I came home from Scotland in the rain. Everything was green — denser and more layered than Texas usually is. The dampness was on my skin. And every single thing that felt like Scotland but wasn’t Scotland was, in that moment, excruciating. I found a circle of mushrooms in my yard — a perfect fairy ring — and stood there in the rain feeling like a little bit of the magic had followed me home. It helped. And it didn’t help. That fog lasted almost three weeks.
In this episode of The Places We Become, travel psychologist Dr. Katie Blake explores the post-travel low — what it actually is, why it happens, and why the travel world almost never talks about it honestly. Drawing on positive psychology, neuroscience, and her own experience returning from trips as different as the Scottish Highlands and back-to-back Kenya and Norway, this episode maps two distinct versions of the post-travel low — and explains why they require completely different things from you in recovery.
In today’s episode of The Places We Become, I share:
Why the post-travel low is not one thing — and the crucial difference between a psychological/emotional low and a physiological one
What happens in the brain when you return from somewhere that genuinely moved you — the neuroscience of dopamine, novelty, and hedonic adaptation
Daniel Kahneman’s peak-end rule and what it tells us about why returns feel harder than they should
A personal account of belonging grief after Scotland — almost three weeks of re-entry, a fairy ring in the yard, and what it means when a place follows you home
What jet lag and sensory depletion from back-to-back international travel actually do to the nervous system — and why pushing through is the worst thing you can do
Why the post-travel low is the price of having been somewhere that mattered
If you’ve ever come home from a trip and felt a flatness, a greyness, a sense that your real life is somehow less real than the one you just left — this episode is for you.
Read the companion piece: This episode pairs with The Psychology of Post-Travel Blues: Why Coming Home Feels Like Grief on The Journal of Travel Psychology — including the full Scotland belonging grief story, the Disney identity gap, and a deeper look at what your post-travel low might actually be telling you.
Research discussed: Daniel Kahneman’s peak-end rule. Neuroscience research on dopamine, novelty, and hedonic adaptation in travel re-entry. Circadian rhythm research on jet lag and cognitive function. Research on sensory depletion and nervous system recovery after extended international travel.
Share Your Story!
What was your worst post-travel low? The return that hit you hardest — the one where ordinary life felt, for a while, genuinely impossible to inhabit. Share it for a chance to be featured on a future episode of The Places We Become.
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