c/trauma·Posted by u/priya_nair·1h ago
I'm wrecked for three days after a "fine" family holiday. How do you come back?
I got back Monday night from a long weekend at my parents' place. The visit was "fine." Nobody blew up. We ate, we watched a movie, I slept in my old room. By Tuesday at 2pm I was useless. Sat in the parking garage after work for twenty minutes because walking into my own building felt like too many steps. It's not the drive. It's like my body spent three days clenching and then sent me the bill. I'm tired in a way a nap doesn't touch. Snapped at a coworker over a calendar invite. Then felt awful about that too. I keep thinking if the visit was truly fine I shouldn't need a recovery period. But here I am eating cereal for dinner and avoiding texts from the group chat. How long does it take you to feel like yourself again after family time that wasn't even "bad"? Do you plan a buffer day now, or does that feel like admitting something?
Peer discussion on askDr.app. Not therapy and not a substitute for professional care.
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u/aisha_r1h ago
Parking garage Tuesday is too real. I need a full day off after I go home, even when the visit looks cute in photos. I stopped calling it dramatic. It's just the bill.
u/chris_moretti1h ago
I book the cheapest extra night in a motel on the way back when I can afford it. Not fancy. Just a room that isn't my childhood bedroom so my brain gets a hallway between them and me. Unglamorous and it helps more than the movie night did.
u/malik_j1h ago
Do you still have leftover food from their house in your fridge? That's what gets me. The containers. I had to throw the rice out once because looking at it kept the weekend going.
u/lila_nguyen1h ago
I warn one coworker I trust that I might be short Tuesday-Wednesday. Not the story, just "family weekend, I'm fried." Calendar invite snapping is how I used to find out I wasn't fine.