Personality is Key to Leisure Time Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Hard to believe, but some individuals appear to have no problem punching the clock for a 12-hour bout at the office, but display a variety of symptoms--headaches, muscle pain, fatigue--during a work-free weekend or vacation. Researchers now suggest that this so-called ``leisure sickness'' arises from the stress some people experience when they are unable to relinquish control and relax.

``We have the impression it has to do with psychological makeup of these people--especially people who are perfectionistic,'' said study co-author Dr. A. J. Vingerhoets. In their study, psychologists Vingerhoets and Maaike van Huijgevoort from the department of clinical health psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, surveyed over 100 people who suffer this illness pattern.

Their study findings were presented at the American Psychosomatic Society Annual Meeting held this week in Monterey, California.

The study participants completed questionnaires that focused on key personality traits, as well as specific behaviors and attitudes towards both work and leisure time. The patients' responses were compared with those offered by over 50 individuals who reported no such leisure sickness experience.

The investigators found that most of the individuals with leisure sickness had a long history of problems that had endured over 10 years and manifested in similar symptoms: headaches, nausea, pains, fatigue and flu-like illness. In addition, the patients reported having more trouble relaxing, more stress related to planning and preparing for a vacation, and spending more time thinking about work while not working than those individuals who never experience leisure sickness.

Vingerhoets and Huijgevoort suggested that being ill at play seems to be associated with certain personality-driven characteristics such as perfectionism, being more occupied with work in general, and having trouble transitioning between a work and non-work environment.

The researchers noted, however, that this was a basic question of attitude adjustment--not time or commitment levels related to work. In particular, they found that there was no appreciable difference in the lifestyles of those who experienced such difficulties and those who did not, pointing out that those who did not experience leisure sickness were not necessarily less involved with their jobs.

``This problem seems to affect about 3% to 5% of both men and women--more than I expected to find,'' Vingerhoets told Reuters Health. He suggested that people exhibiting signs of leisure sickness should reevaluate their priorities and the way they place unnecessary pressure on themselves.

``The best way, I think, to get rid of it is simply have another look at your work and try to pay more attention to other aspects of life--and maybe change your perception of life and what is important in life,'' he said.

``If you are not able to do that on your own, then maybe there are some psychological interventions one can try. For example, rational emotive therapy--which helps you to look at your life differently based on the key concept that it is not always necessary to do all the things that people sometimes impose themselves,'' Vingerhoets added.

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