January has been long regarded as the darkest of months, but a formula from a part-time tutor at Cardiff University shows it gets even worse this Monday. Foul weather, debt, fading Christmas memories, failed resolutions and a lack of motivation conspire to depress, Cliff Arnalls found.
The formula for the day of misery reads 1/8 W + (D-d) 3/8 x TQM x NA.
W is weather
D is debt - minus the money (d) due on January's pay day
T is the time since Christmas.
Q is the period since the failure to quit a bad habit
M stands for general motivational levels
NA is the need to take action and do something about it.
Dr Arnalls calculated the effects of cold, wet and dark January weather after the cosiness of Christmas coupled with extra spending in the sales. He found January 24th was especially dangerous, coming a whole month after Christmas festivities. Any energy from the holiday had worn off by the third week of January, he said. By January 24, most people will have fallen off the wagon or abandoned the nicotine patches as they fail to keep New Year's resolutions. That compounds a sense of failure and knocks confidence needed to get through January.
The fact that the most depressing day fell on a Monday was not planned but a coincidence, he said.
(Thanks Deb for cheering me up!)
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