Why you are measurably unhappy after your vacation

The autumn holiday for the northern region is over. A week with the people you like ‘under a bell jar’, time for that thick book, a glass of wine at lunch, pulling out that thousand-piece puzzle (and putting it back because what a mess that makes and you don't really have that much time to finish it), binge-watching Netflix, and well, just doing everything that makes you happy.

You can see it in your brain, that happiness. They produce, as they are satisfied, dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin because you give them everything that makes them happy. Moreover, the stress hormones have also been sent away. Normally, they nibble and gnaw at those happiness hormones, which prevents happiness from overflowing. But during those blissful days off, that doesn't happen, allowing your feeling of happiness to soar to higher levels.

But the blow is twice as hard when you come home. Goodbye happiness peaks because hello full laundry basket, hey blue envelope, how are you doing, goodbye bell jar because everyone immediately scatters and oh, hello stress, I really haven't seen you in a while. So farewell stimuli that cause the happiness peak and enter the stress hormones that push your happiness mirror down a bit.

So if you're not as vibrant and dancing today as in the past days: there's a reason for that. To conclude with a great quote from an American writer: no one needs a vacation as much as the one who just had one.

To keep seeing the silver lining around the gray cloud: for now, we can't go on vacation. At least we won't have that post-vacation dip.