The expectation that returning from vacation leaves us refreshed may be a myth of society. According to a recent article in The Daily Beast, the emotions associated with returning from holidays such as spring break can leave a person feeling symptoms of depression. With spring in the air, we thought we’d pass along a recent article on the topic. As always, if you’re experiencing symptoms of depression, we’re here to help in the Westside Cleveland area.
When a friend asked if I felt refreshed upon returning, however, I felt ridiculous telling the truth: I was hardly relaxed.
Instead, I felt overwhelmingly anxious and sad. I had a ton of laundry to do, what felt like a thousand emails to answer, a handful of looming deadlines to meet and an overall dread at being back to a life that didn’t include daily hammock naps and water from fresh-picked coconuts.
It turns out I’m not alone in this feeling of post-travel depression and anxiety.
George Gotay, a 32-year-old IT engineer in New York City who vacations at least three times a year, told The Daily Beast that he experiences similar feelings after every trip he takes.
“More often than not, toward the end of a trip I’m kind of ready to come home, but once I land at JFK and settle in at home and realize reality is back, that’s when it all starts to kick in,” he said. “You’re no longer in relaxation mode, it’s full hustle mode.”
David Rosmarin, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard and founder of The Center for Anxiety, told The Daily Beast that this feeling of dread upon re-entering reality has to do with not fitting relaxation into our reality.
“The upshot of it is that anything that you don’t practice is going to be difficult. If you don’t practice going on vacation and taking time out to relax and rest then it’s going to be a challenge,” Rosmarin said. “A lot of people in our society don’t take out time within their year or even their day to process and just be and just exist and just enjoy life.”
A 2016 Bankrate survey found that 52 percent of Americans don’t take all of their vacation days, with many people leaving up to a week of vacation days unused.
The attitude toward vacation can be tied back to western culture, Rosmarin said, which pales in comparison to the way the rest of the world treats vacation, as a right. A 2013 study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research that examined vacation policies of 21 countries found that the United States is the only advanced economy that doesn’t guarantee vacation time for workers. In European countries, it’s illegal not to provide at least 20 days of paid vacation per year, and in Canada and Japan, workers are mandated to take at least 10 days off.
Ilyse DiMarco, PhD, who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy for stressed mothers, told The Daily Beast that there’s a mistaken impression that people can only be kind to themselves on vacation and that once vacation is over, people stop being kind to themselves.
“If people were willing to put more self care into their lives as a regular feature of their lives, they’d be much better equipped to handle the vacation let down because then it’s not going from paradise to purgatory, it’s just going back to regular life but having things to look forward to,” DiMarco said.
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