I don't know how many times I have been reminded in the last week that today is Blue Monday.
It's as if the media and subsequently all of us consumed by it - consciously or subconsciously - want me to feel depressed!
In fact working in recruitment, I'm probably expected to take advantage of this phenomenon with marketing messaging to beat these blues & come and find a new job with me.
I refuse.
I'd encourage others to do so too and realise where this term started. Mental health is a much bigger and more important issue that being trivialized by terms such as this. Events over the last week have have reminded me that we are lucky for each day we have, be it the 3rd Monday in January or any other.
Lets sack Blue Monday and make it a piece of media history.
Perhaps the true meaning of the imagined “Blue Monday” is that we all have mental health and that there are steps that we can take on every day of the year to try and protect it. We shouldn't just be thinking about our mental health on the third Monday of January this year, but on every day of every year. Depression and other mental health problems last for more than a day. And mental health problems affect people in different ways on any day of the year. Poor mental health is the greatest public health challenge facing our generation. Trivialising symptoms of depression, anxiety and other mental health problems, under the influence of commercial industries that wish to turn mental health into an on-trend topic for profit, is unacceptable. Our approach should be evidence-based, involve whole communities and prioritise prevention.
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