The Blogger Destigmatizing Mental Illnesses Through Travel
Photo Credit: Seen here in Canada's Banff National Park's Lake Louise, Meggie Tran or Mindful Meggie as she is known is demystifying mental illness through her travels. Courtesy of Meggie Tran / Courtesy of Meggie Tran
Skift Take
Mental health has long held a stigma cloud over it, but it's only by bringing it out of the darkness and into the forefront that change can happen. Meggie Tran aims to do just that and destigmatize traveling with a a mental illness. It's long overdue.
While traveling with her dad through Canada's British Columbia and Alberta in the summer of 2018, Meggie Tran, a world traveler since her first plane ride at 10-months-old and a mental health advocate for travelers, started experiencing strange behaviors that affected her traveling experience.
Instead of taking in the beautiful scenery as they drove on the Trans-Canada highway linking several of Canada's provinces, Tran said she became overwhelmed with obsessive thoughts about scribbling bad words on the roof of the rental car. She imagined the rental car company reporting her "deeds" and going to prison in a foreign country.
Luckily for Tran, these were just thoughts she never acted on, but the frequency and force of what she felt despite not yet understanding it left her overwhelmed and wanting to seek help, she said.
"The symptoms I had stole my attention from the scenery right outside my window," Tran said.
Upon returning to Arizona, where her family lived at the time,
