“I have patients who are exhausted because of the aperitifs”: how to overcome the difficult return to work after the holidays?

Monday, September 1st. Eyes glued to a computer screen, buttocks sunk into an office chair. Outside, it's raining. For those lucky enough to go on vacation, returning to work has, as it does every year, a slightly bitter aftertaste. In just a few days, the benefits of the summer break—rest, motivation, energy—evaporate, drained by stress and mental overload. The only light at the end of the tunnel: the next vacation, the date of which is uncertain. To avoid suffering through this period, Libération offers some tips for prolonging the feeling of well-being gained during the holidays.

"It's normal to feel a bit down in the dumps because there's a mourning to be done: that of a time of great freedom where everything is possible again." For Patrick Amar, CEO of Axis Mundi, a firm specializing in health and workplace performance, there's no point in feeling guilty. If fatigue is felt so quickly after returning from vacation, it's because "the omnipotence of vacation" is replaced in no time by "an environment of greater constraints with problems that we had put off and that we vaguely hoped would disappear on their own, like taxes, the boss, going back to school, etc."

Vincent Trybou, a psychotherapist in Paris, agrees: "The stress of returning to work is inherent: between transport, the manager, the clients... We immediately get back into the rhythm." Except that "the brain