Do You Suffer from Monday Morning Blues?
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Chances are, at least some of you answered yes, thinking that it’s perfectly understandable to feel a let-down when your weekend is over and you have to return to work.



However, chances are, you’d be wrong–if you think Monday morning blues means that Monday is the worst day of the week for you by far. Yes, many people feel a mood change when going to work after a weekend, but the mood isn’t much if any different on Tuesday or later. (Try going back to work on Tuesday, after a 3-day weekend liked Memorial Day, for instance–Tuesday will probably feel much the same as Monday did in previous weeks.)



Are Monday Morning Blues for Real or Not, Then?



An article titled “Monday morning blues are a myth, say academics” says no, they’re not. According to a study reported on in 2012, Monday doesn’t show up as appreciably worse than Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. As the study says, “The perception of Blue Mondays is likely prevalent due to the extreme contrast in mood from Sunday to Monday, even though there is no real difference in mood with Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.”



Aha, so there is a big contrast between the weekend and the Monday–or whatever day happens to start your work week that week. So it seems to me, then, that Monday morning blues–while it might be something of a misnomer in terms of the actual day–does have some validity in explaining your mood when you have to return to work following a weekend that feels all too short.



Can You Prevent Monday Morning Blues?



If you feel a little reluctant at the start of the week to exchange your free time for doing what your employer pays you to do, that might be a natural emotion and not too difficult to get past. Just accept the inevitable and move on. However, if you actively dread returning to work on Monday–maybe even hate getting out of bed to start the day–something could be seriously wrong, and I’d strongly recommend looking into that ASAP.



Of course, you might already know you dislike your job, your boss or something else about the work you’re doing and decided you just need to deal with it and keep going (for whatever reason). On the other hand, you might not yet have realized the extent of your aversion and its effect on your mental and physical well-being. If you are one of those unfortunate individuals who is really in a miserable work situation, “dealing with it” could be much more difficult. In such situations, the concept of Monday morning blues doesn’t begin to describe the severity of the problem, and that’s no myth.



As I’ve said before, situations as severe as that might require you to find a way, somehow, to change your circumstances–such as conducting a serious job search and finding a better position in another company. It’s basically up to you to determine that, but you can look for support from people trained to help people make difficult life changes–a spiritual advisor if you have one, a life or career coach, a counselor…up to and possibly including work with a therapist if that’s called for.



By the way, I haven’t had anything close to the Monday morning blues in longer than I can remember. That’s because I really love what I do–working with clients to help them prepare for and make a job or career change. When you love what you do, it’s almost true that it’s not work. Almost, because of course I work very hard at what I do, but I find it so satisfying that it’s definitely worth the effort. I hope you can say the same in the near future, if it’s not true for you now.