Holiday-related stress: why some people are unable to rest.
Being aware of the causes of holiday-related stress is the first step in trying to prevent anxiety and overwhelming pressure during your days off. We discuss how to achieve more (and better) rest this summer.
Everybody needs a holiday. They enable us to connect with our loved ones, carry out long-awaited plans and projects or improve our relationships. And yes, clearly, holidays also help us set aside, for a few days, the daily rush and help us rest. All of this is essential for our health and well-being.
But things don’t always go as planned and summer is not always synonymous with time off. Sometimes the opposite can be the case, and our summertime can become a source of holiday-related stress and generate negative feelings. There are several reasons for this: social, psychological, family, financial...
Each person is unique and, for this reason, there are many different causes of holiday-related stress. This feeling also affects the immune system and, therefore, our body ends up being more vulnerable to infections, illnesses, exhaustion, etc.
The solution is to prevent holiday-related stress throughout the year by disconnecting from work on a daily basis, enjoying leisure activities or hobbies, taking care of your wellbeing and health and prioritising relationships with friends and family.
What causes holiday-related stress?
Not everyone can take a few days off work during this time of the year, and not everyone can plan, for example, for school holidays without having to compromise on other family activities or spend a large part of the family budget on summer camps or other recreational programs. Here, in fact, lies one of the great sources of holiday stress: work-life balance, or rather the lack of it, can cause stress and anxiety in many households.
In other cases, workaholics are unable to switch off even when they are thousands of kilometres away from their offices. They tend to be excessively involved in their jobs, hyper-demanding, and don’t know what to do without the pressure of work and a very strong feeling of urgency.
In fact, 65% of Spaniards have problems when it comes to disconnecting from work even during their holidays, according to the Mental Health Barometer 2023 survey carried out by Alan, a workplace consultancy.
Expectations versus reality
Another of the major issues during the summer, and one that can cause holiday-related stress, are the expectations we have regarding those days that are supposed to be relaxing. Not enjoying oneself as expected causes anxiety, restlessness or fear. In this case, social media often end up causing greater discomfort when we compare our own personal and family situation with what we see on socials.
Why am I here, with no plans or with family problems while everyone else seems to be on a paradise-like island? Social media undoubtedly generates an idealised image of what holidays are supposed to be like that doesn’t match most people’s reality.
Learning to tell apart reality from what is seen on social media is essential to ensure good mental health and to be able to relax in summer. It is important, for example, to carefully select what types of content we consume and to know how to distance ourselves from other more toxic profiles.
Unfulfilled expectations are also common in families. Many adults dream of these days of relaxation and, despite the idealised plans of spending time with the children, what actually emerges is far more exhaustion, arguments and failed activities, quite unlike what had been imagined.
It is crucial to accept that each person is unique and has their own rhythms and needs. A good idea to create memorable moments is to play board games as a family. This type of activity relieves anxiety and generates nice memories without much stress or high expectations...
Holidays can be a good time to connect with oneself and with others and, to that end, it is advisable to limit planning, be flexible, enjoy each experience and make travel plans that are well adapted to the needs of each household.
Coping with holiday-related stress
The first few days of a holiday it is normal to feel overwhelmed. You want to enjoy the peace and quiet, the destination or the company, and instead, those days are overrun by plans and continuous stress.
The main symptoms of holiday-related stress are problems sleeping, sadness, lack of appetite or difficulty paying attention, among others. But what happens when this anxiety does not disappear after a few days?
In order to cope with holiday-related stress it is important to:
- Learn to live together as a couple or as a family
- Don’t demand too much from yourself
- Don’t plan too much
- Disconnect (really!) from work
- Try a digital detox or digital disconnection
- Recover your habits and hobbies
- Exercise regularly
- Get enough sleep
- Once the holidays are over, get back into your usual routine gradually
