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The following article is written by happiness expert and psychologist Dr Melissa Weinberg from Deakin University’s School of Psychology. It was first published on the New Daily.
Are you experiencing the post-holiday blues? What if I told you that this experience of heightened negativity is really good for you. That it’s actually a sign of healthy psychological functioning.
The post-holiday blues typically reflect the emotional cost of having just enjoyed a few weeks of fun. Despite the well-intentioned adage, the best things in life aren’t actually free.
They typically involve financial, physical, and emotional compromise.
The whole concept of the post-holiday blues involves two inherent assumptions:
However we need to acknowledge that not everybody experiences a heightened level of pleasure or relaxation while on holidays.
For many, holidays involve frustration over delayed flights, disappointment at hotel rooms that don’t match the pictures you saw online, jetlag, and indecision or uncertainty about where to eat or what to do.
'The post-holiday blues typically reflect the emotional cost of having just enjoyed a few weeks of fun.'Dr Melissa Weinberg,
School of Psychology, Deakin University
Even if your holiday involved a painful episode of Bali belly, your brain corrupts the memories of holidays past, and tricks us into disproportionately remembering the parts of the holiday we enjoyed.
It’s just one of a series of illusions our brain fools us into believing, in the same way we think bad things are more likely to happen to others than they are to us. Somewhat ironically, the capacity to fool ourselves every single day is an indication of good mental health and psychological functioning.
We should also note that some people actually enjoy going back to work – as it offers routine, predictability, and familiarity. So even though we crave change, our brain actually prefers consistency, and attempts to restore stability whenever our ordinary routine is threatened.
The comedown
So whether or not we did enjoy our holiday, and whether or not we’d rather be on holiday than back at work, our brain is wired to make us believe that we did, or we would. In doing so, we pay the emotional cost for a well-enjoyed break, and we experience a comedown toward our baseline level of wellbeing.
This emotional slide is our mind’s attempt to restore our ordinary, and optimal level of functioning. Think of how we swerve to overcompensate if we veer too far over in a car; the comedown is the psychological version of finding the right emotional balance.
The phenomenon is not unique to holidays. Another example is the post-wedding blues – when brides and grooms often feel deflated following an event they spent months, even years, looking forward to. The wedding day itself evokes positive emotions, but once the event is over, the stimulus that was the source of the positive emotions is removed. The fond memories and new homeware gifts are little compensation for the credit card bill and extra pressure and responsibilities that face a newly-married couple.
In 2014, evidence for this post-wedding ‘hangover’ was detected by the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index. The study focused on the subjective wellbeing scores of married couples, and found that the lowest levels of life satisfaction were reported by those in their first year of marriage.
Another example is the phenomenon of post-Olympic or post-Paralympic depression. Researchers have described this feeling as an ‘emptiness vacuum’, or the void that athletes feel following the completion or achievement of a set goal.
What goes up …
The terms post-holiday ‘blues’, or post-holiday ‘depression’ are so dramatic. What we experience is a post-holiday normalisation.
It’s an adjustment following a changing life circumstance. So how do you stem the tide of negativity?
I receive no sponsorship from travel companies (yet), but by far the best thing you can do is book your next holiday. Nothing alleviates the perceived misery of normalisation than the prospect of another holiday in the not-too-distant future.
Even though I know it’s just another illusion, and that my next holiday will probably still leave me feeling exhausted, I’d still rather be a tired fool on the beach in Hawaii.
Now go on, get back to work. It’s not as bad as you think …
