Feeling depressed? It's probably HOAD

That's Holiday Adjustment Disorder, more commonly known as being unable to cope with reality after a break. And if reality includes exploding chickens in the freezer, it's even worse, as Diana Appleyard discovered

You know the scenario. You push open the front door after a long, sunny, relaxing holiday, and lying on the carpet is a stack of bad news. As you leaf through the Inland Revenue demands, credit card and current account statements, the answerphone is winking at you. In the midst of the chaos your children mope around, spilling sand and disillusionment all over the house. Your partner goes and lies on the settee with a cushion over his face, and you have to start unpacking. Normal life has kicked in. But do not fear - you are not alone. The blues you are feeling is a little-known but instantly familiar syndrome. It's `HOAD', or Holiday Adjustment Disorder.

A friend of mine returned recently from a holiday in Florida with her husband and four-year-old son, Rupert. "That really was getting away from it all, because you felt like you were in a permanent theme park, with all reality suspended," she says. "We didn't even see a bank or a post office the whole time we were there. I never read British newspapers while I'm away, so I get this false sense of security that nothing is happening in my normal life. But of course, back at home all kinds of things are going on, over which I have no control."

On return, the reality can be overwhelming. "On this occasion we got home to find that one of the tenants in the house we rent out in London had scarpered, to be replaced by the tenant from hell. I walked through the door of our house and plunged into a nightmare situation of demands and complaints. It was made even worse because we'd all been so divorced from reality, and I really felt like I couldn't cope."

But was that as horrifying as what she found in her freezer? "One spectacular year I carefully went round switching everything off - including the freezer. We returned after a day on a ferry and in the car with a screaming two- year-old to find that the entire contents of our freezer had blown up to heroic proportions. One formerly frozen chicken had actually exploded, and, yes, there were maggots involved. Now I push my husband into the kitchen first when we get home from holiday, just in case any food is likely to actually bite us."

Simply readjusting to normal life can be seriously difficult. Corinne Usher, a clinical psychologist, says that it's quite usual for people to feel a sense of being trapped in their job and in the home. She says ending a holiday involves a period of mourning. "This can last for weeks, or even months . . . and it means you actually grieve for the freedom you've lost."

Many people make radical life changes after a holiday, simply because they can't bear to get back into the normal routine they now see as a form of prison.

Virginia Burlton from Warwickshire recently went on holiday with husband Mike and two-year-old daughter Laura. "I feel like a different person on holiday.I think the biggest thing is that you're getting away from your responsibilities, and you have time to talk to your partner, without all the hassle of cooking, washing and work. When I get back I often find that I can't be bothered to do things - somehow housework doesn't seem so important any more.

"I know that my husband finds it really difficult - he's like a bear with a sore head when he gets back from holiday. He mopes round the house saying things like, `This time last week we were...' and he hates the first day back at work after a holiday. I am much more of a `get on with it' person, but I can find it very hard to get motivated."

Focusing on the negatives is one of my worst points - I come into the house and immediately spot that our knife-drawer is in a disgusting state. The fact that we haven't finished painting under the stairs becomes a major issue, and I mentally make a huge and completely unrealistic list of all the things which need doing. Then I go to bed and sob.

Corinne Usher has a different prescription: above all, she says, use a holiday to make positive, if minor, changes to your life. "A holiday is a good time to think about things you're not happy about in your life, and come back ready to make those changes. I wouldn't say to make radical changes, because you're in a fantasy world on holiday, but rather to make improvements. Bring back things which you enjoyed on holiday. I now have a coffee and a muffin in the mornings instead of nothing for breakfast, because I had them on holiday. It's a little ritual which feels like keeping a tiny bit of the holiday alive."

I have to say I came back filled with resolutions for change, which included making sure the children eat healthily, cleaning the Aga weekly rather than annually, and I pledged that I wouldn't spend hundreds of pounds at Bicester Retail Village thinking I was getting a bargain. I would be full of inner poise and calm. The next day after our holiday I was a red- eyed banshee, hurling clothes into the washing machine and screaming at the children, who had pitta bread and chocolate spread for breakfast.

But now at least I have a syndrome to blamen