Living in a globalized world offers us the advantage of being able to move from one place to another on the planet with relative ease. Long-distance travel has become increasingly accessible to the entire population. Of course, short- and medium-distance travel, which was already accessible, also represents a good offer for those people who are passionate about traveling.
If traveling is a pleasure, perhaps doing it impulsively can be a problem when it begins to negatively interfere with our daily lives. Although it is not a problem that has been studied very extensively, the problem of traveling impulsively is the main phenomenon of our next Psychology-Online article. Continue reading to discover more about dromomania: what it is, causes, symptoms and treatment.
What is dromomania
Dromomania, that’s what the obsession with traveling is called. The psychology dictionary of the American Psychiatric Association defines it as the abnormal urge or desire to travel and that involves spending beyond the individual’s means, abandoning one’s job, partner, or security in the search for new experiences. These patients feel more alive when they travel and begin planning their next trip as soon as the previous one is over. They often fantasize about their trips, a topic that occupies many of their thoughts and some of their dreams. Dromomania is also often called wanderlust syndrome.
Dromomania as such is not reflected in the main DSM-5 or ICD-11 diagnostic classifications as a psychological disorder and has not received much attention in the scientific literature. However, if we look at the previous definitions we can find similarity between dromomania and impulse control disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Dromomania and impulse control disorders
Following Fernández-Montalvo, J. and López-Goñi, JJ (2014), impulse control disorders are characterized by the difficulty the patient feels in resisting an impulse or desire (in this case, traveling or planning the next trip) or the temptation to perform some act that is harmful to the patient or the people around them.
Would traveling be harmful? Not traveling as such, but when talking about dromomania we understand that this type of case is harmful by interfering with the patient’s life in terms of the problems it causes, following the definition of the American Psychiatric Association, in their work, family, economic, etc. Therefore, dromomania can be seen as an addiction to travel.
Dromomania and obsessive compulsive disorder
The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language defines dromomania as the excessive inclination or pathological obsession with moving from one place to another. If the idea of traveling is pathologically obsessive, why don’t we classify dromomania as obsessive-compulsive disorder?
The American Psychiatric Association defines obsessions as persistent thoughts, ideas, images, or impulses and that are experienced as intrusive, inappropriate and produce anxiety, anguish or discomfort.
Therefore, obsessions related to traveling must cause discomfort to the patient and the patient wants to get rid of them, for which he can carry out compulsive behavior, a type of behavior or mental act that is aimed at reducing anxiety, in this case. case carry out the trip.
Although a dromomaniac person can be described as a person who is obsessed with traveling, the American Psychiatric Association’s definition of dromomania does not specify that the patient perceives his thoughts as annoying or cause discomfort. Therefore, in this article we are going to treat it as an impulse control disorder.
Causes of dromomania
As we have indicated, dromomania or wanderlust syndrome has received a lot of attention in the scientific literature and that is why it is not a highly studied phenomenon. Therefore, to explain it we have tried to classify it in the category of impulse control disorders and it will be the information available on this type of disorders that we will take as a model to explain dromomania.
In these, the patient would show a growing tension prior to making the trip, feeling an impulse to make it that is difficult to control. If we look at the definition that we explained at the beginning of the article, the person plans trips immediately after finishing the last one, so the impulse could appear at the end of said trip and the tension would begin to increase from that very moment.
If the trip is pleasant and pleasant for the patient, trying to establish a hypothesis, this could be a positive reinforcement for him, which would contribute to the repetition of said behaviors.
In any case, it is a phenomenon that requires much more research to clarify all its characteristics, its functioning and its causality.
Symptoms of dromomania
Fernández-Montalvo, J. and López-Goñi, JJ (2014) define three symptoms common to all impulse control disorders:
- Recurrent difficulty controlling impulsedesire or temptation to travel (despite having consequences in your economic, family, work sphere, etc.)
- Feeling of increasing tension in the form of emotional discomfort immediately before executing the action, in this case going on a trip.
- Well-being, gratification or liberation at the time of traveling. The patient perceives it as pleasurable and responds to the immediate conscious desire for it.
In addition to these, we understand that another symptom of the dromomaniac patient will be the heightened interest he shows in everything related to travel.
Treatment of dromomania
As we have been pointing out throughout the article, dromomania is a phenomenon for which more research is needed. For this reason, once again, we are going to try to offer a vision of the treatment for impulse control disorders, trying to adapt it to the case at hand, but taking into account that these proposals do not have scientific support for the specific case of dromomania.
The could have benefits in these cases, being aimed at identify the previous phases of excitement, work on the patient’s self-control, provide the patient with relaxation techniquesetc.
In any case, the patient’s evaluation will clarify those areas that must be taken into account when planning treatment, such as irrational ideas that could be present and that should be treated through cognitive therapy.
Finally, we must also point out that in disorders such as , pharmacological treatment is also carried out, so it could also be beneficial in the case of dromomania.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Dromomania: what it is, causes, symptoms and treatmentwe recommend that you enter our category.
References
- American Psychiatric Association (2020). APA Dictionary of Psychology. Retrieved from https://dictionary.apa.org
- Fernández-Montalvo, J. and López-Goñi, JJ (2014) Pathological Gambling and Disruptive Impulse Control and Behavior Disorders. En Caballo, VE, Salazar, IC and Carrobles, JA (2014) Manual of Psychopathology and Psychological Disorders. Madrid. Pyramid.
Bibliography
- American Psychiatric Association (2014). DSM-5. Reference guide to the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-5-Breviary. Madrid: Panamericana Medical Editorial.
- World Health Organization (WHO) (2018) International Classification of Diseases, 11th revision. Recovered from https://icd.who.int/es