The Therapeutic Power of Extreme Adventure Travel

Canyoning sports Enthusiast playing on waterfall during 2nd National Canyoning Randezvous (NCR 2016) oraganized by Nepal Canyoning Association at Chahare Jharana (90 meters), Thanapati, Nuwakot, Nepal on June 3, 2016. Canyoning (known as canyoneering in the U.S.); Canyoning is a new adventure in water sport geared to the ultimate sports enthusiast. It is an activity that involves abseiling; sliding; jumping; swimming; and climbing down waterfalls through steep canyon walls to deep pools. (Photo by Narayan Maharjan/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Canyoning sports Enthusiast playing on waterfall during 2nd National Canyoning Randezvous (NCR 2016) oraganized by Nepal Canyoning Association at Chahare Jharana (90 meters), Thanapati, Nuwakot, Nepal on June 3, 2016. Canyoning (known as canyoneering in the U.S.); Canyoning is a new adventure in water sport geared to the ultimate sports enthusiast. It is an activity that involves abseiling; sliding; jumping; swimming; and climbing down waterfalls through steep canyon walls to deep pools. (Photo by Narayan Maharjan/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Canyoning sports Enthusiast playing on waterfall during 2nd National Canyoning Randezvous (NCR 2016) oraganized by Nepal Canyoning Association at Chahare Jharana (90 meters), Thanapati, Nuwakot, Nepal on June 3, 2016. Canyoning (known as canyoneering in the U.S.); Canyoning is a new adventure in water sport geared to the ultimate sports enthusiast. It is an activity that involves abseiling; sliding; jumping; swimming; and climbing down waterfalls through steep canyon walls to deep pools. (Photo by Narayan Maharjan/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Canyoning sports enthusiast playing on waterfall during 2nd National Canyoning Randezvous organized by Nepal Canyoning Association at Nuwakot, Nepal on June 3, 2016. (Narayan Maharjan/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“For years I’d taken pills to sleep, pills to make me happy and pills to cure perpetual migraines as I tried to navigate my way through stress that gnawed at my body and soul,” Abigail Butcher recalls. On a particularly crushing November morning, she decided to try something else: a flight across the world to Australia for kayaking, diving, and sailing.

For once, Butcher actually felt better. She proceeded to transform her life into one filled with adventure travel where she perpetually seeks as often as possible to be “living in the moment, literally trying to survive”, marveling at how “quickly everyday stresses leave.”

To read more about Butcher’s adventures and the evolution of her mental health, click here.

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