If you recently returned from vacation, chances are that you had a good time. Unfortunately, as soon as you open the door to your home, you may get a persistent feeling of depression. By paying attention to what is causing your post-vacation blues, you can recover from them and reinvent your life.
Reasons We Get Post-Vacation Blues
Vacations tend to give us an opportunity to explore the world and open our minds. No matter how much it costs or how long it lasts, a vacation can help slow down our lives and give us that break we have been urging to have. The problem is that the happiness you feel on a vacation is short-lived. The happiness we experience tends to evaporate when we go back to our daily lives. The truth is that just because we may feel dull when we come back from a vacation, it does not mean we should never take a vacation again. It is about making your life just as happy as it was when you were away
Treatment for Post-Vacation Blues
Instead of going back to work right away, you can see if your employer will let you take off an extra day or two to run errands before going back to work. You can use this time to go grocery shopping, unpack, do laundry, and take care of anything else that you were not able to do while you were away. On your calendar, you may want to plan a fun event for when you come back that you can look forward to, like seeing friends or attending an inexpensive event happening in your area. This will remind you that the fun has not ended just because the vacation has. Your sense of well-being can also last longer if you plan more days where you can relax and chill at home.
If Your Post-Vacation Blues Lingers
While it is normal to be irritable or moody when you first come back from a vacation, these feelings should not persist for a long period of time. Talk to a therapist if you are experiencing sadness for longer than two weeks. A therapist can identify if your feelings may be coming from an underlying reason, like being unhappy at work or having overwhelming responsibilities. To avoid the post-vacation blues, make rest a priority when you return and set up more things to look forward to when you come back.
Everyone deserves a vacation, but they should not have to feel depressed when they come back. We all love to go on vacation and take a break from the stresses of everyday life. Unfortunately, when we come home, our anxiety that we have been trying to avoid comes back. We do not have to welcome it back; instead, we can fight against it by finding ways to be happy when we come home. At Alta Loma’s transformative treatment center, our staff understands how you are feeling and is always willing to help cheer you up. We will set you up with a number of mental health specialists to find the underlying reasons behind your depression and can come up with a personalized plan together to help you be happy again. These resources include individual treatment for psychiatric needs, therapeutic recreational activities, comprehensive care coordination, and more. To learn more about how we can help, give us a call today at (866) 457-3843.
