January can often seem a bit rubbish - after the excitement of many different festivities in December and the coming of the new year, there’s nothing exciting to look forward to and the weather is cold and harsh in many places. In 2004 travel company Sky Travel asked psychologist Dr. Cliff Arnall to come up with the best day for booking a holiday. He thought that the one of the most common incentives for booking a holiday was feeling low. So he looked at several different factors that make people feel this way: weather, debt, time since Christmas, time since failing new year's resolutions and low motivational levels. He then made an equation to find the most depressing day of the year. He found it to be the third Monday of January, and Blue Monday was born.
Blue Monday quickly became a sensation - thousands of companies started offering ‘Blue Monday Deals’ with the idea being that you should buy products to turn the ‘most depressing day of the year’ into a good day. ‘blue Monday depressing day’ is in the top 5 trending searches in google right now as I write, and #BlueMonday is the top UK trend on twitter. But is Blue Monday a good idea? Many are strongly against it.
23-year-old Sophie Edwards, who talks about mental health in her blog Petals of Perfection, explains: “I think Blue Monday is a load of rubbish to be honest - it's just a label on an ordinary day but it puts a lot of pressure on people who already have a mental illness to overcome it.” She herself has suffered from anxiety and panic attacks since the age of seven. “It adds a lot of anxiety to the day and people get worried about the buildup of it. I like to plan ahead- so if I look at a day and see it’s labelled the most depressing day of the year. I’ll get anxious about that and think I need to be happy on that day.” The creator of Blue Monday is ironically now a self-described ‘activist to stop #BlueMonday’. He said that his intention was never for Blue Monday to be a bad thing, instead he wants to encourage people to take on a positive outlook.
Charity Samaritans has launched the campaign #BrewMonday to turn the day into a time to open up a positive conversation around mental health. In a Twitter post, they explained: “Taking the time to just listen could help someone through a tough time”. Sophie Edwards is happy that some people have had the same thought. “I’ve seen a lot of people online saying things like ‘Today is just another day but if you need someone to talk to I’m here. It’s raising awareness that there’s a massive support network both on and offline.” Dr Philip Clarke, a psychology lecturer, is another person strongly against Blue Monday. “I started speaking out against Blue Monday when I saw companies were trying to use it as an excuse to sell things. The key thing to remember is that Blue Monday isn’t scientifically proven - there's not even proof that January sees a rise in mental health referrals although it may seem that way.” However he, too, thinks there are good things to be taken from Blue Monday. “Blue Monday is getting people to have those difficult conversations about depression and anxiety and what you can actually do to help with that. I think that’s a really strong benefit that comes with it.”
It is important to remember that feeling a bit low is very different from depression. But Dr. Clarke says there are things that everyone can do to boost their mental health, such as exercise, assessing new year's resolutions and volunteering. Here’s to a normal Monday!
If you or someone you know may be suffering from poor mental health, there are many websites there to help. Here are some links to some helpful websites:
For Childline: Call 0800 1111 or visit www.childline.org.uk
For Young Minds: Call 020 7089 5050 or visit www.youngminds.org.uk