Hiking the PCT Makes Life Harder?

A shot from the NorCal section

Though I've taken a lot of great lessons and memories away from the PCT, it never occurred to me beforehand that hiking it would actually make "regular" life harder. 

People tend to focus on things such as the confidence or sense of connection to nature the PCT brings, but for many people the high of hiking the trail makes for a new level of low when returning to the everyday.

For the small percentage of people lucky enough to return to an outdoor-based job such as full-time trail guide or field scientist post trail, this may not apply. But for most the reality is that they're returning to school and/or work that necessitates being inside and likely on a screen for 8+ hours a day. 

A PCT hiker may have felt uncomfortable in these settings before, but facing the reality that hiking 2,650 miles didn't take you far enough to avoid returning to the exact. same. soul-stifling existence feels like complete failure in itself.

After all, what was the point of hiking the trail then? To fully experience and fall in love with the world above the cave allegory, only to be forced to return to the cave and exist in what feels like the shadow of true existence?

Sure, the trail can help you in many aspects of life but that's for my other posts. Here I am relaying the new challenge that most thruhikers must face after finishing their trail: 

Suddenly finding oneself in a life of working all of the time to refund the empty post-trail bank account, in a society that tries to keep itself separated from the natural world in every system and structure, in a culture of overstimulation and self-loathing.

Before the trail, one was accustomed to it. Then for five months or so, those things completely evaporated and you became the most calm, confident, healthy, focused you've ever felt. Then one day, you have to go back to mainstream society. 

At first you're fine, the trail has made you strong and nothing can wear on you. But now, it wears you down faster than ever before and before you know it you're feeling worse than before the trail.

Post-trail depression hits, and the previous life you returned to seems strange and distant. You feel ashamed that you feel this way because you were supposed to be strong now, living your dream life. You feel distracted with trying to convince yourself that everything's fine and you're just having a bad day, but really you're having bad weeks and months. 

A visit to the mountains on your day off fills you again with joy and hope, but the feeling is temporary and you're trying really, really hard not to show your irritation with life by midday Wednesday, because thruhikers are positive people and they don't let life get them down. You don't want to complain to your friends from before the trail so you just don't talk about it, which only makes things worse.

This is the best way I can describe the downside of thruhiking. And maybe I sound like a total downer, but it feels pretty good to be honest about it.