Academic Determines 'Most Depressing Day' of the Year
As Americans find themselves in the post-holiday haze, they may be feeling some of most acute seasonal depression of the entire year…at least according to one university tutor.
With the skies turning gray and cold, and the big dopamine bump of Christmas and New Years Eve in the rearview mirror, there are plenty of reasons why we might feel blue at this time of year. In fact, the peak of feeling this low has long been referred to as “Blue Monday”, and, spoiler alert: It’s today.
Blue Monday is calculated using a series of factors in a formula, although it is not particularly scientific.
Advertisement - story continues belowThe factors used to base the date of Blue Monday include weather conditions and debt level. Other factors include the amount of time since Christmas, and the time it typically takes for people to begin failing their New Year resolutions, and generally lose motivation.
The first date declared was January 24, 2005, after Dr. Cliff Arnall, a tutor at Cardiff University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning, was asked to work out the most depressing day of the year.
Blue Monday usually falls on the third Monday of January every year. The purported day of gloom this year is Monday, January 16.
This is when, according to the formula, people will be most affected by the bleak winter weather, the post-Christmas comedown, and being filled with guilt over failed New Year’s resolutions and therefore most likely to feel sad or depressed.
Some advocacy groups have taken the news in stride, however.
However, Blue Monday doesn’t have to be so blue. Suicide prevention charity Samaritans has coined a new term for the day – ‘Brew Monday’.
Instead, Brew Monday is a positive day when people should reach out to friends, family, and colleagues over a cup of tea to make sure they’re feeling alright, and offer support where needed.
If anything, Blue Monday should be a day to remember that you are loved, and that it’s okay to reach out for help when you are experiencing troubling ideations.
