad lifestyle might help you escape negative routines, we also often lose positive routines, and the put ourselves in positions where they are hard to re-establish.
- Self-care routines are notoriously difficult to maintain when you are on the road, and you are living in environments over which you have little control.
Loneliness and Loss of Support Network
While you make friends on the road, these ephemeral friendships don’t fill the void the same way as being physically close to your nearest and dearest.
- It is important that digital nomads put effort into maintaining their long-term relationships back home to continue accessing that support network.
Lack of Control
Living in these “borrowed environments” in which many things are out of our control can leave us feeling like we don’t really have a safe haven when we need to escape from the world and be on our own.
- Digital nomads often need to learn techniques for shutting out their environment and entering their own “mental” safe space, through practices such as meditation.
We Don’t Talk About Mental Health
There is a stigma against digital nomads complaining about their mental health as it can make you seem ungrateful, spoiled, weak, and unworthy of the lifestyle you have chosen
- For this reason, many don’t talk about what is challenging them and assume that they are the only ones facing challenges
Travel Burnout
One of the biggest mistakes that digital nomads make is trying and squeeze in too much.
- Many will try and cover twelve cities in the space of a month, while maintaining a full workload.
- This exacerbates all the problems already discussed as you are never in one place long enough to establish new routines and start to feel comfortable.
Constant, Low-Level Anxiety
One of the biggest causes of mental health issues in the modern world is constant, low-level anxiety caused by the pressures to “do it all”
- We evolved to experience stress for short periods of time in response to immediate forms of danger
- Now, our constant level of stress means that small amounts of stress hormones are constantly being released into our body, which are damaging to both of physical and mental health
- Proper planning and self-care activities can help with this