I learned a new word this week, in a Facebook post in a group I follow called Senior Nomads.
When I looked up the definition in Wikipedia, the entry said: “Dromomania was a historical psychiatric diagnosis whose primary symptom was an uncontrollable urge to walk or wander. Dromomania has also been referred to as traveling fugue. Non-clinically, the term has come to be used to describe a desire for frequent traveling or wanderlust.”
The Miriam Webster dictionary simply defines it as “an exaggerated desire to wander”, but the American Psychological Association defines it in a way that gave me pause:
n. an abnormal drive or desire to travel that involves spending beyond one’s means and sacrificing job, partner, or security in the lust for new experiences. People with dromomania not only feel more alive when traveling but also start planning their next trip as soon as they arrive home. Fantasies about travel occupy many of their waking thoughts and some of their dreams. The condition was formerly referred to as vagabond neurosis.
Maybe that’s what I suffer from – I’m definitely constantly planning our next trip – although I’m definitely not intending to sacrifice my partner or security, and Ted and I are way too practical to spend beyond our means (although we did sell everything we own, so…)
Once I discovered the word, I had to know more. An article in Atlas Obscura talks about how the diagnosis was used in the late 19th century to put “wanderers” into asylums to prevent their “pathological tourism”. Then all of a sudden, with the outbreak of World War I in Europe and borders being closed, the “diagnosis” just disappeared. The article goes on to say that, “Today, occasionally dromomania is mentioned in the context of homelessness, or to refer to the disorientation associated with dementia. And it has splintered—as wanderlust it has been completely depathologized, and has become something desirable and attractive.”
I’m definitely much happier being considered desirable and attractive than pathological!
Now back to planning our next trip…
Rose and Ted’s Excellent Adventure 
I loved reading this! You need to submit it to a ✈Travel magazine!
Sent from C. Giles’ iPhone⭕⭕”Life is great!” ⭕⭕
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Glad you enjoyed it!
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Thank you, Rose, for giving a name to my condition! While I continue to plan for our upcoming World Voyage (I’m so looking forward to meeting you), I am getting ready for a road trip to Midwest National Parks. Then, in October, Tim and I are doing a Canadian Rail Adventure. In the meantime, we just booked two Viking River cruises for 2026. It’s a sickness, I believe, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
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I 100% agree. Best “illness” ever!
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I love it! My next trip isn’t until May of 2025, Viking to Alaska. Oh, except for today…I’m flying to Chicago to go to Wisconsin to the lake with my brother and sister in law. I keep looking at where to go in between!
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Looks like your diagnosis maybe pending!!
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I believe so. I’m so hooked on Viking but I’ve followed your HAL and Princess trips closely. Not sure if I want to go back. My husband passed away last year and traveling as a single is expensive!
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If I haven’t already said it, I’m so sorry.
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You have…thank you! But travel is healing. I’m sitting at home waiting for my driver…plane an hour and a half late. Luckily nonstop!
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is there a support group for dromomaniacs? I guess not…If everyone is “wandering”, it’d be tough to figure out a meeting place
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Maybe we’re why Zoom meetings were really invented!
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div dir=”ltr”>Too bad you’re not
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