Blue Monday
The ‘saddest day of the year’ offers a moment to reflect and reconnect
The third Monday in January (Jan. 19 this year) is known as Blue Monday and is commonly referred to as the saddest day of the year.
In reality, the term was coined in 2005 by a UK travel company that wanted to encourage people to book trips – and 1`they did so by identifying the day with this label.
While there isn’t much science behind this being true, Jack Veitch, manager of community engagement and education of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge, said the day is a good time for people to really check in on themselves.
“There (are) good things you can pull from a day like (Blue Monday), even just in the sense of awareness. It’s a day where people can be cognizant and reflect,” Veitch said. With the holiday season over, holiday credit card bills coming in, and gloomy weather, it is a hard time of the year for many.
Veitch encourages everyone to take the opportunity to really check in with themselves, and if they find they aren’t doing as well as they would like to be, he suggests people set small, attainable goals to avoid finding themselves isolated. Whether that means simply stepping outside, going for a walk around the block once a week, or reaching out to a loved one they haven’t connected with in a while, it all goes a long way to improving someone’s mental health.
Jason Ward, one of the CMHA HKPR directors and a mental health advocate, said that while Blue Monday might not officially be the saddest day of the year, Mondays in general are the hardest day of the week for many.
When the weekend hits, people tend to stay up later and sleep in, and by the time Monday comes around, their routine is thrown off, and many suffer from essentially a minor jet lag. “It’s caused by abrupt schedule shifts following your weekend, and that’s combined with anticipatory stress and loss of control from your weekend,” said Ward. He encourages people to make an effort to wake up within an hour of when they would during the week on the weekend.
Psychology Today backs up Ward’s assertion that it’s related to sleep routines and our circadian rhythm.
To combat these Monday blues, Veitch said a simple step people can take is to write down two or three things they want to intentionally do between January and April. “Being active, being out connected with a new group, reaching out to new friends, starting a new hobby. It doesn’t have to be huge or massive. Little things can make a big difference,” he said.
During this time of year, many are also suffering from seasonal affective disorder, which tends to be more common in the late fall and winter months. Those with SAD tend to have low energy, mood changes, and an increased appetite. SAD is typically caused by the lack of sunlight during this time of year, and it can affect anyone.
“No one is insulated from mental health-related issues. It’s very slowly being recognized as something as important as physical health, but there’s still a stigma, and there’s still hesitance to discuss mental health issues. But there shouldn’t be,” Ward said.
Nordic countries show higher rates of SAD on average than more southern climates, and the strongest, evidence‑based countermeasure to help deal with it is morning bright‑light therapy. Many Nordic health systems and communities also use preventive strategies like Vitamin D, physical activity, and better workplace designs to maximize light and movement.
For those who are still struggling, Veitch encourages them to visit the CMHA walk-in clinic at 33 Lindsay Street South in Lindsay or to call 988, the national suicide crisis hotline that is available every day of the year, 24/7.
Health Canada says one in five Canadians don’t get enough Vitamin D. As of 31 December 2025, Health Canada doubled the amount of Vitamin D allowed in dairy products. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7044622
From what I witnessed, Christmas 2025 was the saddest in a long time for many, simply due to the economy. Not being able to afford food, let alone gifts for loved ones, is a burden that adds to the daily blues we all experience. And because even the poorest among us want to be jolly at Christmas, many overspend and that can contribute to January blues.
I think most of the blues we all experience and much of mental illness is caused by simple injustice, the unfairness of everyday life, the chutes and ladders world of chance we live in. Despite the generally-held assumption of free will and self determination, there are no guarantees and often people experience trauma that completely destroys their lives and their beliefs about what is. That can make one very sad and cynical for long periods of time.
But people are resilient too. Periods of mental illness, even long periods of delusion, including delusions that affect a good proportion of society, are pretty natural, if history is any measure. People recover and change, sometimes miraculously after years of socially-alienating labels and (mis)treatment. But the labels persist, labels that are often simply wrong and that carry with them catastrophic stigma. It may be beneficial to discuss openly one’s experiences with depression and anxiety because most people can relate, but being open about diagnoses like, for example, a paraphilia, BPD, schizophrenia, or other less relatable mental illnesses doesn’t generally meet with the same sympathy and understanding and instead, often meets with fear, hostility, scapegoating and social shunning. That is why a stigma persists. Some mental illnesses have become socially acceptable while others are still strongly feared.