"Blue Monday" ... is an idea coined in 2005 by psychologist Cliff Arnall, a former part-time lecturer at Cardiff University in Wales.
"I was asked a number of years ago if I could come up with what I thought was the most depressing day of the year. And I thought that was a really good challenge and I was curious to see what day that would be," Arnall told CTV's Canada AM from Brecon, Wales on Monday.
Arnall came up with a bit of a convoluted formula to show that the third Monday in January is the most depressing day of the year.
That's the day, he reasoned, when the lousy weather conspires with our holiday bills and our depression over our failed New Year's resolutions to make this day downright awful.
If the cold and cloudy weather weren't enough to make us blue, many of us are realizing today that we really couldn't afford all those things we bought ahead of Christmas. Then, there's those New Year's resolutions we made that have fallen by the wayside or been outright abandoned.
"Motivational levels also tend to be quite low at this time of year," Arnall explained. "You've got something called the ‘hibernation effect,' when people tend to be more lethargic, they eat more than they really need."
Put it all together and you've got the most depressing day of the year.
[CTV Calgary]
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