When The Break Breaks You…

The Unexpected Overwhelm of Rest

This post is dedicated to all those who willfully prioritize mental, emotional, and physical breaks through intentional rest, and vacations. Choosing yourself through time, and practicing the act of pausing is hard. So many working professionals hardly ever use their full allotted PTO each year. Additionally being able to take vacation each year is a privilege that so many people in this country and around the world do not have access to not mention the resources to afford a full family vacation outside of the country.

So as I sit to write this post, so many emotions are flooding my mind. This post is a reflection of how rest, vacations, breaks, and pausing can be difficult when we are programmed to constantly do. From the time we enter school, we are socialized to believe that if you are not working, constantly grinding, that you are not doing enough. So when you do break, your mind and body does not know how to respond. This is especially hard for individuals like myself who are neurodivergent.

So while prioritizing time with my family and choosing to step away from the grind of launching a new version of myself was soul refreshing… However just four days post vacation, I have to admit has been a struggle.

This week, to-do list have just been list, (matter fact, I do not even know where I placed this week’s priorities). Active attempts at brain dumping has essentially gone no where and instead I just have pages with a bunch of words.

It’s interesting and weird, choosing “rest” can leave you in return in a state of metaphorical brokenness, disorganization, and mental chaos. I almost feel as though I have to be recalibrated.

We romanticize vacations. The pause. The escape. The rest. And rightfully so. Documenting our new environment, the food, the ambiance along the way not to be prideful or boast but rather to recall each memory on the days when we feel empty.

There’s a sacredness in stepping away, catching your breath, and trading the weight of responsibility for a few days of freedom. Because when you taste rest, you remember how much you needed it. You realize how loud the world has been. And how quiet you’ve become to survive it.

But here’s something we don’t talk about enough: how a vacation—no matter how soul-refreshing—can leave you feeling overwhelmed the moment you return.

You’d think rest would recalibrate everything. And in many ways, it does. The sunsets. The laughter. The space to be fully present especially when you realize these sacred moments with your husband and children will now be few and far in between.

These breaks matter. But re-entry? Re-entry can feel like a full-blown emotional ambush.

The sudden awareness that while you pressed pause, the world didn’t. And it’s not just the logistics—it’s the internal shift that throws you off balance. When choosing a life a self-employment, every day, every moment, every networking connection matters. With the reality of, if you don’t work you do not get paid lingers at the back of your mind.

Coming back from vacation can highlight what isn’t working in your daily life. It can stir up resistance to going back to the grind. And sometimes, that resistance feels like guilt…Shouldn’t I be more grateful? Shouldn’t I feel more energized? But the truth is: when our nervous system slows down enough to breathe, it doesn’t want to snap back into high-alert mode just because the calendar says Monday.

Vacations, while meant for rest and inspiration, can be paradoxically overwhelming for people with ADHD or other forms of neurodivergence.

1. Lack of Structure Feels Disorienting

Neurodiverse brains thrive on some level of structure—even if it’s flexible.

• Vacations often strip that structure away, which can create a sense of floating or being untethered.

• Without your usual anchors (routines, schedules, familiar spaces), your brain may struggle to know what to latch onto.

2. Decision Fatigue and Overstimulation

From choosing where to eat, what to do next, how to pack, or what activities to prioritize, vacations can become a rapid-fire series of choices.

• For neurodivergent brains that already juggle a lot of mental tabs, this can quickly lead to cognitive overload.

3. Pressure to “Relax” or Be Inspired

Ironically, the pressure to make the most of a vacation, rest deeply, come back refreshed, think big ideas—can create anxiety.

• Our brain might be energized by the new environment but also fragmented by the flood of input, which can make it hard to focus or follow through on any of those fresh ideas.

4. Post-Vacation Reentry Crash

Returning to normal— The regular rhythm of your day can feel jarring.

• The transition back can cause a crash in executive functioning: forgetfulness, trouble organizing tasks, and difficulty concentrating.

• It’s like the brain is lagging behind your body and you in essence just feel in a state of cloudiness.

5. Over-activation of the Imagination

Our brains are naturally imaginative and idea-driven.

• New settings can ignite creativity, but without a channel for all that energy, the ideas can spin into a kind of chaos that feels more disorganized than empowering.

This feeling of post-vacation overwhelm is not avoidance of reality. It’s our body trying to tell us something. That maybe the pace we are trying to return to or operate in is not sustainable.

So What Helps?

Here are a few grounding ideas you might try or reflect on for future trips:

• Anchor Points: Build small, grounding rituals into each day of vacation (morning tea, journaling, or even a fixed walk) that mimics your daily routine. This will help keep a sense of rhythm and routine.

• Capturing, Not Acting: Carry a simple voice note app or travel journal to capture your thoughts and inspirations without the pressure of having to act on them immediately. This way, you will be able to draw upon these ideas and or reflections when you return your “normal.”

• Transition Time: Give yourself buffer days post-vacation to gently reintroduce structure, instead of expecting yourself to jump straight into full productivity mode come Monday.

• Name the Overwhelm: Sometimes just labeling the experience helps reduce the shame or frustration and gives you permission to adjust accordingly.

Side-Note: This is also important step for our children. We think youth makes them invincible, however it doesn’t. Oh how yesterday it was hard watching both of my children crash.

So if you’re feeling disoriented, tired, or unexpectedly heavy after a break—pause. Be gentle with yourself. You’re not doing life wrong. You’re just noticing how much of yourself you’ve been giving away on autopilot.

Here’s your permission to ease back in. To not have all the answers or emails cleared in one day. To protect the slower rhythm you tasted on vacation and let it linger a little longer. Because the point of rest isn’t just to escape the chaos. It’s to remember who you are beneath it.