Blue Monday: How Does It Feel?

Today is statistically the worst day for depression in the whole year. To be honest, I’m puzzled to how this day came to be known as this. As I expected, it was used as a publicity stunt by Sky Travel which used an equation apparently found by academics at Cardiff University. However, I don’t think there is always a certain day for depression to manifest itself anyway. Its way more nuanced than explained in most typical examples.

The most common example is usually darkness enveloping you in some form. I would describe it as a visceral force that attaches itself to you inside out. Its a force that can be created by numerous circumstances, mostly trauma related. It can also exist with many other mental health issues such as anxiety, OCD, auto immune diseases, anything that throws your brain out of balance on a chemical level.

I also find personally the more accurate example is that of the ‘Sunken Place’ from the movie Get Out. Everything and anything is rendered numb and out of reach. The times I spent alone in bed wishing to get up and out in my worst days its highly accurate. Your actual will is so disconnected, its screaming with all of its might but your body is barely responding.

Those episodes of deep depression widened my understanding of others. Especially when it came to those indescribable loss of feeling. It made me more empathetic to clients stepping out of depression for whatever reason it was. It made me think about clarity when setting them tasks and not to rush if things didn’t work as they should, but know it may take a wise nudge to find out how to create better systems to push through their roadblocks to their own goals.

For me now, whenever I think of Blue Monday I automatically think of the New Order record and it makes me bob my head in time and makes me want to get back to recording. Sometimes it just takes one shift to change perspective on what others call a bad day into a good day.

So ‘How Does It Feel?’ It feels better than it did, but I’m smart enough to know what it felt like and remember when I start sinking to ground myself.

Until next time, #embraceinfinity folks!