We have all felt it at one point or another. Maybe you are catching up on your favorite reality show on a Sunday night and all of a sudden, the Sunday Scaries creep in. Or maybe you are out with your friends having a ‘Sunday Funday’ when you start to feel the impending doom of your reality- tomorrow is Monday and you will return back to your regularly scheduled program. One moment you can be laughing and joking with your loved ones and, the next second, you are intensely focused on your never-ending to-do list for the upcoming week.
You may become consumed with stressful thoughts, from a not-so-ideal work environment to an upcoming exam. As you may have guessed, experiencing these high levels of stress and anxiety right when you are about to wrap your time off is not healthy.
Whether you call it the Sunday Scaries, the Sunday Blues, or the Dread, they all mean the same thing and they are a very real feeling everyone has experienced. While there is no universal cure for the Sunday Dread, there are some ways to cope.
Anchor Therapy is a counseling center in Hoboken, NJ with mental health therapists specialized in helping children, teens, adults, couples, and families with anxiety, depression, relationship issues, trauma, life transitions, and more. Anchor Therapy is accepting new clients and is now providing in-person sessions and teletherapy sessions to residents of New Jersey, New York, and Florida.
What are the Sunday Scaries?
Simply put, the Sunday Scaries can be defined as feelings of strong anxiety and dread that occur every Sunday, week after week. For most people, these feelings begin to occur after 3:00 pm on Sundays. You begin to realize that your weekend hourglass is slowly dwindling, and your free time and happiness goes along with that.
If you are someone who experiences high levels of anxiety, you may begin experiencing the Sunday Scaries even earlier in the day. You may even experience it first thing when you wake up on Sunday morning.
Along with having this sense of anxiety and restlessness, someone experiencing the Sunday Scaries can have additional symptoms.
Here are some symptoms of the Sundays Dread:
Anxiety (Take our Anxiety Quiz)
Restlessness
Sweating
Upset stomach
Headache
Trouble sleeping (If you struggle with sleep issues, check out our blog “How CBT Can Help With Your Insomnia”)
Depression (Take our Depression Quiz)
What triggers the Sunday Blues?
It is normal to try to anticipate stressful situations. We do it all the time in our day-to-day life that we may not even realize it. When you have a big project coming up at work, you take weeks to prepare for it and discuss the assignment with co-workers. When you have a flight, you arrive at the airport well-before your departure time to ensure that things go smoothly and you will make your flight in time.
However, for many of us, it can be hard to separate these rational processes from something like the Sunday Scaries. The mental preparation and constant worrying may seem to serve a purpose in high-stakes situations but, for it to occur on a weekly basis, is emotionally and mentally draining.
If you experience the Sunday doom like clockwork, then there are some steps you can take in making sure that you can live an emotionally fulfilling life instead of wishing that Mondays would just disappear. It is possible to feel less stressed when you are off the clock. However, before we jump into the coping skills you may need to fight off the Sunday Dread, let us examine why we experience this anxiety in the first place.
There are a few possible reasonings for the feelings of anxiety you are experiencing on Sundays. Some of these reasons include:
Having a busy week ahead - Even if work is not the cause of your stress, just knowing that you have a lot to do this week can trigger the Sunday Scaries. Maybe you have family visiting so now your days are packed with family obligations. Perhaps you have a home project that you are stressed about finishing. When you begin to scan your to-do list, the anxiety starts to build. If you are feeling stressed about all of your responsibilities, our blog “Everything You Need To Know About Stress Management Therapy” is a must-read.
Dealing with a high-stress job - It is common for people with work-related anxiety to experience the Sunday Dread. When you know that you have work the next day, your anxiety can peak in that second. Your mind may start to wander, brainstorming topics for your next meeting or thinking about a task you still have to complete. When you think about all of the things you have to accomplish, your anxiety is triggered. Check out our blog “What You Need To Know About Work-Related Anxiety.”
Struggling with work and life balance - If you struggle with balancing your professional life and your personal life, you are not alone. It is a common struggle for many people. According to a study, over 2 in 5 people who experience the Sunday Blues have anxiety that is rooted in work-life balance. Thinking about your responsibilities in both realms can understandably lead to you feeling overwhelmed. Read our blog “3 Ways to Achieve Work-Life Balance” for some support and helpful tips.
Poor time management skills - Sunday anxiety can also occur if you begin to think about all of your responsibilities, specifically the tasks you did not get to the week before. Now, it feels like you have twice the amount of work to complete in the same amount of time. You may start to think ahead- “What if I cannot complete it all this week? Next week will have 3xs the amount of work!”. Your unfinished business getting transferred to your to-do list week after week will cause anticipatory anxiety. If you struggle with anticipatory anxiety, check out our blog “How Psychodynamic Therapy Can Help You Overcome Anticipatory Anxiety.”
How can I alleviate my Sunday-related anxiety?
To alleviate your anxiety, you must first pinpoint the trigger of your anxiety. You may fit perfectly into one of the four categories outlined above, you may be a combination of some of the reasons, or your anxiety trigger may be completely unrelated to the above points. If you want to destress on Sundays, you must do some self-exploration and figure out the culprit of your restlessness.
After figuring out your anxiety trigger(s), you can take the following steps to reduce your late-weekend anxiety…
Stop negative self-talk
How you speak to yourself has a profound impact on your mental and physical health, including your ability to manage stress. If your internal dialogue primarily consists of negative self-talk, it is hard to focus on anything else. You believe your self-talk and, when we are caught up in our feelings, we tend to mistake them for our reality. But, just because you think or feel it does not make it true. For more ways to explore your negative self-talk, “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Negative Self-Talk” is a must-read.
Your thoughts and feelings do not manage your moods or behaviors. There are mental tools, such as meditation, that can help you with your ability to tune out negative thoughts about yourself. If you are struggling with your self-esteem, read our blog “Do You Understand Your Self-Esteem?”.
A tool like meditation can help put you in a kinder space where your thoughts and chatter do not drag you down. That is to say, you give yourself the space to choose kinder words. You may be thinking “It takes an hour to commute to work every morning, and there is even more traffic now. I hate this commute.” Instead, you can start thinking “I have over an hour of free time now. I can listen to some of my favorite songs or catch up on a podcast.” When you choose less-negative phrases, your brain becomes trained to stop stressing about the occurrences in your life, especially the things you do not have control over.
Check out our blog “How Meditation Can Lead to Stress Reduction.”
By having helpful coping skills, like meditation, you can rewire your brain so you no longer equate Sundays to anxiety. When you do things that make you feel good on the weekend, Sundays can become a day you look forward to and cherish.
For some people, meditating may be the perfect addition to your Sunday self-care routine. For other people, it may look like working out. Check out our blog “5 Ways Exercise Benefits Your Mental Health” for more information.
Read “The 8 Forms of Self-Care & How You Can Practice Them.”
2. Unlearn multitasking
In today’s fast-paced world, we are determined to work hard during the week so we can live it up on the weekends. The best thing you can do is learn to live in the moment and neglect the need to multitask so you are busy every second of every day.
You may think that you are being more productive by multi-tasking, but that could not be farther from the truth. In fact, productivity declines when you multitask. In other words, multi-tasking is a waste of time.
The next time that you have a task to complete, try to approach it in a mindful manner. That way, you can give all of your focus to the task, having as little distraction as possible. With practice, you will reach a flow state where you are completely immersed in what you are doing and you can work or relax with a sense of fulfillment.
3. Turn off work notifications
If your Sunday Scaries are triggered by your work, silencing notifications for your work emails, texts, or other app notifications on the weekends can be helpful. These notifications can be helpful Monday through Friday but, when the weekend rolls around, you want to ensure that you are properly rested so you can recharge your battery. This ensures that you can hit your work week (or any other aspect of your life!) 100% when you put your focus into it.
Constant emails and texts about work in your ‘free time’ cut your weekend short. Your mind returns to work before you physically have to.
Unless you absolutely cannot silence work notifications, it is recommended that you do. This stops your boss or co-workers from interrupting your time off which helps reduce your Sunday anxiety along the way.
4. Seek the help of a stress therapist
If you are facing intense anxiety on Sunday nights and you have already tried some relaxation strategies with no luck, searching for a stress therapist near you is a good bet. A stress counselor will help you get to the source of your Sunday anxiety and provide tips for overcoming it.
There are several types of counseling that are effective at reducing anxiety, including:
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) - Check out our blog “What is CBT?” to learn more
Art therapy - Read “Is Art Therapy Actually Effective?” for more information
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) - Read our blog “Everything You Need To Know Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)” for the inside scoop on this type of psychotherapy
At Anchor Therapy, we have licensed stress therapists who can help you feel like your best self again. We offer in-person counseling at our Hoboken, New Jersey office. We offer virtual counseling to all residents of New Jersey, including Bergen County; Jersey City; and Montclair. We also offer teletherapy to residents of New York and Florida.
The Sunday Scaries may sound like a made-up feeling or concept, but they are very real and, if you experience them weekly, you know this! This Sunday doom can make you feel miserable and drain any remaining fun you had planned for your weekend. The Sunday Scaries are a form of anticipatory anxiety that involve nervousness and dread for the upcoming week.
Everybody looks forward to the weekend and it is understandable why- two whole days of freedom where you can do whatever you want. However, when those Sunday Scaries creep in and cut your free time, it is time to take control of your schedule and emotions. Luckily, you can beat the Sunday Blues by stopping negative self-talk, unlearning bad habits, silencing work notifications, and working with a licensed stress therapist.
Victoria Scala
is the Social Media Manager and Intake Coordinator at Anchor Therapy in Hoboken, New Jersey. She is a graduate of the Honors College of Rutgers University-Newark. In her roles, Victoria is committed to managing the office’s social media presence and prioritizing clients' needs.
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