Post Christmas Holiday Blue Syndrome
Psychology Hour
Leliana Valentina Parvulescu, Psychologist,
Joc Responsabil program within Joc Responsabil Association
The Christmas holidays are long gone! Christmas and New Year’s Eve are part of a time of year when people forget about the worries of everyday life, the management of responsibilities, and the problems of daily life. The beginning of the holidays helps to create an emotional dimension characterized by detachment and favored by scanning the days on different rhythms: we wake up later, we plan outings, walks, more frequent meetings with friends. Restarting work after the holidays can certainly promote the feeling of feeling burdened, of having difficulty resuming activities, of having nostalgia for those days spent in total carelessness with loved ones. However, not all people experience it equally. There are many factors that come into play in this experience of resuming business after the Christmas holidays. There are issues related to the personality of each person, the satisfaction with the work they do as well as the perception they have about it in terms of effectiveness and in general, it is related to the satisfaction with the life that the person lives. In short, people who are dissatisfied with their job and their lives are generally more sensitive to resuming activities after the holidays. I think there are some very interesting factors in this regard that are fundamentally based on the analysis of the antecedents of people’s behavior after the holidays. Thus, many people are sensitive to the sight of the streets decorated with light bulbs, the shop windows that are arranged a month before the holidays, the TV commercials, the choice of gifts for their loved ones, etc. This greatly extends the holiday season to the point where for many people the pre-holiday period becomes an integral part of the holiday. For other people, on the other hand, even returning from a Christmas trip does not involve a major disturbance, and this is partly due to the individual’s ability to adapt to change. For the most sensitive, returning from the Christmas holidays and resuming work can generate a feeling of fatigue and can lead to a general state of psychophysical malaise, giving rise to a completely paradoxical effect, based on which they feel more tired than when they have gone on vacation. In these cases we are witnessing a psychological phenomenon known as Post Christmas Holiday Blue or Return stress.
The main symptoms of this syndrome are typical of stress, namely: headache, general feeling of tiredness, feeling of agitation or irritation, nocturnal awakenings, reduced attention span, feeling weak, even cough and fever. All these are physical manifestations of what we might consider physiological reactions to stress. From a psychological point of view, this fabric of physiological sensations could favor an intensification of the aspects of discomfort experienced at work: the relationship with the boss, the inflexible work schedule, the weight of responsibilities, the feeling of inefficiency, especially in the health professions, conflicting relationships with colleagues. The problem of return stress is very common, in fact research shows that about half of people who return to work after a vacation suffer from these symptoms. In reality, the less pathological interpretation of this phenomenon is a reaction of our body and our psyche to too sudden a change. This manifestation is momentary and soon ceases to manifest. Of course, this reaction is stronger in people who feel uncomfortable, work-related, especially if it means returning to a sense of frustration.
Those who do their job satisfactorily are less affected by the return because the holidays are a time of rest, not an escape from work. To prevent the return from being too traumatic, it may be helpful to take a few precautions:
• Do not completely lose the size of the work and at least mentally anticipate the return to work. This means learning to live the holiday season as a break and not as an escape from the frustrations of work.
• Before resuming work, it may be helpful to resume it gradually. As a result, you start to pick up a slightly different pace from the holiday a few days before you return.
• Also list in writing all the situations that could lead to anxiety or frustration when resuming activities. Try to point out what concrete actions you can take to improve the situation, and when you return, try to follow this goal strongly and guided by what you have written.
• Returning to work always involves an accumulation of tasks. You may find your email full of important communications. The perception that there is too much work to be done could trigger reactions of anxiety and, at the same time, frustration. Set daily goals and take them one at a time.
• Avoid focusing on negative thoughts. They amplify the condition. Take a sheet and list what your negative thoughts are, and on the other half of the sheet list what are your positive thoughts.
• It is good to remember that the Christmas holidays are not necessarily necessary to be happy, you can have a positive and optimistic mood at any time. It’s up to you.
• The holiday season is the time of year when people pay more attention. Often at other times of the year, people are not paying attention to themselves or their loved ones. Continue after the holidays. Go for a walk, read a book, play sports, cook for friends. The holiday season is not the only time to dedicate yourself, your loved ones and your friends. You can dedicate a space for you every day, for what you like.
