One day in January was branded as the most depressing day of the year. Blue Monday is the name given to the third Monday in that month. This year was the most depressing ever because of celebrity deaths, Brexit, and fears of a Donald Trump presidency.
Dr. Cliff Arnall calculated a light-hearted formula for predicting the gloomiest day based on factors that included weather, debts, time since Christmas, low motivation and a feeling of the need to take action. It was later publicized by Sky Travel as the most depressing day of the year in order to spur on people to take vacations in the sun.
While Blue Monday has been perpetuated by social media and publicity campaigns, Dr. Adam Milne of the Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba said the idea is based on some very real issues for that time of year. “They didn’t make Blue Monday up out of nothing, Dr. Milne said. “The month of January is hard for a lot of people. The winters are long and in January it’s freezing. It’s dark when you get up and dark when you get home.” He added, “Another reality is a big letdown after the emotional high of holidays. Now you’re staring at three more months of work with no break in sight.”
Numerous accidents or tragedies have occurred on Blue Monday. One was Sonny Bono, who met his maker when he hit a tree while skiing in Nevada. The L’Isle-Verte nursing home fire happened in 2014, killing 32 people and injuring 15. A devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3, the biggest earthquake there in 200 years, struck Haiti in 2010. More than 220,000 people were killed and over 300,000 injured.
Even our area felt the influence. A prominent dairy farmer a few days after Blue Monday commented on the weather, “It is nice today but cloudy. There isn’t enough sun for my cows so it looks like I’ll have to adjust their diet to compensate.”
I, too had a brush with fate about 10 years ago, and on a Blue Monday. I lost reception on the TV and figured the satellite dish might be covered with snow. Sure enough, it was. I hauled out the half-buried extension ladder and with a broom in hand climbed to the top. It was that final swipe at the satellite dish that initiated the ladder to slide to one side. Having to leap off, I gauged the biggest pile of snow for a soft landing. Other than bruises here and there and feeling silly, I was okay.
There are always skeptics it seems. They declare the concept of Blue Monday is pseudoscience, with its formula devised by scientists as nonsensical. Responding indirectly to the claim, Dr. Milne advises, “Use Blue Monday as a springboard for change.”
To lift spirits on this most depressing day, Ukrainian contemporary artist Zoia Skoropadenko has made paintings in the colours with the greatest ‘happiness’ connotations across different cultures. “The mood enhancing properties of the three colours, yellow, orange and red, I’ve used in the paintings should trigger feelings of happiness across the broadest range of people.”
Art’s effects on mood are well documented. University College in London proved how blood flow in the part of the brain responsible for pleasure increased significantly when people looked at a painting they liked.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a real condition (mostly in January) in which weather affects people’s moods. Some people are vulnerable to a type of depression that follows a seasonal pattern, while about 10 percent of people will experience mood disorders. The Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba says symptoms of SAD can be treated with light therapy by sitting near “full-spectrum fluorescent lights with a brightness of 10,000 Lux” for 20-30 minutes every morning. Therapy (solar) lamps have been installed at libraries to fight SAD and more are to come.
There is even a song “Blue Monday”. Fats Domino was to first to sing it, soon after covered by Buddy Holly, eventually both New Order and Orgy produced rock versions of the song. George Gershwin back in the twenties produced a one-act jazz opera called Blue Monday.
Probably like most I don’t need the date a calendar to know when I’m depressed, but I will often play Blue Monday by Fats to ease the pain.
