How To Deal With The Post-Vacation Blues

It can be a real letdown to come home after a great trip, but it doesn’t have to be as bad as it may feel initially. The first step is to acknowledge that the post-vacation blues are real and that it’s normal to feel down after a vacation.

“When you’re on vacation, you party and you drink and you do stuff you wouldn’t normally [do],” says Jane Pernotto Ehrman, MEd, a mind-body medicine specialist who works with patients to help them de-stress. “So you end up coming home tired. And now you’re faced with all the stuff at work waiting for you. It can be very overwhelming.”

Read on for 11 steps you can take to help diffuse that sense of being overwhelmed. Some are simple and some require some real life changes, but either way, they'll make those days after a trip feel less depressing — at least until you can afford to quit your job and move to a tropical island for the rest of your life.