YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME
AN EXPLORATION OF LONG-TERM TRAVEL AND ITS EFFECTS ON MENTAL HEALTH
An online survey reveals a stunning 86 % of those who have embarked on international motorcycle trips spanning several months or even years , report depression , anxiety or issues reintegrating into society upon their return .
CHAD HORTON
I arrived at Burning Man on my XR650 , with nothing more than the clothes on my back and the contents of a small backpack . Having spent the week riding trails throughout Colorado , I managed to hitch a ride to Salt Lake City before riding the final 600 kilometres to the Black Rock Desert .
I had no idea what Burning Man was . I simply accepted an invitation from a friend who assured me I ’ d have a good time . He agreed to meet me in Black Rock City , the moniker given to the makeshift metropolis that magically appears each year in the desert like a psychedelic mirage .
Indeed , a good time was had … so much so , I would return twice more over the coming years .
During that time , living in the periphery of the “ Burner community '', I became familiar with , and puzzled by , a phenomenon referred to as “ decompression ”.
Decompression is what Burners called the post-playa hangover induced by the readaptation to the “ default world ”.
Of course , not everyone experiences “ decom ”. For many , myself included , Burning Man was nothing more than a giant party in the desert . For others , however , the impact was enough to cause withdrawal from friends and family , a relapse into addiction , and in extreme cases , even suicide …
Having personally suffered nothing more than a sunburn and the occasional hangover , the concept of decompression was as curious as it was baffling . Party , rinse , repeat … seemed a simple-enough formula . Then COVID hit and life got a little more complicated .
As news spread and borders closed , many of us on the road chose to hunker down and wait out the storm . But when four weeks to “ flatten the curve ” turned into two years of “ what the fuck ”, a good portion of us were forced to retreat and regroup .
For many , that meant “ going home ”.
After 2½ years in Latin America , the last year of which was spent under a strict military-controlled quarantine in a remote region of Southern Patagonia , I found myself back in Los Angeles struggling to readjust to normal in a world that was anything but . And I wasn ’ t alone . In a world where so many were struggling , both physically and mentally , it was easy to blame the pandemic . But for many of us , the pandemic was just the beginning of our problems …
Shortly after returning to the States , I had a chance encounter on the road with a friend I had originally met crossing the Darien Gap three years prior . He too had been struggling to readjust , but his issues had nothing to do with travel restrictions . He had returned to “ normal life ” almost a year before anyone knew who Anthony Fauci 1 was .
I was so busy blaming COVID , I didn ’ t stop to think that there might be more to what was going on . So , in an effort to learn more , I did what we all do when we want to find out which oil to run , or what tyre is best . I turned to Facebook ! Reaching out to various moto-travel groups , I put together a brief post-travel survey , intentionally avoiding the COVID topic , electing instead to allow the participants to fill in the blanks . And while very few cited COVID as a factor , the overall response was overwhelming !
THE SURVEY :
The parameters were simple : survey participants need only to have completed a trip in excess of 90 days and , for participants who had undertaken multiple trips , limit their answers to their first such journey .
Participation was anonymous , but of those who volunteered basic personal information , 18 countries spanning 5 continents have been represented in the
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