[lazyjones]

Surely there can be both a healthy "wanderlust" borne out of curiosity and eagerness to explore the world and a pathological restlessness due to some anxiety disorder? I don't see a convincing case for conflating these two things. But it does make a good headline...

[asveikau]

I have definitely been close to people who seemed to book an unreasonable amount of vacations to get away from their mood disorders.

[eeZah7Ux]

"amount" is not the right metric. It's the compulsive aspect.

[asveikau]

That's correct. I am using amount as a proxy for this (less compulsive people in the same circumstance would have a lesser amount), but I am absolutely meaning to say it your way.

[drb91]

What is an unreasonable amount of vacation?

[asveikau]

Near constant. Planning the next one before starting the ones that you've booked. Showing a very clear feedback loop of internal stress, escape, escape itself causing more stress, leading to further perceived need to escape.

I don't want to get into lots of personal detail, but it's the kind of thing that when you see it from the outside it's clear as day. And saddening.

[volkl48]

I certainly start planning the next one before starting the ones I've booked.

Every trip I'm considering/planning on taking in the next year or two is in a spreadsheet and I've got various things set up to notify me as deals come along that might influence when exactly I take those trips.

If you want to travel on a regular basis at low cost, doing that sort of thing is basically a necessity. I have more places I'd like to go than money or time.

Now, if you are looking at it as "two months from now I'm going to need another break from all this stress" when you haven't even left for your trip next week, that's concerning.

[asveikau]

I have no doubt you and many others enjoy planning vacations, sometimes concurrently, and nothing comes of it. Just like in another thread on this story, it was commented that lots of people have varying habits of hygiene, the implication being, what's the big deal about correlating that to mental illness?

But when you also have an issue like depression or bipolar, or you're in the midst of an episode of the same, then these can be datapoints in a different kind of story.