Like Traveling For Healing? This Is A Reason Tourism Can Improve Mental Conditions

Tourism for Healing (Photo: Pexels)

JAKARTA - Traveling aka traveling can be a tool to improve mental conditions which are now called healing. According to WHO, half of mental disorders began at the age of 14, but many cases occurred undetected and without action.

Various factors are suspected to trigger this mental health balance problem; including work pressure, family problems, education, and social life. The World Health Organization noted that in 2019 nearly one billion people in the world experienced mental health problems.

This figure increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Indonesia, the results of research conducted by the Faculty of Health, University of Indonesia in 2021 found that the majority of adolescents and young adults aged 16-24 years entered a period of critical mental health.

Furthermore, the study found that nearly 96 percent of adolescents and young adults experienced symptoms of anxiety (anxiety) and 88 percent of them experienced symptoms of depression. Therefore, traveling activities are needed to improve mental conditions.

"Activities such as seeking new experiences through traveling and exploring new things through holiday and traveling activities can be an effort to get to know and love yourself well," said Chairman and founder of the Indonesian Youth Health Association (AKAR), Dr. Fransisca Handy, quoted from ANTARA, Wednesday, December 7.

Furthermore, Dr. Fransisca said that mental health problems are very complex and dilemmaal problems due to the stigma that is already inherent due to a lack of understanding of this issue.

"Therefore, the importance of stopping for a moment gives yourself time to get to know and love yourself very important. Activities such as seeking new experiences through traveling and exploring new things through vacation activities and traveling can be an effort to get to know and love yourself well."

Doctor Fransisca explained that when a person feels very strong emotions, they can be followed by physical complaints. Mental health is influenced by factors such as high levels of stress in work or lectures, love problems or relationships with family and friends, competition through social media, and so on as well as the ability to manage the situation and emotions they feel.

Information related to emotional regulation and healthy stress management has not been widely known by the public, especially young people.

Many young people complain on social media or tell stories about wrong people or do things that seem to help for a moment such as smoking and other addictive behavior as a way of managing stress.

One of the concerns given by Dr. Fransisca is that if this is allowed to drag on it will affect the quality of their lives in the future.

"This is where we actively campaign for the importance of maintaining healthy emotional regulation skills, managing stress, knowing and respecting ourselves as an effort to maintain the mental health of young people and to the public in general. We are all responsible for establishing a conducive ecosystem for the welfare of young people. We are excited to welcome collaboration with Traveloka to raise public awareness of the importance of mental health, especially among Gen-Z and Millennials," added Dr. Fransisca.

He said the awareness of the Indonesian people of the importance of the mental health aspect was still minimal amid the high number of people experiencing mental health problems. According to data released by the Ministry of Health in 2021, it was recorded that 20 percent of Indonesia's total population experienced potential mental health problems.