Surprising origin of Blue Monday - why it may be less depressing than you think

15 January 2024 , 05:00

582     0

Does Blue Monday really have any truth to it? (Stock Image) (Image: PA)

January feels like a long month because the festivities of December are done and dusted, you're not paid for a long time, you overspent and overindulged last month, and you're struggling to keep up with your New Year's resolutions - and then there's so-called 'Blue Monday' to contend with.

Today, January 15, is the third Monday of the month, meaning it's 'Blue Monday' - but why is the third Monday of the month allegedly a gloomy day? Well, Blue Monday was created by psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall in 2004 to try and help a travel company sell more holidays, devising a formula to legitimate it.

The formula he used, as reported by Sky News, was: [W + (D-d)] x TQ. Then M x NA. In this equation, there are seven variables: (W) weather, (D) debt, (d) monthly salary, (T) time since Christmas, (Q) time since failed quit attempt, (M) low motivational levels and (NA) the need to take action.

The formula is meant to account for the fact that the weather is much colder in January, the long slog until the next payday, New Year's resolutions you may not have managed to stick to, and the fact that the December festivities are long gone.

But does this mean that Blue Monday is the most depressing day of the year? It definitely doesn't, and we have to remember that it was a marketing strategy - and a clever one at that, because it's still happening 19 years later.

Newsboy’s Daily Double plus tips on every race from Monday’s three meetings

Speaking to the Guardian, neuroscientist Dean Burnett described the equation as "farcical" and "unscientific." He said: "Even if most of these weren't nonsensical measurements (how do you determine the motivation of everyone in the population?), they're not compatible. How do you quantifiably combine 'time since Christmas' with 'weather'? You can't."

Samaritans started a counter-campaign called Brew Monday, which labels Blue Monday a "myth" and encourages people to "make time for a cuppa and a catch-up."

Danielle Kate Wroe