Now that the festive season is over and the daily routine of life resumes, are you feeling the blues? Do you feel like you want to go back to the exciting things you were doing just a few days ago?
If your answer to both questions is a Yes, then you are not alone. It might be a big relief knowing many other people experience what is now known as the post-holiday blues. Some psychologists call it post-holiday depression.
Anxiety and depression specialist Margaret Wehrenberg likens post-holiday blues to the emptiness of a refrigerator that was previously filled with food or the empty guest room that your visitors slept in during the holidays. “Although it may feel like depression, it is more likely this mood is one of loss,” Wehrenberg explains in Psychology Today magazine. “Overnight, you lose the sense of excitement, you lose the activities filling your time, you lose the involvement with other people.”
Many people experiencing post-holiday blues describe feeling nostalgic; a strong longing for the good times gone by. Many are tired, which is not surprising, considering the intensive activities of the holidays. A few get depressed at the thought of getting back to normal activities.
“I used to feel so down after the holidays, especially the December one," says Oliver Waswa, a photographer. "I would wish I was back in the village almost as soon as I got back to Nairobi. Waswa realised he had a problem several years ago when his January post-holiday blues persisted to April. Post-holiday blues were taking a toll on his well-being.
The next December, Waswa decided not to go on holiday. He spent the Christmas break in Nairobi, but he did not find it much fun. He thought about his life to find out the real reason for prolonged post-holiday blues.
“I realised that whenever I was on holiday, I had much more control over my life than during my usual routine of home and work then back home,” Waswa says. “I needed to spice up my life and not wait for the holidays to have fun. Who says certain things can only be done in December?” he says.
One of the big changes he made in his life was to visit his rural village whenever he had the chance. Planning for the visits helped alleviate post-holiday blues. “It doesn’t feel so bad leaving the people you love when you know you’ll be back in a month,” he says.
Let’s face it: Normal living is stressful enough with all the challenges at work and at home. Many people are hanging onto their jobs because they need the salary. Going on holiday is, therefore, seen as a rare chance to do whatever one wishes. As Waswa notes, it's a time to take control of one's life. The reverse is true — that is, going back to work means leaving the comfort of a holiday and back to the routines of normalcy.
“I think work is very curtailing of personal freedom, but we do it because we need the money,” says Monica Kilele, a plant supervisor at the Coast. Like many other people resuming work after the festive season, Monica wishes the holidays could be longer. “They are never enough,” she quips.
It is not only domestic travellers who suffer from post-holiday blues. International tourists experience it, too, and the huge difference in cultures could make a holiday destination very appealing to someone aching for a change. This is especially the case at the Coast, where foreigners fell in love with the country and its people. The foreigners opted to turn from tourists to residents and subsequently relocated permanently to Kenya.
These modern-day European settlers can be found in Diani, Mombasa, Kilifi, Malindi, Lamu and almost everywhere else in between. Stories abound of tourists who came to Kenya as couples, but only one went back home after the other settled down with a new lover.
“The term post-holiday blues or post-holiday depression is so dramatic. What we experience is a post-holiday normalisation,” says Dr Melissa Weinberg of the Deakin University’s School of Psychology. She describes post-holiday blues as an adjustment.
“The post-holiday blues typically reflect the emotional cost of having just enjoyed a few weeks of fun,” Weinberg wrote. As with Waswa, who beat post-holiday blues by planning his next visit, Weinberg suggests the best way to beat the blues is to start thinking about your next holiday.
An often ignored but important step in holidays is that one must eventually get back into the normal routine. Giving yourself one or two days of rest after your holiday helps your mind ease back to the usual activities. Plan your holiday so that you don’t find yourself travelling the night before you return to work. Travelling early will also give you time to take care of the nitty-gritty of normal living, such as clearing the mountain of dirty clothes, going to the barbershop or hairdressers and making sure children have everything they need for school.
Quite importantly, you can use the post-holiday blues to evaluate your life and do things differently. Miss the family and friends you hang out with during the holidays? Get in touch and stay connected with them. Enjoyed playing video games? Why not get a video game for yourself? Want to challenge yourself this year? It’s never too late to decide on New Year's resolutions.