Blue Monday 2023: Most depressing day of the year which even has a bizarre formula behind it, find out here

Do you know that the third Monday of January is known as the most depressing day in the world? Though every Monday might be the same to most of us as nobody wants to leave the comfort of their home, this Monday is 'officially' the worst Monday of all. It is widely known as "Blue Monday" and believed to be the saddest Monday of the year as the majority of people found themselves unable to complete their New Year resolutions, some still are in holiday hangover and some are in long holiday debt.

There are various reasons and stories behind this day, let's take a look at how this day actually got its name and shape. According to people like us, the first month of the year is traditionally seen as the gloomiest. Yes! There is no proven study on this, this is just something on which all humans agreed (for a change).

The term Blue Monday was created by a UK company, Sky Travel in 2005, which now no longer exists. What an irony! Some even say that this term was also given by a Welsh psychologist by the name of CliffArnall.

To determine the "saddest day of the year", the company said it used a formula of Arnall that considered seven things- time since Christmas, monthly salary, weather, debt, time since failed New Year’s resolution attempt, low motivational levels and the need to take action.

The formula came to know as C(P+B) N+D and was created by Arnall which he included in the longer formula:

W = Weather
D = Debt
d = Monthly salary
T = Time since Christmas
Q = Time since failing our New Year’s resolutions
M = Low motivational levels
Na = The feeling of needing to take action

But this is not thetype of formula like E = MC2 that will help the world, it just created more worry in the mind of the people.

Though the formula appears to be reasonable, and January is undeniably a miserable month, experts are sceptical of Blue Monday's legitimacy, claiming that there is no data to back up this claim.

After a lot of scientists and researchers debate this issue, it was found that Blue Monday is not a real thing. Blue Monday is "not something that I think is a common concept in the mental health field, and I think one of the reasons is that there is not a lot of empirical-based research that focuses on that concept", said Belle Liang, professor of counselling psychology at Boston College.

Nobody actually knows whether this day is real or not, as some believeit to be a marketing strategy only. And as more and more people are suffering right now due to various reasons in their life and around the world, the day easily resonates with the masses.