Timesofummah.com – Stress After Vacation, Let’s Get To Know Post Holiday Blues!. Post Holiday Blues (PHB) is a popular term that describes a condition that is not ready to face daily activities that are considered to give a lot of stress after vacation activities.
PHB is not a diagnosis of mental health disorders, it is just a popular term to describe mental unpreparedness to deal with daily activities.
In terms, the “blues” are often associated with conditions of sadness, unhappiness, suffering, gloom, a sense of hopelessness, lack of enthusiasm, mentally burdened, depressed, helpless, and feeling unable to concentrate properly (feeling oneself being “blank” or feeling stupid).
The “blues” condition is felt after vacation activities or not in a condition where you have to do activities that require deep thinking processes or situations that are a lot of stress (distress).
These activities can be in the form of work, school, or college activities, or activities that require a certain necessity and cause distress and anxiety.
The criteria for the occurrence of PHB: the characteristics are almost similar to an anxiety condition, but the PHB condition is specific after vacation activities.
This is almost similar to the “monday blues” condition, but usually PHB occurs due to holidays of more than 1-2 days. PHB special features include:
– Mood becomes uncomfortable when you have to adapt back to activities that require fulfilling responsibilities and cause distress.
– Feelings of not wanting to be separated from the holiday situation
– Concentration decreases when you have to adapt back to activities that require fulfilling responsibilities and cause mental stress.
– Lazy to restart activities that require responsibility and cause mental stress.
– Feelings of confusion, loneliness, shock, not ready for activities that require responsibility and cause mental stress.
– Sometimes accompanied by physical complaints in the form of headaches, insomnia, restlessness, stiffness of certain body parts.
– The emergence of sadness, and worry.
Causes of PHB:
– Activity situations that require responsibility (work, school, college, and the like) cause distress and discomfort, so that they are not mentally prepared to deal with them.
– There is no plan in dealing with activities that require responsibility (work, school, college, and the like)
– Financially, the financial condition fell drastically because it was issued for vacation purposes
– Not enjoying the holiday atmosphere mindfully
– Activities that require responsibility (work, school, college, and the like) are considered not fun
– Physical exhaustion due to too much activity during the holidays
– Activities that require responsibility (work, school, college, and the like) are considered too restrictive, so they are felt to take away the freedom they once had
PHB can be said to be a process of adapting back to activities that require responsibilities (work, school, college, and the like) after the holidays. This is a natural thing if there is anxiety related to the activities to be carried out.
Enough rest or the need for management of physical condition to stay good during the holidays. pleasant holiday situations sometimes make us forget to rest well. often tired conditions collect into one after the holiday activities are over
Enjoy your vacation mindfully. engage the five senses to enjoy the holiday atmosphere. For example, the eye looks carefully at the surrounding scenery, the ear hears the sounds of nature, the skin feels the sun.
Breathe in the aroma that is at the vacation location, feel consciously the taste of the food you eat. these five things absorb the comfort.
Capture vacation moments so that they become motivation to plan your next vacation activities.
Manage your finances well, so you won’t be too burdened when you have to meet your daily needs after the holidays.
Balance vacation time with activities that require responsibilities (work, school, college, and the like).
When it’s time off, it’s best to focus on vacations. when doing activities that require responsibilities (work, school, college, and the like), you should not think about the holiday situation.
When you are in activities that require responsibilities (work, school, college, and the like) and have to do big tasks, you can make small plans.
For example, doing a coursework for research is required to complete 1 chapter at that time. Break up the chapters into sub-chapters, and start working with a 5-minute plan at the beginning. then increase to 10 minutes, 15 minutes and so on.
Make the activity environment that demands responsibility (work, school, college, and the like) more fun and relax
Don’t procrastinate on certain jobs or responsibilities. Leave one last day of vacation to relax and treat yourself well, reduce surfing social media, get enough rest, give your body good nutrition and have time to do regular exercise (which is not excessive).
For special features similar to PHB that are close to severe distress or depression, you should consult a mental health professional (psychologist or psychiatrist).
For children, it’s best to need an explanation from their parents
– Tell the child about the vacation schedule. vacation is done in a number of days, and convey will return to daily activities on what day, what date.
– Leave 1 last day off to rest. can also be prepared to “warm up” to do the routine again. for example by going to the study table to just prepare school books for the next day’s hair
– Make routines (usually school activities) more fun. You can change the learning atmosphere by giving certain decorations on the study table, or buying new stationery with stickers of your favorite cartoon character.