More than a century ago, wanderlust wasn’t a desirable trait. Instead it was considered a psychological condition.

As Ian Hacking traces in Mad Travelers: Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses, Albert Dadas was the first man diagnosed for “traveling obsessively, often without identification or a specific reason for why he was traveling,” in France in the 1890s. Dadas would become one of many in an epidemic of French men who were locked up for wandering, be it across borders or continents, with no apparent destination or set plan in mind. These men, when caught, would be put into a jail or mental asylum, and were eventually diagnosed amongst professionals as “pathological tourists.”

These diagnoses would continue in France for 23 years from 1886 to 1909. As Hacking tells it, the epidemic would eventually have cultural repercussions for its misuse as a convenient diagnosis rather than a true psychiatric condition. Doctors would label men as pathological tourists for any behaviors that were seen as outside of social norms. Left your wife? Pathological tourist. Left the army? Pathological tourist. Quit your job? You get it. While the diagnoses were misguided, it guided me to question the relevance of this case study today. Mainly, what is the collective psychology behind our society’s obsession with #wanderlust?

As I sat to write this, I had just gotten home from vacation. When I woke up from my routine post-plane nap, I felt hazy and disoriented. I wiped my eyes, looked around my room, and was reminded I was back to reality. I had a physical reaction to this realization. A rush in my chest, followed by absolute nothingness. The escapism I had sought and found when I was away would now be a memory. Before I could muster the attention to write the first word in this article, I found myself online imagining where my next escape would be. When could I take my next day off? Should I just pack up and hit the road? I began wandering through the travel sites with no apparent destination in mind. I was today’s pathological digital tourist.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been on the move. I’m what you would call a third culture kid—the quintessential expat. I grew up moving every two to three years, born in New York City and raised in Tunisia, Morocco, Argentina, England, and the United Arab Emirates. Changing environments was pretty much the only thing that didn’t change throughout my life. This year, I’ve taken over 30 flights for pleasure, and business here and there. And I had never stopped to consider the intent behind my travels. I believe travel makes us interesting. But is that the reason we’re interested?

In Mark Mason’s Everything is Fucked, he describes how “any active participant in modern-day society is prone to a series of low-level addictive behaviors, checking our phones, finishing shows we don’t like, traveling not because we want to but because we want to be able to say that we went. We are looking for diversions.

Freedom is not having more brands of cereal to choose from, or more beach vacations to take selfies on.” 90 percent of young travelers share their vacation photos on social media during their trip. #Wanderlust has over 108 million posts on Instagram. I’m of the opinion that travel is an entirely beautiful and enriching facet to life. But I’m also ready to question the intent behind why so many of us travel today, and whether we could be addicted to those kinds of behaviors or ideas.

I talked to Dr.Gwilym Roddick, a Psychotherapist and Addiction Specialist at The Ross Center, to better understand addictive behaviors and if, in fact, someone could be addicted to travel itself. First, was understanding the process of how addiction is diagnosed. Roddick explained that, “The assessment process involves asking the questions: What is the function of the behavior and how is it both detrimental and benefiting a person’s life, well-being, and what’s important to them?”

Because of the nature of addiction, and it’s cultural repercussions, he says that “it is important to note that ‘addiction’ is a word or term, like all mental health diagnoses, that is made up and contextual. The word has so much attached to it, in both unhelpful and helpful ways.” He continues, “It should be said that mental health diagnoses are based on behavioral and cultural norms and attitudes, often dictated by who or what culture is in power and who is attempting to enforce those ideas to attain influence. They do not take everyone and everything into consideration.”

When we think of addictive behaviors, we often look towards the subject of the addiction rather than what underlying causes it might be rooted in. Roddick dissects this further in saying, “By assessing the issue using two evidence-based therapeutic modalities, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), behaviors we call ‘addictions’ are attempts to enhance pleasure or avoid suffering, which essentially is one thing, the avoidance of suffering.

Suffering, in this context, is a word used to describe what human beings have designated as the unwanted, undesirable, bad, or wrong things one should experience and therefore often try to avoid. This could be anything from anxiety to boredom. Most mental health conditions involve some form of avoidance, and from an ACT perspective, the specific type of avoidance is what creates a “diagnosis.” Compulsively using substances, gambling, or compulsive shopping for example, all have aspects of avoidance, just in different forms. This makes the exploration and attention to the multiple factors necessary.”

So, could this same avoidance of suffering be applied to an individual’s perceived addiction to travel? Roddick weighs in, “Not in regards to traveling, moving perhaps, but I wouldn’t use the term ‘addiction’ to describe their behavior. I would explore the function of the many moves, is it an avoidant behavior, and why are they doing it so often? For example, in recovery programs, a common term used is called, “doing a geographic.”

Many people with a substance use disorder have compulsively relocated when their circumstances become too emotionally and psychologically difficult, as a way to avoid the problem and hope the problem will go away by being in a different environment. In some cases, an environment is extremely unhelpful to a person’s well-being so they should leave, but in several cases I have seen, a “geographic” is simply an avoidant strategy to deal with working through your problems. It’s a quick fix that provides immediate relief, which is experienced in the brain the same as pleasure.”

I thought back to my year in travel. How I sought to escape relationships or office life. How it helped with the pain of considering my life mundane. How it made me feel validated to have others call me well-traveled. “I usually tell clients who have or are intending to move to have a “fresh start,” meaning their symptoms or suffering would go away completely, that I bet it will only be a few weeks, perhaps longer, before their anxiety or depression or substance use returns, to exactly as it was or worse,” Roddick notes.

If you’re traveling in hopes that being somewhere new will fix all of your problems, think again. I’ve done so many times, and while you may have moments of peace or distraction while you’re away, when you decide to return or settle into your new place, those suffering points are sure to resurface. Just like anything in life, there are positive and negative reasons to do something. Luckily with travel, whether you do it for a positive or negative reason, there is always much to be gained. So maybe we don’t use the word addiction when thinking of travel. Perhaps, the better way to look at it, is to check-in with the intent behind your travel. If you find yourself travelling often with no apparent reason, not even an interest in the destination, maybe ask yourself: Is there a form of suffering you’re trying to avoid?

If you came to this article looking for an answer, change what you’re looking for. Don’t look for the answers, look for the questions. The more you ask yourself, the more you’ll learn about yourself. Keep traveling. Go far, explore often, meet new people and make new friends. Just do so not to escape life, but to enrich it. Catch flights, and feelings. You can’t avoid pain and suffering. But you can upgrade and embrace it.