The Truth About “Blue Monday”
Blue Monday, as we’ve come to know it, falls annually on the third Monday of January. This day is used to signify the “most depressing day” of the year. Unfortunately, these claims were made with no validity.
Where did Blue Monday come from?
A man by the name of Cliff Arnall created an equation to determine the “saddest day of the year” for a travel company called Sky Travel, based in the United Kingdom. The goal of identifying the saddest day of the year was to build a campaign encouraging folks to book their flights for travel in order to “boost their mood” in low times (while also conveniently boosting sales for Sky Travel). The idea, however, that this date is somehow the saddest day for us all as a human collective, took off like wildfire.
Why is this problematic?
Well, there are a few problems with “Blue Monday” in our eyes (and the eyes of many other health professionals).
First off – the way “Blue Monday” was identified was through use of a completely made up (and arbitrary) equation. Arnall, the creator of Blue Monday, took factors such as weather, time since Christmas, debt, and so forth, and used those data points to speculate when “most people” might be struggling with potential seasonal blues. This is not credible. This is pseudoscience. And making claims about human beings, without using credible research methodologies, has the risk of causing great harm.
Secondly, when we expose human vulnerabilities (even a supposed collective vulnerability), we run the risk of falling victim to marketing schemes and sales pitches (possibly to fix a problem that isn’t even based in validity in the first place!). In an article in the Canadian Press by Hannah Alberga, she cites clinical psychologist Jonathan N. Stea when reminding us that “people shouldn’t conflate consumerism with seeking mental-health support” (Alberga, 2025).
Third – are we priming ourselves to struggle on a day (or time of year), that otherwise wouldn’t have been problematic? Alberga, as well as many other articles (listed below), give way to this notion that if we assume there is a “saddest day of the year” then folks are more apt to fall victim to actually feeling low, given the popular rhetoric around the day. It’s a big self-fulfilling prophecy, my friends.
And truthfully, the most problematic point of all in our eyes – Blue Monday and the history behind it – is that it largely undermines and trivializes true clinical depression. We can’t say it better than Dean Barnett said it in his (highly comical) 2013 blog post in The Guardian: “On a serious note, I don’t agree with anything which implies that depression is just a fleeting thing that can be dismissed so trivially. Genuine clinical depression is a very serious disorder, and people who experience it have a hard enough time being taken seriously as it is, without puff pieces like this implying it’s something everyone goes through with inexplicable regularity.”
A silver-lining to Blue Monday?
The one silver-lining that we can see is that while Blue Monday is far from based in any fact or reality, what it has done is elicit great discussion about mental-health related topics, specifically depression and seasonal affective mood changes and disorders. We will never turn down an opportunity to have a great discussion about the realities of mental health, and mental illness. And with those discussions, come a lot of beautiful resources from more well-intended folk.
Our tip for getting through Blue Monday…
Take in all the beautiful conversations and soak up the (reliable) resources on how to beat and overcome winter blues. And also, beware of marketing schemes targeting this truly made-up day.
We trust in the mental health industry and the loving professionals who intend to help us through hard times. Big travel agencies aiming to increase their sales? Less so.
RESOURCES:
https://www.camh.ca/en/camh-news-and-stories/beating-the-blues-on-blue-monday
https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/jan/16/blue-monday-depressing-day-pseudoscience
