CREMONA – The saddest day of the year, Blue Monday, fell yesterday. A theory developed in the early 2000s by Cliff Arnall, a psychologist at Cardiff University. According to him, the third Monday of the month of January is even more difficult than the other first days of the week due to the simultaneous presence of various factors: the winter climate, the still short days, the distance from holidays and social occasions, to which must be added the Beginning of the year duties, expenses included. Whether you give credit to this theory or not, the data released yesterday by the territorial social health agency does not authorize optimism. They relate to requests for help received at the city’s psychiatry and psychology clinics.
Between 2021 and 2022, they saw a considerable increase: they count almost eight hundred more hits, from 1,229 to 2,013 in the psychiatric field, and 409 more requests, from 8,182 in 2021 to 8,591 in 2022, for psychological counseling. A problem that mainly affects young people and over 65s. The two most numerous age groups are in fact that between 16 and 26 years and that of grandparents, with a female prevalence. As he claims Roberto Poli, director of the Mental Health and Addictions department of the Asst, «beyond this Blue Monday phenomenon, which we could define as semi-serious and a bit pseudoscientific, days like this invite us to reflect on our state of health. In this regard it is necessary to make a distinction: while sadness is a common feeling that can affect anyone, perhaps following unfavorable events or contingent situations, depression is a real pathology, which can manifest itself with the difficulty of overcoming feelings negative, react to certain situations. When it becomes pathological, it can give itself away in partial or total inability to cope with daily activities.
Not to forget that depression is not only a psychic pathology, but often manifests itself in a systemic way with symptoms such as insomnia, loss of appetite, physical pain or decrease in the immune system, exposing the person to other risks.
In these cases it is important to know how to recognize them and ask for help: “When a person understands that they cannot find an answer to their emotional condition on their own – continues Poli – it is good to request psychological or psychiatric advice to access the most appropriate treatment”.
There are various paths that can be taken. «Therapy can be psychological or psychopharmacological, depending on the extent of the disorder – concludes the specialist -: compared to years ago, the stigma towards depression is less, especially for the new generations, who have less difficulty in turning to a specialist. Although more widespread, with an adequate approach and the right support depression is well treatable and can be cured».
Cinzia Sacchelli, director of the clinical psychology service of the Asst of Crema, adds: «Il Blue monday it is a colorful invention, which falls within the realm of pseudoscience or rather the habit of our society, but which has in itself some elements of reality that can be described. The Christmas holidays, like everything that takes us out of the ordinary, alter perception. The same happened in the post-lockdown period. We have all struggled to return, to get back into the game, to live in a less self-managed and more demanding reality. The daily routine demands and is rapid. We all see it and experience it, at work or at school».
After the holidays there was also an increase in requests for help in the Crema area. Added to this are the signs left by the pandemic: «States of anxiety and depression have increased – continues Sacchelli – For minors, even disordered behaviors that lead to putting themselves at risk. But the pandemic is not the only cause. Who is looking for answers all he has to do is cross the threshold of the community house in via Gramsci in Crema. Here you will find the team of psychologists, the link with prevention, with general practitioners and paediatricians of free choice. Specialists who also act in external contexts, collaborating with colleagues who follow the schools.
