MODERN life is marked by elevated levels of comfort, generally speaking, but there is no escaping the weekly fright that all but spoils our weekends which remain laced with the ‘Monday fright’.

Weeks have become super-saturated, draining out maximum energy from one and all. This, ultimately, leads to extreme yearning for the weekend, and, conse-quently, a reiterated fright of Monday, which indicates one’s return to a tough and high-pressure environment of work from leisure.

The continuous 9-to-5 grind has pushed the modern individual into a cyclic loop. The week has taken the shape and form of a psychological tele-series where on Mondays we feel as if we are trying to conquer Mount Everest, followed by two more days of relentless effort, a bit of anticipation on Thursdays, a sigh of relief on Fridays, and, finally, the anti- cipated bliss over the weekend. The more fun you have on Saturdays and Sundays, the trickier become your Mondays.

According to a recent research at the University of Hong Kong, individuals who reported feeling anxious on Mondays exhibited 23 per cent higher levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, compared to those who were anxious on other days of the week. This underlines the crucial fact that the fright of Monday affects mental health by triggering stress hormones.

Ibrahim Afridi
Kohat

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2026