I listen to her podcast, The Happiness Lab.

These days, I’ve found a lot of happiness by focusing on gratitude and meditation.

It is so real. something that was your life that you loved for many months ends abruptly. When I was climbing Katadin I kept stoping & waiting for a freind that came to pick me up. He finaaly said to wait for him at the plateau. He soon came up to a guy starring at me as he described it as stated, "I thought I was doing good untill that guy passed me just bouncing up the rocks!" As the adreniline pushed me up, the thoughts of it ending sent shivers up my spine. It was over! Back to reality & real job, friends I had made on the trail distant...many never to be seen again. Post hike blues are so real!

I can’t relate since I’ve never thru hiked but I believe thru hiking ticks every box of what a person needs to be maximally effective and which leads to a high quality of life…sleep, exercise, healthy eating (somewhat), nature, and relationships.

Abruptly take away all of those things, and one can imagine how hard it is to adjust.

I never had post hike depression so I can't relate to this. I used to run marathons before I got old, and there is also a post race depression that gets talked about. This makes even less sense to me as a marathon lasts 4-5 hours for most (not including a lot of pre race training).

My only "guess" about this is that a lot of people decide to thru hike at a crossroads in life -- divorce, relationship problems, career problems, etc. A thru allows them to avoid the issue for 6 months or so. When the hike is over it's time to face whatever it was they were able to avoid for 6 months.

The only adjustment I had to make was staying awake past 9:00 pm the first few weeks home.

Just section hiked the AT, but did almost 700 miles once and multiple other multi-hundred mile sections.

Personally my biggest post trail blues were not being able to reduce my calorie intake fast enough to macth my reduced metabolism rate.

Also an adjustment to the inconvenience of always having to find a restroom instead of just a tree.

I've never done a hike longer than a couple hundred miles. That said, being outdoors makes me feel more relaxed and at ease that when I'm at home. Even my hike of the C+O canal trail, where it rained almost every day, was a joy. Maybe I'll do a long hike one of these days and get a chance to find out how I react. I like to focus on the positive instead of problems.

wherever you go, there you are.