Is “Blue Monday” a myth?

As every year at this time, the topic of Blue Monday – or the third Monday in January, which was once considered , “the most depressing day of the year” – resurfaces on social media. Where did this idea come from and what impact does it have on the mental health discourse? In this article, we explain why Blue Monday is a myth – but still worth talking about.

Where Blue Monday came from

The idea for Blue Monday originated in 2005 as part of a campaign by a travel agency. The author of the concept is psychologist Cliff Arnall, who set out to find the saddest day of the year, when people would be most likely to book a vacation. Simply put: Blue Monday is a marketing gimmick that has grown into a pseudo-scientific phenomenon.

To determine the specific day that falls each year, Arnall developed a complex formula that takes into account a variety of factors, including: the weather, debt levels, monthly salary, how long it’s been since the holidays, how long a person has potentially stuck to New Year’s resolutions of motivation….

While all these variables may seem important, experts have repeatedly pointed out that it is impossible to determine a single worst day for everyone on the planet.

This makes the Blue Monday concept completely unscientific. Dean Burnet , M.D., a neuroscientist and author of The Happy Brain, summarizes the endeavor this way in the pages of the magazine The Guardian:

The equation itself is grotesque. It includes variables such as “time since Christmas,” “weather,” “debt levels,” “motivation levels,” “time since failure to maintain a New Year’s resolution,” and many other elements that are not part of the metric system. Even if most of these measurements were not meaningless measurements (how do you determine the motivation of everyone in the population?), they are not consistent. How to measurably connect “time since Christmas” with “weather”? You can’t.

Why you should talk about Blue Monday

While it is now known that there is no single worst day for mental health (and it certainly isn’t Blue Monday), this concept has become ingrained in Internet culture and is hard to fight. Belief in it can sometimes be harmful – as it leads to the phenomenon of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Headlines such as “Warning: the saddest day of the year is approaching” can cause any person to experience a significant drop in mood. People who are already struggling with depression or anxiety are especially likely to have their symptoms exacerbated by references to this supposedly gloomy date.

There are two reasons to mention Blue Monday today. First, by doing so, we can dispel the myth of “the saddest day of the year” and remind others that it is just like any other day.

Second, it is a good opportunity to talk about mental health.

All around us are people struggling with depression and other mental illnesses on a daily basis (according to official figures – it’s one in six or even one in four workers). Winter is a particularly difficult time for those struggling with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). This is worth keeping in mind when commenting on Blue Monday and the related topic of depression.

How to take care of employees on Blue Monday (and any other Monday)?

We encourage companies to use this day to discuss mental health. All you have to do is send a simple email or arrange a meeting to show that the social aspect of the work is as important to us as the task aspect. Let’s give our people a lot of support and understanding. Let’s share our own stories of past problems. And, most importantly, encourage the use of psychological support.

Do your best to enjoy this Monday and make it pleasant for those around you.