What is the post-holiday syndrome and how to regain the joy of life

What is post-holiday syndrome

Post holiday syndrome - This is a depressed state that occurs after celebrations, especially long ones.

Imagine: you are celebrating some significant holiday, for example, the New Year. You have been preparing for it for a long time, made a menu, an action plan for all the holidays and actively rejoiced. And then comes the first working Monday. And it would seem that you should keep all this luggage of happiness, feel contented and rested. Instead, you face apathy, irritability and unwillingness to communicate with anyone. Possible symptoms include - insomnia, anxiety, problems with concentration.

A similar feeling can appear after traveling and vacations - all that pulls you out of your routine. Moreover, the longer this period of rest from everyday life lasts, the more painful the consequences can be.

Why Post-Holiday Syndrome Occurs

There may be several reasons.

The holiday is over

The explanation is simple, but it makes more sense than it looks. Usually preparation for the celebration takes a lot of time. While you're doing this, you're agitated, kind of agitated. They say about such situations “the anticipation of the holiday is better than the holiday itself”.

Day X is perceived as something important, a lot of effort is invested in it. So when it passes, it feels like a big loss. A large project has been completed, which has occupied all thoughts lately, and it is not yet clear how to live on.

The holiday did not live up to expectations.

Now imagine a situation where a person is actively preparing for the holidayhad high hopes for him. But nothing special happened, a party is a party. The weather failed, the best friend could not escape for the holidays from another city - you never know what could happen, this is life. But when there is an ideal image of something in the head, the collision with reality can be painful. As a result, we get disappointment - and was it worth trying so hard?

Holiday lived up to expectations

The reverse situation is also possible. The holiday or vacation was so magnificent, bright, memorable that everyday life looks sad and dreary against their background. As if after the carnival in Rio you came to the competition "Who can keep silent longer." This contrast leads to blues.

Holiday gobbled up resources

After the celebration, you may, for example, find that you have gone significantly beyond your budget, and get upset. Yes, just tired. Against the background of previous reasons, this can significantly worsen mood.

And even if everything went well, you were on an emotional upsurge for a long time, fueled by a hormonal cocktail. The holiday is over, the hormones subsided, so you become sadder.

How to deal with Post-Holiday Syndrome

The good news is that post-holiday syndrome goes away fairly quickly. Unpleasant sensations are mainly associated with the return to normal life. Therefore, you need to make the process less painful.

get enough sleep

During the holidays, the regime often goes astray. A lack of sleep has never made anyone happier. Therefore, it is important to go to bed at your usual time again.

Adjust nutrition

During the holidays, many people eat not very healthy. For the body, this is also stress - to digest a large amount of fatty, sweet, and so on. So it is worth returning to more familiar food. At the same time, it is better to suppress the impulse in yourself from Monday go on a diet. If you have been eating chocolates for a week and suddenly start chewing lettuce leaves, this will not improve your mood.

Just make sure you get enough nutrients, consume fiber, eat according to your usual regimen. At the same time, you can also eat up holiday sweets, just not the whole bag at once.

Set aside time for physical activity

Again, it is not necessary to immediately run to the gym, especially if you have not been particularly involved in sports before. Slow walks, house dances after dinner - any physical activity is good to cope with stress.

Plan

The project "holiday" is over, so that everyday life sometimes seems empty. A to-do list can help with this. He will let you know that you have something to do. And most importantly, having such a list in your hands, it will be difficult for you to do nothing and indulge in despondency - there are so many activities you have ahead of you.

Include in the list not only the necessary things like “take the down jacket to the dry cleaner” or “do a general cleaning”. Pleasant things are very important, like going to an exhibition or going out of town on the weekend.

Try something new

When a person tries something new or even prepares for it, dopamine — hormone motivation and rewards. What affects the overall feeling of happiness and satisfaction.

Be kind to yourself

If right after the holidays you don’t have the strength, you can’t concentrate and only feel sad, scrolling through the social media feed, where everyone starts a new life, don’t scold yourself. This state of depression and powerlessness will pass. Give yourself time to recover. However, if it does not get better within two weeks, this is an occasion to consult a psychologist and make sure that you are not facing depression.