January is not an easy month to deal with and, as always, Blue Monday is also having an impact, arriving next Monday the 16th. Defining the third Monday of January as the 'saddest day of the year' would have been a mathematical equation developed in 2005 by Dr. Cliff Arnall, who at the time was teaching evening courses at Cardiff University in Wales, but now the line between truth and legend has almost disappeared. Yet something real and tangible remains in the sadness that comes after the end of the Christmas holidays: we go back to work and the horizon of the next holidays is very distant. Not only. According to an analysis by ProntoPro, a marketplace for professional services, the beginning of the year is a particularly sensitive time for psychological consultations and in January there is a greater focus on mental well-being, with a peak in demand for psychologists precisely in the week of Blue Monday.
In fact, by observing the trend in requests for psychologists in the month of January, analysts have found that the week of Blue Monday, in some cases, exceeds the searches for psychologists carried out in the first 7 days of the year by more than 10 percentage points. In January 2023, for example, the requests that occurred during the 'sad Monday' reached the maximum peak of the month, equal to 28%, compared to 17% in the first week and a monthly average of 20%. A similar trend was recorded in 2022, 2021 and 2020, where 24%, 22% and 25% of requests were concentrated respectively in the Blue Monday week, against a monthly average which always stood around 20%. Furthermore, January is the month in which, on ProntoPro.it, there is a surge in demand for psychologists compared to other periods of the year. In 2023, in fact, in the first month of the year requests reached 21%, compared to an annual average of just over 8%.
It is Gen Z who breaks the taboo, given that 44% of those looking for a psychologist are between 19 and 25 years old. Analyzing the behavior of the various age groups, the analysts noted that in 2023 it was mainly young adults under 25 years of age (44%) who sought support from a psychologist, a generation that shows a constant and growing interest in mental well-being and in fact records the highest percentage of growth compared to the previous year in the demand for services of this type: +6 points compared to other age groups. Followed by Millennials (26-35 years), from whom 26% of requests for psychological support come. Only 14% of the demand for psychologists comes from people between 36 and 50 years old, with a decrease of 3 points compared to 2022, while 8% comes from those between 10 and 18 years old, a decrease of 2 points percentages compared to 2022. Bringing up the rear are those over 51 who, with only 7% of requests for this type of service, appear to neglect mental health a little more.
According to the World Health Organization, globally there are over 300 million people who suffer from anxiety problems, the most common disorder among those linked to mental well-being, and which in Italy affects almost 2 and a half million citizens. The data collected by ProntoPro confirms this: considering all the requests for psychological support registered by the portal, over 60% of those looking for the service do so for problems related to anxiety, stress, panic attacks and fears, a growing need for 5 points compared to 2022. At the same time, among the most common reasons for contacting a specialist there are also personality problems, such as low self-esteem or anger, which affect 50% of applicants. However, according to the WHO, the number of users who request consultation for relationship problems (32%), depression (29%), trauma (20%), sexual or relationship problems (18%), eating disorders is lower. (12%) or addictions (7%). Lastly, 26% of users are looking for general advice.
Comparing the data we discover that, from the point of view of needs, the age groups show some specificities. For example, ProntoPro analysts have indicated that children between 10 and 18 years of age are those who resort to therapy for eating disorders more than others (a need expressed by 16% of them, 4 percentage points more than the 12 % of the national average of those seeking psychological support). Between the ages of 26 and 35, however, people go to therapy, more than other age groups, for addictions (10%), but also for relational problems (33%): the latter figure is higher only in the 19- 25. Among those aged 36-50 there is the highest percentage of people seeking support for relationship problems (27% of requests, compared to the national average of 18%). Instead, those looking for generalized advice are mainly parents concerned about children under 10, while requests for depression come in particular from those over 50.
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