Leisure sickness is a condition where people get sick on weekends and holidays due to not working. Symptoms include insomnia, nausea, exhaustion, cold or flu symptoms, and headaches. It is psychosomatic and associated with overworked individuals who find vacation planning stressful. Changing attitudes towards work and finding a balance between work and relaxation may help cure the disease of leisure.
In the late 20th century, Ad Vingerhoets and Maaike van Huijgevoort, psychologists at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, first investigated leisure sickness syndrome. Essentially, they found that many people seem to get sick on weekends and holidays, not from viral illnesses, but from the fact that they’re not working. This condition can produce symptoms such as insomnia, nausea, exhaustion, cold or flu symptoms, and headaches.
In addition to the symptoms mentioned above, leisure sickness is associated with aches and pains and a general feeling of fatigue. Those who suffer from this condition may also have poor vacations, because they often feel sick or lack the energy to enjoy the activities they have planned to do. This disease is considered psychosomatic, because most of the people among it do not suffer from any viral or bacterial infection.
In early studies conducted by these psychologists, it was found that certain personality types are more likely to develop this condition. People who are typically overworked, expressed a lot of work stress, or rarely took time off work were the most common victims. Others who tended to be affected were those for whom vacation planning was considered particularly stressful. Conversely, those people who did not report being ill during the holidays were likely to have healthy attitudes towards work, had a balanced work and social life, and enjoyed planning their leisure time, without considering it stressful.
For some people, the sudden shift from work orientation to leisure orientation resulted in symptoms of leisure sickness. It’s as if they really didn’t know what to do with themselves, even when they had plans, because their main focus was generally work. This appeared in the body as symptoms of stress, which in turn became symptoms of disease.
When people took long vacations, many reported feeling better after about a week. However, some have reported being sick all the time while on vacation, no matter the length of time. In the first scenario, it appears that some people are able to shift their attention to a leisure mode instead of work and recover from illness after being off work for a while.
It appears that addressing attitudes toward work may help leisure sickness. Many who reported it also reported that they thought about work most of the time when they weren’t working, and some also noted that they felt guilty about not working in their spare time. It’s easy enough to draw the lines between worry about work, stress, and illness.
The suggestion, however, is that curing the disease of leisure means changing attitudes towards work. This could mean that a person allows himself to feel entitled to vacations, and during his working week, still participates in social activities so that there is a better balance between work and relaxation. Stress-wise, many people are able to feel less stressed when they deliberately focus on the present, not allowing their work to “go home with them.” This may not always be mastered, but if every vacation represents another bout of illness, people may find it worth investigating how to change their attitude about work.
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