Blue Monday: The unhappiest day of the year
If you are feeling a little down then you can take solace in the thought that things are unlikely to get any worse.
Today, say experts, is the unhappiest day in the entire year.
Unpaid Christmas bills, nasty weather, and failed New Year's resolutions combine to make January 22 the gloomiest in the calendar.
Dr Cliff Arnall, a Cardiff University psychologist, devised the formula that shows today is the most depressing.
His equation takes into account six factors: weather, debt, time since Christmas, time since failing our new year's resolutions, low motivational levels and the feeling of a need to take action.
Taken together they pinpoint today as 'Blue Monday'.
Dr Arnall said that by understanding the main factors for depression we can prevent becoming unhappy next year.
He said: 'Use the day as a springboard for a higher quality life. For example keeping Christmas spending to a strict budget next year will make you less depressed in the last week of January.
'Also, decide on changing behaviour, such as giving up smoking, eating better, exercising more and getting that new job.'
The research - entitled the Freestyle Happiness Index - also found that the nation's optimism is being boosted by a falling interest in material possessions.
For the 15 per cent of pessimists and those who feel very depressed, the Samaritans urged people not to bottle it up but to get in touch.
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