I had food poisoning and a panic attack on my first two solo trips and I am glad for it.

Two months ago I went to Mexico City and got food poisoning on my second night there. Because the symptoms continued to persist after weeks, I finally got serious and started being mindful about my diet, including removing caffeine and alcohol, started hydrating (after probably years of being dehydrated), began working out, sleeping better etc. This set off a “getting in touch with my body journey” that I have been on since. I am now sober, and the healthiest I have been in my life. None of this would have happened had I not gotten a bad bout of food poisoning that left me with no choice. This week I went upstate New York for just two days I rented a car, after not driving on highways for probably close to a decade. This sparked my first panic attack, which required me to actually stop driving and ended up having my car towed and taking a train back home. I was so curious about why this happened, especially on the heels of me treating my nervous system the best I have ever treated it, and after researching and speaking with my therapist I learned that my because my nervous system had been in survival mode for such a long time, and it finally felt like it could rest, it finally let go of a lot of things I had been holding on to, and the highway was just the impetus for that. It was incredibly eye opening and I have learned so much about myself. I have not been a huge traveler before these trips, and I mainly started traveling bc I felt like I was missing out on life, and needed new experiences. These experiences were not the experiences I was hoping for, but they were exactly what I needed. The food poisoning sort of triggered a hyper awareness of how food is handled, and in turn how everything is handled (Airbnbs,hotel cleanliness etc) which has consequently made me start to be really grossed out be food not prepared by me and staying in other people’s spaces (the two things I expected to enjoy the most about traveling). But now what I have found I do enjoy the most about traveling, is the actually traveling (train, bus, car), finding the mundane in an unknown places- supermarkets, conveinceince stores, and finding my peace among all of the chaos. It’s so interesting me what I have gotten out of travel v. What I expected to get, and it is making me want to travel even more, bc i am so curious about what is next. Does anyone else have any similar expereinces> --- **Post Details:** - **Subreddit:** r/solotravel - **Author:** u/Even-Guava-1682 - **Score:** 20 upvotes - **Upvote Ratio:** 79.0% - **Comments:** 6 - **Posted:** 7/4/2025 - **URL:** https://reddit.com/r/solotravel/comments/1lrmmwq/i_had_food_poisoning_and_a_panic_attack_on_my/