Health advocates in Manitoba are encouraging people to have open conversations on what is supposedly the most depressing day of the year, aka, Blue Monday.
The concept of the day began nearly 20 years ago and it’s always the third Monday in January. It was originally started for economic reasons.
“Really by a travel company that was looking to get folks travelling more in the winter so they used a bit of pseudo-science,” said Ayn Wilcox, executive director of Klinic Community Health.
However, the day is now more widely used to discuss mental health.
“It’s an opportunity to talk about seasonal affective disorder where folks are experiencing the winter blues perhaps,” Wilcox said.
The day can be depressing for a variety of reasons, one of which is the shorter days and lack of sunlight, says Dr Ganz Ferrance, a registered psychologist.
“We’re stuck. We’re stuck inside. It’s cold. Uh, the sunlight is really limited.” he said.
Ferrance says people’s bodies respond to the amount of light they get as well as the type of light.
“We don’t get the right spectrum, the right part of the spectrum in the wintertime to stimulate serotonin in our brains. And serotonin is a happy chemical that keeps us balanced.” he said.
Another contributor to people potentially feeling down is the post-holiday blues, Ferrance added. “So we have all this build-up to the holidays. We do all this other stuff and we get there and it’s fun. It’s exciting to connect to people and then it’s gone.”
Other reasons include limited social events and financial strain but no matter what the reason is for people to be feeling down in the dumps, Ferrance says it’s important to take care of oneself.
“If you have kids, or if you’re someone people rely on then you owe it to them and you owe it to yourself to make sure you’re in good shape, make sure you’re well looked after. When you feel good, you can do good,” he said.
For mental health advocate Kai Solomon, the day presents an opportunity to talk about mental health as they believe there’s still a stigma around it.
“So I live with depression and borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder,” they said. “Honestly it’s just a day but for some people, it’s a very important day.”
Soloman says they are passionate about being open about mental struggles after a close mentor died by suicide.
“I didn’t know. No one knew he was suffering so having him pass away made me realize that this is something that needs to be talked about more,” they said.
Soloman says daily activities such as meditation, time with pets and loved ones, and therapy, help them to manage their mental health disorders.
“I have done a lot of work on myself to be able to not suffer from them,” they said.
On this Blue Monday, advocates and experts in the field want to send the message, “You are not alone.”
— with files from Global’s Teagan Rasche