Let’s imagine a typical Christmas scene. Macarena is sitting on the sofa at home, next to the fireplace. Her children play with the new toys and she holds a hot cup of coffee and a good book in her hands; the one she had been saving since the summer for this moment of vacation.
But a thought suddenly disturbs his moment of peace. She tells him: “Macarena, you only have four days of vacation left. Take advantage, the office awaits you with the thousand unsolved problems that you left five days ago and with another thousand more that have surely arrived during your absence.” Suddenly, she feels a pain in her chest and an overwhelming desire to run comes over her.
It is the anxiety anticipating the terrible moment of starting work. Intrusive thoughts have boycotted your moment of well-being.
In recent years there has been a lot of talk about post-vacation syndrome, the generalized stress response that a person suffers when they return to their work routine after a period of rest longer than the usual two days of the weekend.
This reaction is reflected in a specific symptomatology where depression, apathy, lack of energy and, especially, the subjective perception of not being able to readjust to the work environment predominate. There are many articles with clues to combat this syndrome – changing schedules, starting healthy routines… – but little attention is paid to what happens before incorporation.
From a psychobiological perspective, the following question arises: does the intrusion of these thoughts have a function? In principle, one could think that they favor the physiological and brain activation of the person during their vacation. Some studies have shown that several factors come into play, as we will describe below.
On the one hand, intrusive thoughts like: “hey, wake up, you’ll start work again in four days!” They are warning signs, especially for people who suffer from recurring anxiety and/or live in a continuous state of alert. Sometimes, these mental killjoys are created by the nervous system itself to break the state of calm inherent to the holidays.
Some anxiety disorders even involve continually remaining in a state of suffering and guilt, without the person being able to achieve calm or relaxation.
Intrusive thoughts may also be associated with the need for control. Some people have found recognition and worth by exercising such control. For them, releasing it while relaxing in a hammock or next to a crackling fireplace is not a pleasant option, but rather a martyrdom.
Taken together, what Macarena feels is called anticipatory anxiety, which is very disabling and harmful for two main reasons. On the one hand, she has a great ability to bias the perception of the environment. And on the other hand, if the person does not face the specific stimulus, this type of anxiety does not stop, which implies the continuous activation of the autonomic nervous system.
The brain needs routines. When we leave work, our thinking organ changes focus and adapts to the vacation routine. And this generally involves leisure, relaxation and social support, the three most important protective factors against the stress response. The brain has to adapt and it does so almost automatically.
However, making the adaptation in reverse – that is, going from vacation to work routine – involves a more complex process because we need to leave an informal, flexible and calm environment to go to a context with stress (even if it is healthy stress). ), schedules, delivery times, etc.
In terms of research, these arguments are beginning to have some empirical support. Thus, a study carried out with boys and girls revealed a difference in the levels of cortisol, the predominant hormone in the stress response, caused by summer vacations.
Corticostrial circuits have also been shown to participate in these intrusive thoughts during vacations, just as they do in obsessive-compulsive disorder. These circuits are responsible for supporting planning, the reward system and emotions, three areas that are affected during the transition between vacation and returning to work.
According to these data, it seems that the difference between being on vacation and working has its correlation in our brain and our physiological processes, which respond to different rhythms. This would explain the anticipatory anxiety that many of us feel days before joining.
And what could we do to prevent it? Work a lot on “living here and now”, the objective of some psychological therapies such as Gestalt. If when intrusive thoughts arrive we are able to breathe, remember that “now is now” and that the rest will come, the anticipatory interruptions are cushioned and even dissipated.
Therefore, it is advisable to “listen to the body and mind” so that when these alert sensations arrive, they can be combated with calm and confidence that we deserve a space to do nothing and rest. After all, we are finite human beings who need to “stop” as much as “start,” speaking in terms of work production.
This article was originally published on The Conversation
María J. García-Rubio is a professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the International University of Valencia and co-director of the VIU-NED chair of Global Neuroscience and Social Change, as well as a member of the Psychology and Quality of Life Research Group ( PsiCal) from the same center.
