Here Are The 6 Types of Summer Anxiety (What’s Yours?)

So is there a stress of summer performance? Better, there are six. And if you’re the type to analyze and anticipate everything , you probably have several of them.

1 – Social and cultural performance

“Oh, we’re here in August too, are we trying to catch up?” You’re sincere every time. You really believe in it, in this umpteenth invitation launched for the sunny days and that you haven’t yet managed to fulfill because of this  damned June tunnel . This summer you’ll get there. It’s the same with books, which over the months and literary prizes, have piled up at the foot of your bed without being opened. Something hurts inside you at the idea of ​​putting only three in the suitcase. No, you need at least double that, even if you’re only going away for two weeks… If you don’t want to drag around a feeling of failure from the start, you’re going to have to be more humble than that. No, after a year of relative cultural and social dearth, you never see enough people, you never collect enough reading material. You will make choices based on instinct, in the energy of the moment, you will be a bad friend, a poor reader, but everyone will get over it. 

2 – Physical performance 

Guilt is already gripping you. You shouldn’t be here anymore. Not in 2023. Not in the age of  body positivity and  intuitive eating. You dreamed of basking in the sun without thinking “summer body”, without dreading photos, without telling yourself before gorging yourself “oh shit it’s vacation” or, conversely, without justifying yourself for “being careful”. And yet yes. You are here. Annoyed by all those who, themselves, have found serenity, a gym membership or a sincere love for their body. The good news? All of this will not be resolved in two months. So yes, savagely apply the rule of “oh shit it’s vacation” and take all the photos. That way you won’t be on it. 

3 – Affective performance 

From the first argument at the Saint-Arnoult toll, you are depressed. Gone are the dreams of family harmony, of children busy enough not to kill each other and of naughty naps with your other half. Suddenly, you believe in it much less. So do you have to be naive to hope to reconnect with your loved ones during the summer? Well… yes. Because the holidays mean that active life stops, and therefore forced promiscuity with people who may have the same family tree as you, but not at all the same priorities. Consider yourself lucky. You are in the open air, the weather is nice. You could live the same nightmare in a ski studio .

4 – Domestic and logistical performance 

You’ve thought of everything. Emptying the fridge, having the cat looked after, giving the neighbours a spare set of keys, checking the rental reviews on Airbnb and the traffic simulations on Waze . But despite everything, you’re worrying. Because experience has proven it. There will always be that thing, that little thing, more or less serious, that you haven’t thought of… But above all, and you tend to forget it, holidays are a double trauma. We lose our bearings at home and in our daily lives when we leave home. And we’re supposed to create new ones in record time, in a place we don’t control and that we share with other human beings. For a normally constituted brain, that’s a lot of changes at once, and too many parameters to master. Remember this during your holidays. Are you hypervigilant  ? Are you sleeping badly? The opposite would be abnormal.

5 – Professional performance

You’re going to have to make this decision, and stick to it. If you want to take a real break, it’s not to hang out on WhatsApp while drinking mojitos. And if you decide to check your messages regularly, it’s not to have them empty, that would be too stupid, a waste. With summer comes the stress of being too reachable or not reachable enough, of ” disconnecting well “, of being out of step with your contacts once you get back, or of having anticipated September enough. Tell yourself that others are in the same boat. The world doesn’t stop turning between July 15 and August 15, and yet every time you manage to reach someone or really disconnect, it will be a miracle.

6 – Narcissistic performance 

This is the conclusion that encompasses all the others. Coming out of the summer with a good self-image. Someone who knew how to enjoy themselves, recharge their batteries, be reasonable about work, party with their loved ones, and still take one or two decent photos… And of course, it’s an Everest. Because how do you feel on August 31st if you haven’t checked all these boxes, or at least the majority? Burned out before your time, not yet recovered from the last September-June sequence and completely incapable of charging into the next one. Summer is a source of stress just as powerful as the rest of the year. Because it encourages us to be both carefree and efficient. And because it even makes carefree a performance in its own right. But we can’t stop putting pressure on ourselves by magic, by pressing a button on July 1st. So yes, you’re going to miss out on a lot of things this summer, but that’ll be okay. Since you will have planned it.