Traveling relieved an American's mental health problem
Travel Log
Travel Log,
He had struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder since childhood, but Cameron Mofid says there was one thing that helped him cope: traveling the world.
Mofid, a San Diego native , found he was constantly rehashing and overanalyzing conversations or “obsessively needing closure or certainty.”
But the “liberating” feeling of being able to hop on a plane and travel to a new destination made her feel like she could “live with uncertainty.”
“OCD thrives on control: controlling your environment, your routines, and your outcomes,” Mofid tells CNN Travel.
“But when you're navigating chaotic borders, sleeping on the ground, or discovering things in countries where you don't speak the language, you're forced to give up control. It's uncomfortable, but also liberating.”
Mofid says the mental health condition, which the Mayo Clinic describes as a “pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears known as obsessions,” can “dominate your thoughts and actions in ways that are exhausting” and difficult to explain.
“Traveling became my way of coping, first as an escape, then as a form of healing,” she adds.
And then, Mofid's travels turned him into a world record holder.
After logging visits to many destinations while playing competitive tennis, she came up with the idea of traveling to every country in the world while dealing with OCD during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And in April 2025, Mofid, who is of Iranian-Egyptian descent, finally completed his goal of visiting all 195 UN-recognized countries and territories after hopping on a plane to North Korea with some of his closest friends.
While it's a feat only about 400 people have achieved, it was particularly significant for Mofid, as he became, by some estimates, the youngest person to do so.
Trips
iStock
His record didn't last long, but he says being exposed to so many different cultures has completely changed his outlook on life.
“Visiting all the countries wasn't just about geography,” says Mofid. “It was about learning to live with uncertainty, finding calm in discomfort, and connecting with people from all walks of life.”
Mofid says the decision to try to visit every country was a lifeline during a particularly low point.“One day, I was in my apartment, and my anxiety, my OCD, was kind of out of control,” he recalls.
“And I was on my computer randomly looking up how many people had ever been to each country. “More people had been to space than in all the countries in the world,” he says. “I thought it was crazy.”Mofid soon realized that while the Guinness World Record for the youngest person to do this was held by a 21-year-old, he was technically capable of beating the record listed by the online platform NomadMania, which requires interactions with locals and visits to cultural or geographical locations in each country to count toward the record.
“The record was held by a guy who was 25 and a half,” he says. “I was 20 at the time. And I said, ‘Maybe that’s an incredible, crazy goal I could achieve.’”
Feeling inspired, Mofid, who had previously worked in marketing, started an event marketing company to earn enough money to achieve his goal, giving himself three years to begin the challenge.
“I told myself, after graduating from college, that this was what I would do,” he says.Although he had traveled to several countries as a child, he decided to “start over,” counting only those he had visited from the age of 18 onward.
Thanks to the approximately 100 countries logged during his extensive travels while working in the tennis industry, as well as the trips he would manage to fit in during his studies, Mofid needed to travel to just over 90 new countries to complete the challenge.
To ensure he did so “legitimately,” Mofid compiled a list of his own personal requirements, while adhering to those set by NomadMania.
“My rule was that I had to do something in every country,” he says. “Something meaningful. In most countries, I stayed at least four days,” he explains.PORTFOLIO WRITING
Portafolio
