Blue Monday Bulls**t
Blue Monday: a depressing day of pseudoscience and humiliation
A psychologist explains why the third Monday of January has for him become the most depressing day of the year.
…there are many reasons why someone may feel particularly “down” during January. But every year, much of the media become fixated on a specific day – the third Monday in January – as the most depressing of the year. It has become known as Blue Monday.
This silly claim comes from a ludicrous equation that calculates “debt”, “motivation”, “weather”, “need to take action” and other arbitrary variables that are impossible to quantify and largely incompatible.
True clinical depression (as opposed to a post-Christmas slump) is a far more complex condition that is affected by many factors, chronic and temporary, internal and external. What is extremely unlikely (i.e. impossible) is that there is a reliable set of external factors that cause depression in an entire population at the same time every year.
Tip: Barbara Drescher on Facebook
This is a story of pseudoscience passed off as genuine science. The author says it “harms the public understanding of science and psychology. It’s also disrespectful to those who suffer from genuine depression,” and I agree. It’s also about the media doing a crappy job. Slow news day?
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