How To Battle The Sunday Scaries

Felt anxious last night? You’re far from alone. Here’s how to make the transition back to the real world easier, according to a leading psychologist.

By Natalie Cornish

Wellbeing

Felt anxious last night? You’re far from alone. Here’s how to make the transition back to the real world easier, according to a leading psychologist.

By Natalie Cornish

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Sunday evenings should be a time for relaxation and reset before Monday comes around again, but for 70 percent of us they actually bring an irrational fear of the week ahead. Whether you refer to that fear as the ‘Sunday scaries’, the ‘Sunday blues’ or what some experts call ‘Dimanchophobia’, it’s very real and can cause physical symptoms such as irritability, headaches, an upset stomach and sleep disturbance. So, how do we handle this acute anxiety without pouring a large glass of wine and bingeing on another episode of Dirty John?

London-based executive career coach and psychologist Dr Perpetua Neo says knowing the Sunday scaries are “very normal” can make all the difference to how we perceive them. “The law of inertia applies to us,” she says. “Switching over from a weekend to the tedium of a weekday is an effort. This is especially so if your job is highly stressful or lacks meaning. If you feel trapped in your job (not your choice, you need it or your life collapses like a house of cards), then you may feel you lack autonomy.”