While many people look forward to winding down and taking a well-deserved break after a long and eventful 2018, there are more than a million South Africans who struggle to “switch off” during the holidays, with some even suffering physical ailments when they do.
With all the gifts to wrap, flights to catch and parties to attend this festive season, how do you avoid spending most of your annual break sick under the covers?
A leading provider of colds and flu medication in the country claims that many workaholics, overachievers and perfectionists were prone to leisure sickness, a condition that strikes the moment you go on a holiday that has sufferers experiencing anything from nausea to migraines, muscle pains and flu-like symptoms.
Nicole Jennings, Pharma-Dynamics spokeswoman, said some 1.7m South Africans could be prone to this modern-day phenomenon.
Jennings said leisure sickness was not a new sickness, but was getting more attention from scientists, comparing it alongside other so-called modern-day conditions such as seasonal affective disorder and yuppie flu.
“Scientists believe that overachievers and people who generally have a high workload, along with an overdeveloped sense of responsibility towards work are more susceptible to the condition.
“When at work your body is in a state of defence, since it requires your complete focus, but when you’re on leave, your defence mechanism relaxes, and you become more vulnerable to illness,” she said.
Jennings said another theory found by scientists was that human beings possessed the ability to postpone illness to a more “appropriate time”, such as when it won’t compete with work responsibilities. She said this was similar to people with terminal illnesses, who delay their death until they’ve said goodbye to a loved one or until they’ve witnessed an important event.
Jennings says if you suffer from leisure sickness and often find yourself spending weekends or holidays in bed as a result of a cold or numbing migraine, you may need to take action...