Understanding Post-Vacation Blues

It is clear that the possibility of having vacations is one of the necessary aspects for professionals and students to enjoy good physical and mental health; Precisely for this reason, all work for others is subject to regulations by law in this regard. However, this does not imply that the simple fact of having vacation days brings us only benefits; If certain circumstances arise and we don't know how to manage them emotionally, the vacation period can even give us new reasons to feel discouraged and fatigued.

An example of this is what is known as post-holiday depression, a psychological phenomenon that, although technically it does not develop only during those days without work, is linked to vacations. Let's see what it consists of.

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What do we understand by post-vacation depression?

As its name indicates, post-vacation depression is an alteration based on experiences of a depressive type (that is, similar to the symptoms of depression) and that occurs after having been on vacation, beginning in the last days of these or just when returning to the work routine. It is a combination of forms of emotional discomfort that lasts a few days in a row, and at most, a couple of weeks.

Because the degree to which it usually affects people is not very intense and, on the other hand, it lasts relatively little, post-vacation blues is not currently considered to be a psychopathology. In other words, it is not a problem to the same degree that mood disorders are. that appear in diagnostic manuals, among which we find depression clinic. However, that does not mean that it cannot be a significant problem in certain cases or that we should not address the root of that discomfort; and on the other hand, sometimes it happens that what at first seemed like a post-vacation depression ends up deriving into a psychological disorder over the weeks.

For this reason, it is worth knowing the fundamental characteristics of post-vacation depression; let's see them below.

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The keys to understanding post-vacation depression

These are the aspects of post-vacation depression that will help you understand the nature of this disturbance.

1. Post-vacation depression is based on the rapid change of routines

Although there is no single cause of post-vacation depression, but rather a combination of various variables interacting with each other, one of the most relevant aspects is sudden change in routines that we carry out This makes it necessary to quickly adapt again to tasks that we have not even planned ourselves; They are linked to our job position and are given by the pressures to which the company we work for is subjected or to which our clients submit us.

Thus, on the one hand, we must once again "degrease" certain thought paths that we had not been using during the holidays, and on the other, we must get rid of the expectations of leisure and relaxation that we had been maintaining during those days of disconnection.

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2. Low mood is combined with stress

Although by its name it seems that post-vacation depression only consists of feeling down, actually it looks more like an anxious-depressive picture than a purely clinical depression talking. In other words, there is an ambivalence between the lack of motivation and the desire to return to the routine, on the one hand, and a state of high nervous activity due to how complicated it is to face the challenges of the working day, on the other.

3. It does not arise from a lack of sleep

Although it is common that when we return from vacation we do not get enough sleep due to the change in time management or even due to jet lag, post-vacation depression It's not a simple lack of sleep; It has more psychological than physical causes.

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4. This is a problem that can be prevented

There are some strategies that help reduce the chances of us suffering from post-vacation depression. For example, leave a couple of days of "mattress" between the days of travel and leisure activities, on the one hand, and the return to work, on the other, to give us time to readjust to the routine. Or, for example, keep a consistent sleep schedule throughout the entire vacation.

5. May be aggravated by problems at work

It may happen that problems arise in the work context that aggravate a case of post-holiday depression; For example, extra responsibilities to take care of while the rest of the team is on vacation, or an accumulation of pending tasks that nobody has taken care of due to a bad organization of the tasks. responsibilities.

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Are you looking for professional psychological assistance services?

If you want support in the context of psychotherapy, I invite you to contact me.

My name is Dove King Cardona and I am a General Health Psychologist; I can attend to your case both in person and online by video call.