Why Do I Always Get Sick on Vacation?

Have you ever noticed that you can sail through weeks, sometimes even months, of relentless pressure without so much as a sniffle, only to come down with a cold the moment your holiday begins? You spend the weeks leading up to your vacation counting down the days, dreaming of sunshine, sea air and absolutely nothing in your diary. Then, just as you've unpacked your suitcase and settled into holiday mode, your body decides that now would be the perfect time to develop a sore throat, a streaming nose and a pounding headache. It hardly seems fair.

For years I thought it was just bad luck, or perhaps the recycled air on the plane. After all, so many people seem to have exactly the same experience. We push through demanding projects, stressful seasons at work, family celebrations, house moves, weddings, conferences and all the other moments in life that require us to keep showing up, regardless of how we're feeling. Then, as soon as life finally quietens down, we fall into bed feeling exhausted or wake up feeling decidedly under the weather.

As it turns out, there's a name for this phenomenon. It's called the Let-Down Effect.

What the Let-Down Effect actually is

The theory is surprisingly simple. During periods of prolonged stress, our bodies are remarkably good at helping us keep going. Stress hormones prepare us to meet the challenge in front of us, and for a while we're surprisingly resilient. We ignore the little aches and pains, postpone the rest we know we need and convince ourselves we'll slow down once we've reached the finish line. The interesting part is that the finish line isn't always where the body chooses to stop. Sometimes it waits until it finally believes it's safe.

I've often wondered whether our bodies are wiser than we give them credit for.

A personal beginning

One of the moments that made me think about this happened many years ago after my first wedding. My husband and I travelled to Egypt for our honeymoon and arrived just after the horrific terrorist attack in Luxor. It wasn't exactly the carefree beginning we'd imagined, but we decided to continue with our trip. A few days later I woke up with numbness in my left hand. At first I dismissed it. I assumed I'd slept awkwardly or pinched a nerve, but over the following days the numbness spread until it affected the entire left side of my body. By the time we flew home I was struggling to hold my head up and finding it increasingly difficult to walk. Within hours of landing in Los Angeles I was admitted to hospital, and after a series of tests I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Now, before anyone tries to join the dots, let me save you the trouble. I am not suggesting that my honeymoon, the stress of planning a wedding or the Let-Down Effect caused my MS. Multiple sclerosis is a complicated autoimmune disease, and there is no evidence that one stressful event suddenly creates it. What that experience did leave me with, however, was an enormous sense of curiosity. Why had my body waited until one of the biggest milestones in my life to wave a little white flag? Why do so many of us seem perfectly capable of holding everything together until the very moment we don't have to anymore?

Finding a different way to think about it

Those questions stayed with me after I left the hospital. It was quite soon after recovering from my first exacerbation that I sought out Dr. Marc Schoen, a psychologist whose work explored the relationship between stress, recovery and the mind-body connection. At the time, I wasn't looking for a miracle cure. I was trying to come to terms with the possibility of living with multiple sclerosis and, perhaps even more frighteningly, what I imagined that might mean for the rest of my life.

I remember worrying that if stress could make me ill, then perhaps the only way to survive was to stop doing everything I loved. Would I have to avoid travel? Give up adventure? Live a quiet, carefully managed life where every decision revolved around protecting my health? It felt as though my world had suddenly become much smaller.

Working with Dr. Schoen helped me look at things differently. Rather than seeing stress as the enemy, I began to understand that the body is remarkably resilient. The goal wasn't to eliminate challenge or stop living. It was to learn how to support my nervous system before, during and after periods of intensity, instead of expecting it to carry me through endless demands without any help.

That shift in perspective changed far more than the way I thought about MS. It changed the way I approached work, relationships, achievement and recovery. Looking back, it became one of the first threads that eventually wove its way into my coaching, my guided imagery and, years later, my work on Insight Timer.

It isn't only about holidays

The more I learned, the more I realised this wasn't simply about holidays. I've seen executives become ill after completing a major acquisition, entrepreneurs crash after launching a business, caregivers finally fall apart once their loved one is safely home, and students develop a cold the day after their final exams. It seems that many of us have become exceptionally good at getting through difficult seasons, but far less skilled at recovering from them.

As you go through the coming week, simply notice what happens after periods of pressure. Perhaps it's after an important presentation, a family celebration, a demanding few days at work or even an emotional conversation. Pay attention to what your body asks for once the pressure lifts.

If you know you have an intense period coming up, see if you can resist the temptation to sprint right up to the finish line and then collapse in a heap. Instead, think about how you might keep your energy a little steadier. Eat well, stay hydrated, move your body, get to bed a little earlier than usual and leave yourself a little breathing room before launching into the next thing.

You don't have to earn recovery by becoming completely exhausted.

In part two, I'll share how my work with Dr. Schoen led me into the world of guided imagery, why it became such an important part of my own journey with MS, and how learning to work with — rather than against — my nervous system changed the course of my life.

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Footnote

1. Schoen, M. (2026). The Let-Down Effect: When De-Stressing Makes You Sick. Psychology Today. See also Schoen, M. (2001). When Relaxation Is Hazardous to Your Health. John Wiley & Sons.