Why do people apparently feel so gloomy on ‘Blue Monday’ in January?

The third week of this month is sometimes derided as the most depressing day of the year. 

The joys of Christmas are fading into memory, the weather is bitterly cold and summer seems like a very distant prospect. 

Is it any wonder people need cheering up?

“One of the travel companies had a psychologist use some sort of arithmetic to identify a day that typically people might feel down because they wanted to sell more sunny holidays,” psychologist Laoise McGrath told Henry McKean for Newstalk Breakfast. 

“The third Monday of January, of course, we’re further away from Christmas, our motivation for maybe some grandiose New Year’s resolutions has waned, maybe there’s debt, the weather is cold, maybe a bit gloomy.”

Mental health

Despite this, Ms McGrath said not everyone will be impacted by Blue Monday and the state of someone’s mental health is unique to them. 

“Of course, we can’t generalise when people are depressed,” she said. 

“It’s not just the third Monday in January. 

“What makes one person feel low isn’t the same for everybody, so it’s important to know yourself and to know what feels up or down for you. 

“What gives you hope or feel more energised, where you feel lower and really take personal responsibility for that.” 

For Ms McGrath, exercise, good food, sleep and strong relationships are all important tools that help keep her in a good mood. 

That might not work for everyone, but it is useful to find out what can help your mental health. 

“We have to remember, we’re in winter time and during winter time, our systems want to relax and nurture ourselves,” she said. 

“If we’ve made all these grand resolutions to go running outside in the rain, it doesn’t come as any surprise that we may not land those resolutions really well. 

“So, I think the message has to be, know yourself, tune into how you’re feeling and if you are feeling particularly low, to get the help that you need.” 

New job, new me?

Top Tier Recruitment Co-Founder Laura Smith finds that her inbox is flooded in January with people coming to her for career coaching. 

“Most of the time it transpires that the actual cause of unhappiness is actually something deeper in somebody’s personal life than their actual job,” she said. 

“You spend over 19,000 hours a year in your job, so you kind of need to be happy in it. 

“People tend to fall into a job and then just get promoted and then suddenly… they realise, ‘I’m unhappy in my job.’”

If you are unhappy with your job, Ms Smith suggests identifying what it is you do like about it and see if you can focus on that aspect of it more. 

“Think about what it is that you really enjoy in your career and from there think about a job that might fit into those things that you like,” she said. 

“Make the relevant changes to get to that end goal… Your next job might not be your dream job but at least if you know the end goal, you can better understand the steps you need to take to get there.”

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Main image: People on Grafton Street wrapped up warm. Picture by: RollingNews.ie