Westerners have a belief that blue Monday, the third Monday in January, is said to be the most stressful and depressing day of the year.
Blue Monday is often associated with adverse weather conditions, the post-Christmas lull, critical finances and unattainable New Year's resolutions.
The term blue Monday was first coined in 2004 by Cliff Arnall, a psychologist and motivational speaker, after he teamed up with British travel company Sky Travel to come up with a formula for determining the saddest day of the year.
Blue Monday then became the centerpiece of a Sky Travel ad campaign designed to encourage people to take vacations to reduce the 'woe' of Blue Monday. However, Arnall's calculations were roundly rejected by the scientific and academic community.
"Sad in winter is a natural response to the end of the Christmas and New Year holidays. But to pathologize such normal feelings into a kind of 'acute depression' with the word blue Monday is wrong," said Craig Jackson, professor of occupational health psychology at Birmingham City University in the UK. , quoted from Live Science.
"The ethics are questionable. There is no credible research evidence to suggest that Blue Monday is any sadder than any other day or even the saddest day of the year," he said.
Jackson said public health markers, such as death rates, absence of disease, psychiatric morbidity, and even estimates of death or suicide attempts, did not show an increase on the third Monday of January each year or in the days before and after.
“The only way this date can be seen as a sadder day than any other is because the mainstream media is telling people it is a blue Monday so the prophetic effect fulfills itself because it was suggested and did happen. People need to know this isn't it scientific fact," Jackson said.
However, Jackson notes that the winter months can play a role in catalyzing or increasing feelings of depression and anxiety. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), sometimes referred to as "winter depression," is a phenomenon that affects 1%-10% of people, depending on the survey, according to a 2015 review in the journal The Physician and Sportsmedicine.
"Simply put, SAD is a form of depression, with symptoms ranging from mild to major, occurring mostly during the winter months, which can be caused or exacerbated by a lack of natural light from the Sun as well as social reasons such as reduced activity and free time due to colder days. days are shorter and colder," Jackson said.
He also suggested that there may be a link between disease rates and reduced activity that could contribute to depression rates during the winter season.
A 2022 article published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that cold weather can lower immunity and make people more susceptible to viruses.
"However, there is no relationship between sufferers of SAD and Blue Monday," said Jackson.
The Mental Health Foundation, a non-profit organization in England, has even stated that the term blue Monday can potentially damage people's welfare.
"It is certainly ethically dubious to trick people into believing that they are almost destined to be unhappy when they don't have to be," Jackson said.
What's worse, though, is that the idea of a blue Monday can mislead people struggling with mental health issues and suicidal thoughts.
"They can mistakenly think they're destined to feel down that day, or assume they'll feel better after the blue Monday is over," she explains.
As is known, depression is a complex health problem. Figures released by the World Health Organization indicate that around 280 million people globally are currently experiencing depression.
Depression can cause a variety of symptoms and can range from mild to severe. Depression also has many causes, including chemical reactions, social reactions, responses to difficult circumstances, to childhood events or previous traumatic experiences that are not fully understood.
"Dubbing our understanding of depression and bad moods does no one any good. Blue Monday is irrelevant. People are free to ignore it and challenge this stupid hoax," he concluded.