Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

The staffroom

Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

Anyone else feeling completely drained at the start of the summer holidays?

7 replies

Elendel · 20/07/2026 18:37

Is anyone else feeling like this?

Normally, I start the summer holidays still full of the adrenaline of term-time, meaning I get a huge amount of stuff done, especially in the first week or two, before settling on a slower pace (while my mind never fully shuts off).

But this year... nothing. No energy. Decision fatigue. All I want to do is sleep.

Granted, it's been an interesting one. I've left my old job and am about to start a new (promoted, with much more responsibility) one. I completed an NPQ alongside full-time work, single motherhood and a new relationship. My private life has changed completely in a year, leaving me busier than I've ever been.

I wonder whether I've reached burnout point? The lack of drive, the lack of energy with 6 glorious weeks of summer ahead, is completely unfamiliar. Granted, I will need to be working part of it. I had an autistic meltdown yesterday - something that hasn't happened in many years. Too much noise, too many people, too much that had just slightly gone wrong that day.

Does anyone feel like this, or has been and can let me know when this improves? I am letting my partner and my kids down with my lack of enthusiasm to schedule anything and I don't want the summer to slip away with nothing to show for it.

OP posts:
shardlakem · 20/07/2026 20:46

I don't have the same level of responsibility as you but feel exactly the same. I don't want to make ANY plans at all and just feel desperate to lie on the sofa watching rubbish for 6 weeks!

redsquirrel07 · 21/07/2026 12:58

Finished on Friday, by Sunday I was ill and still am, so I haven't been up to enjoying the start of the holidays either!
I hope things pick up for you ❤️

Elendel · 21/07/2026 19:19

Oh I remember getting ill all the time when the holidays began. I haven't had that in a while, but I have been taking vitamins religiously over the last year (more because I had been diagnosed with general deficiencies, but it seems to have helped).

Felt slightly better today after a longer night's sleep, but my partner suggested a walk and I was just like "ugh". My house is still a mess, too. So by tomorrow it will have been half a week that I've essentially wasted doing nothing much at all.

And I feel that pressure.

OP posts:
redsquirrel07 · 21/07/2026 20:44

Elendel · 21/07/2026 19:19

Oh I remember getting ill all the time when the holidays began. I haven't had that in a while, but I have been taking vitamins religiously over the last year (more because I had been diagnosed with general deficiencies, but it seems to have helped).

Felt slightly better today after a longer night's sleep, but my partner suggested a walk and I was just like "ugh". My house is still a mess, too. So by tomorrow it will have been half a week that I've essentially wasted doing nothing much at all.

And I feel that pressure.

Be kind to yourself ❤️ there is plenty of time for walks and housework if and when you feel up to it. You've had a lot of changes and probably very little time to really process or feel them until now, so go easy. Xxx

redsquirrel07 · 21/07/2026 20:46

PS I'm awful for feeling that pressure to cram all the holidays with meaningful plans, but it's completely okay and healthy and necessary to have days where you do very little!

shardlakem · 21/07/2026 20:54

Elendel · 21/07/2026 19:19

Oh I remember getting ill all the time when the holidays began. I haven't had that in a while, but I have been taking vitamins religiously over the last year (more because I had been diagnosed with general deficiencies, but it seems to have helped).

Felt slightly better today after a longer night's sleep, but my partner suggested a walk and I was just like "ugh". My house is still a mess, too. So by tomorrow it will have been half a week that I've essentially wasted doing nothing much at all.

And I feel that pressure.

You haven't wasted your time at all, you've been resting which is the most important thing for your physical and mental health! Take care 💐

SowWhatNow · 23/07/2026 14:26

Elendel · 21/07/2026 19:19

Oh I remember getting ill all the time when the holidays began. I haven't had that in a while, but I have been taking vitamins religiously over the last year (more because I had been diagnosed with general deficiencies, but it seems to have helped).

Felt slightly better today after a longer night's sleep, but my partner suggested a walk and I was just like "ugh". My house is still a mess, too. So by tomorrow it will have been half a week that I've essentially wasted doing nothing much at all.

And I feel that pressure.

All term, you've been operating off elevated cortisol levels. And now you're recovering from that. Cortisol let-down!

Let yourself recover and don't feel guilty.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page