Blue Monday

According to a research professor at Cardiff University, one of Britain’s major teaching and research universities, the most depressing day of 2011 falls on the third Monday of the month –(this year January 17) - a day the professor has dubbed as Blue Monday. Blue because as well as being a colour, blue also denotes melancholy; unhappiness dejection; desolation; all words which signify sadness. And Monday because typically, historically and quite frankly, Mondays suck. (Just in case you didn’t get the meaning.)

The professor has based his theory on a formula which factors in the weather (Baby it’s cold outside.); consumer spending debt (Merry Christmas?) and the average length of time it takes for New Year’s resolutions to be broken (He’s off by a full two weeks on my cave-in).

The researchers have been tracking data for several years and have concluded the saddest month of the year is November, or more specifically, mid-November, just in time for the holiday season to begin. We live in a digital age and our Internet behaviour (Google) shows this is the time that official websites for drugs offering relief from depression get the most hits. But it’s not until two weeks later search sites for depression peak. We live up or down to our expectations with the exception of mid-November where we instead anticipate a downward spiral and shop early for our drug of choice. We may be an unhappy bunch but no one can say we’re not prepared.

One is most likely to get fired in January (won’t happen to me this year; maybe next if I’m lucky); engaged in February (makes sense, Valentine’s Day); give birth in July (which really doesn’t make much sense if we’re all supposed to be do damn depressed in November and everyone knows a side effect of anti-depressants is lowered libido, right? Or am I the only one who knows this?). And last but not least, the happiest day of the year is June 17th. Why? I do not know. But if I had to venture a guess I would say end of the school year; start of summer holidays; graduations; weddings; nice weather; Christmas bills finally paid off and this year at least, June 17th falls on a Friday. Need I same more?