You might have a rosy idea of the digital nomad lifestyle as you’re mentally packing your bags. You see yourself skipping from exotic destinations to Instagram-worthy cities to sweeping vistas. You might not be considering the whole picture, however.
Don’t get us wrong—your nomadic adventure can be and look like all of those amazing things. However, digital nomads who are just starting can often forget about the relationship between traveling and mental wellbeing.
Uprooting yourself can be disorienting. If you’ve lived in one spot for most of your life, it can be an especially big adjustment. Your support system of family and friends is all in one place, and you’re separating from them for parts unknown. Your grocery stores, barber shops, doctors’ offices—all the locations that make up every day routines—are now question marks you have to fill in every time you move to a new city or country.
These factors can take a toll on even the most seasoned digital nomads. That’s why the best way to create a sustainable digital nomad lifestyle for yourself is to get the mental healthcare you need, when you need it.
Does travel insurance cover mental health, though? This article will help you answer that question and offer some tips for little things you can do to keep yourself stable, confident, and successful in your digital nomad adventure.
What Could Keep You from Your Happy Place?
Before worrying about mental health travel insurance, make sure you understand how a digital nomad could find themselves needing support to begin with. Along the journey, nomads sometimes find themselves experiencing:
- Burnout: All work and no play make for an unhappy digital nomad lifestyle. Even so, remote professionals can find themselves overextending for work. For example, digital nomads with multiple clients instead of a single full-time employer might feel the need to go past their limits to meet clients’ needs and keep income flowing. If you become a nomad who finds yourself doing that too often, however, it could lead to burnout, which may result in fatigue, higher stress, negatively impacted work performance, and even physical health issues.
- Isolation: We mentioned it earlier, but leaving home to live and work abroad often means leaving well-established relationships behind. When that happens, arriving in a new destination can be lonely. Not being sure who you can rely on in a pinch, ask for advice, or simply share a cup of coffee can create fear and self-doubt. Is this the right lifestyle for you? Can you take on this kind of lifestyle on your own? Isolation can make you feel like all your success and failure is on your shoulders, without support, and that can be scary to handle without someone watching out for your mental health.
- Needing “Me” Time: Neglecting oneself goes hand in hand with burnout. When you’re not taking “me” time, you’re missing out not only on time to unwind, but also on time for hobbies. After a long day, spending a little time on a hobby like art can help you express your creativity, while activities like hiking or going to the gym could help you release frustrations through physical exercise. Most important, taking time out of your day for personally meaningful activities helps you reinforce a positive sense of self by reminding you of what you enjoy and the skills you’re developing.
While these can sound like serious issues for digital nomads, they don’t have to define or be part of your personal journey. Instead, you can make nomadic traveling and mental wellbeing come together in a positive, sustainable lifestyle by establishing healthy habits early.
What Can Help You Get There
What routines can help you avoid—or cope with—mental health needs as a digital nomad? The first one is easy: routines. Giving yourself structure, either via physical tools like bullet journaling to stay organized or a set-and-be-automatically-reminded weekly calendar on your phone, can help you know when it’s time to work on work, and when to dedicate time to yourself. Those simple guardrails on your time can both keep you from experiencing burnout and re-energizing yourself through your hobbies.
Another great idea for your traveling and mental wellbeing is to create community for yourself wherever you go. This sounds difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Your local coworking space can be a great place to find your tribe, while online groups on Facebook and sites like Digital Nomad World can help you build relationships before arriving at a destination. With those tools in place, you can easily have the beginnings of a support system and social group—not to mention the ability to build a network for your future destinations too.
Travel Medical and Mental Health
Even when you develop good habits, though, you might find yourself needing professional mental health support. If and when that time comes, you’ll most likely want to focus on getting the help you need as soon as possible, instead of wondering “Does travel insurance cover mental health?” in regard to your policy.
Depending on the mental health travel insurance you choose, your plan may include coverage for counseling sessions with a licensed provider (either in-person or via teletherapy), medication prescriptions should you need them, and even inpatient treatment for mental health emergencies. Always carefully review the policies that you’re comparing, checking for any specific inclusions or exclusions to make sure a chosen plan meets your unique needs.
SoVenture Keeps You Smiling
Your successful life as a digital nomad begins with you. You can make your lifestyle sustainable, in part, by giving yourself a healthy headspace and with SoVenture you may be able to find the right mental health travel insurance to help you achieve your goal.
Built specifically for digital nomads like you, SoVenture is an online tool you can use to build and compare mental health travel insurance quotes. As you compare options from top providers, you can also reach out to our support team of licensed professionals for help answering your travel insurance-related questions.
