The Sunday Scaries is a real thing, and I’ve been afflicted with it for most of my career.
The Sunday Scaries is the reason why I hardly ever take a vacation longer than a week. Because the longer the vacation, the worse the Sunday Scaries becomes.
The Sunday Scaries is a debilitating feeling of anxiety and anguish. It bubbles up to the surface feelings of insecurity and imposter syndrome.
It’s a feeling of panic and realization that you’re an adult, and that you’re expected to act like an adult.
When all you want to do is sleep in late and watch Fringe all day.
I was surprised to read in Forbes that the Covid epidemic made the condition even worse:
You would think that wearing pajama pants to work and not having to deal with commuting to an office would be an amazing stress buster. Instead, remote workers are fighting the Sunday Scaries because they transformed work-from-home flexibility into an work addicted lifestyle. — Forbes
But I guess that makes sense. Back in my pre-Covid days, I used to commute by train to my job in San Francisco. And during that commute time, which totaled 3 hours a day, I was able to give my brain a rest from work — gaze out the window, catch up on podcasts, people watch, or simply zone out.
I’ve lost that brain rest time now that I’m working from home full time.
Combine the Sunday Scaries with introvertism and a tendency towards OCD, and you have a recipe for big-ass stress.
Wow. Just writing that last sentence is a revelation.
tanster.com 