Sunday scaries, Monday blues

We should all feel some kind emotion, before our return to work on a Monday morning. For many of us, it might be excitement at the start of a new working week, or seeing our colleagues again – or simply getting out of the house, after months of lockdown. But for many of us, it seems that the approaching ordeal of Monday morning encroaches on our weekends and begins to spoil the end of our Sunday.

According to recent findings, two-thirds of Britons suffer anxiety before the return to work, a condition that is sometimes called the Sunday Scaries, or Sunday Blues. We’ve probably all experienced this form of anxiety in some shape or form in certain points in our lives. Certainly, as schoolkids it’s something we can all relate too, like the end of the summer holidays. With much greater emphasis being placed on mental health issues at work and general workplace wellbeing, the government has acknowledged this by launching an ‘every mind matters’ mental health campaign to address it.

Collateral damage

Anxiety before the start of the week can cause all kinds of collateral damage, such as stress, irritability and sleeplessness. If your mood is changing, from happy enjoyment to niggly resentment, then it’s going to impact on those around you too, like the family and friends who are sharing your weekend.

To-do lists are often the cause of the great deal of the anxiety, as you know what’s lying in wait for you when Monday morning comes. Apparently, young adults are the worst affected, with 74% of employees aged 18-24 experiencing worry at the end of the weekend. This worry is thought to peak just after 5 pm on Sunday afternoons. It has been highlighted with Google data demonstrating that internet searches around sadness and anxiety spike at this time. According to wider revelations from Google Trends, online searches for anxiety have increased 170% over the past decade.

Cause and affects

Many mental health issues have arisen during the pandemic, with long periods of inactivity and enforced isolation – both from family and work – the cause of many of the problems. On the whole, people deal with and manage anxiety in their own way. Sometimes it’s a good idea to consult your GP, to see if you may need some kind of anti-anxiety medication. If work is starting to impact your home life, then you really need to address it, as it is not the kind of challenge that will resolve itself – in fact in many cases it just gets bigger and bigger.

To deflect the anxiety on Sundays, people aged 18-24 said they turned to social media, people aged 25-32 were more likely to binge-watch TV and respondents aged 33-40 were most likely to comfort eat. These are not healthy activities in themselves, but when coupled with increased anxiety they can make matters worse. One of the best antidotes to anxiety is exercise. Not only is it healthy in itself, but it also provides focus for the mind and creates a positive feeling relating to self-worth, which will banish thoughts of anxiousness.

The root of the problem

You also need to address the causes of the anxiety too. Are you worrying unrealistically, or are there tangible problems at work? Is your workload too great? Are you being bullied or marginalised by your colleagues? If there are real problems to be addressed, you may need to consider changing your role, so you don’t fill you with Sunday trepidation and allow you to look forward to Monday mornings once more.