Blue Monday 2013: Today is the Most Depressing Day of the Year

Culture

Today is Blue Monday 2013, the most depressing day of the year, according to a bunch pseudoscientific theories put forth by some British psychologist (shocking!) and even Sky Travel — a now-defunct British travel TV channel that was apparently trying to sell more Caribbean cruises in one of the year's coldest and darkest dates (that is, of course if you don't happen to live in fabulous Miami Beach).

From Wikipedia:    

"This date was published in a press release under the name of Cliff Arnall, at the time a tutor at the Centre for Lifelong Learning, a Further Education centre attached to Cardiff University. Guardian columnist Dr. Ben Goldacre reported that the press release was delivered substantially pre-written to a number of academics by public relations agency Porter Novelli, who offered them money to put their names to it."

Mail Online corroborates this origins by asserting, "Arnall based the [Blue Monday] theory on the "hibernation’ effect" — a time of year when people feel tired, don’t exercise, stay indoors and eat comfort food."

"It's the combination of factors that make life right now particularly uncertain," Arnall reportedly said, adding that the idea of a single most depressing day was "not particularly helpful" because it became "a self-fulfilling prophecy" and that "achieving happiness and being less materialistic was a year-round aim."

Perhaps, we can start eliminating this "holiday" but focusing in the positives of President Obama's second inauguration (or would this make us even more depressed?).