PVAD

A couple of years ago my friend, Kathy, was reeling after a vacation. You know the feeling - lost, endlessly tired, unproductive, unmotivated, etc. She was discouraged. Why was she feeling this way? What do you expect? I asked, You have PVAD - Post-Vacation Adjustment Disorder!

 That began a longstanding, and endlessly helpful, tradition of explaining away all of our woes with a simple phrase: P [fill in the blank] Adjustment Disorder. In addition to PVAD, we could add PLRAD --Long Run -- the syndrome that I get about 24-48 hours after a run of 18 miles or longer, when I am exhausted and I think that I will be hopelessly behind in all of my professional work (which is actually true) and that I should give up running forever (which is silly, of course). When I have PLRAD, that seems like the only solution. How about PSAD, which is the crushing exhaustion that one feels as the end of a Semester; or PYOTO, which is what I experienced when the Year of the Oboe finished in 2011; how about PNPAD after being worn out by a New Puppy for a couple of weeks? As of late, we've been suffering from PVAD at our house following our 2 week vacation.

 Surely my readers can see the usefulness of this acronym. The past week has been especially full for many of my family and friends, who have experienced surgery, break-ups, moves, entering a doctoral program, car crashes, the birth of a child, and family vacations. In case anyone needs help diagnosing conditions that would result from so much stress and excitement, I would estimate:
  • PSAD = Post-Surgery Adjustment Disorder
  • PBUAD = Post Break-Up Adjustment Disorder
  • PMAD = Post Moving Adjustment Disorder
  • PNSAD = Post New School Adjustment Disorder
  • PCCAD = Post Car Crash Adjustment Disorder
  • PLAD = Post Labor Adjustment Disorder
  • And, of course...the old standby, PVAD
I hope that this little acronym is as useful for my readers as it has been for Kathy and me. We just move from one adjustment disorder to the next and we find it very helpful to have a label for our condition!

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