If you listen to popular songs, you might conclude there’s no day as depressing as a Monday. But a new study shows that lyricists may have gotten it all wrong and that Wednesday is really the darkest day of the week.
The study, published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, found that people are far more likely to kill themselves in the middle of the week than in the beginning or the end: almost 25 percent of suicides occur on Wednesdays as compared to 14 percent on Mondays or Saturdays, the two days tied for second-highest suicide rates. The study also found if you make it through Wednesday, your risk for suicide plummets by more than half the following day; Thursdays have the lowest rate, with only 11 percent of suicides.
Research up until now has pointed a finger at Mondays, said the new report’s lead author, Augustine J. Kposowa, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Riverside. “Everyone talks about the Monday blues,” Kposowa added. “But if you look at more recent data, it looks like things have shifted and now it’s the middle of the week that’s the problem.”
More study is needed to fully understand the findings, but researchers suspect that we may be seeing a positive impact of technology on suicide and depression. With the advent of e-mail, Internet discussion groups and text messaging, people can now stay in touch with the outside world even if they are holed up by themselves at home the entire weekend.
As for the spike in suicides in the middle of the week, Kposowa suggested that the increase may indicate job stress. “People may be fed up and stressed by their jobs by the middle of the week,” he said. “By Wednesday, the traffic has gotten to be too much, their co-workers are getting on their nerves and they can’t figure out how they’re going to make it to the end of the week.”
The study, published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, found that people are far more likely to kill themselves in the middle of the week than in the beginning or the end: almost 25 percent of suicides occur on Wednesdays as compared to 14 percent on Mondays or Saturdays, the two days tied for second-highest suicide rates. The study also found if you make it through Wednesday, your risk for suicide plummets by more than half the following day; Thursdays have the lowest rate, with only 11 percent of suicides.
Research up until now has pointed a finger at Mondays, said the new report’s lead author, Augustine J. Kposowa, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Riverside. “Everyone talks about the Monday blues,” Kposowa added. “But if you look at more recent data, it looks like things have shifted and now it’s the middle of the week that’s the problem.”
More study is needed to fully understand the findings, but researchers suspect that we may be seeing a positive impact of technology on suicide and depression. With the advent of e-mail, Internet discussion groups and text messaging, people can now stay in touch with the outside world even if they are holed up by themselves at home the entire weekend.
As for the spike in suicides in the middle of the week, Kposowa suggested that the increase may indicate job stress. “People may be fed up and stressed by their jobs by the middle of the week,” he said. “By Wednesday, the traffic has gotten to be too much, their co-workers are getting on their nerves and they can’t figure out how they’re going to make it to the end of the week.”
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- News, Current Tonight, Psychology
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- AwesomeJosh
- added this
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Mondays are clearly the most evilest of all days....
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- metalcookiesxy70
- 4 months ago
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now THAT is an interesting study.
but there would be so many factors besides a mere coincidence to actually find out why wednesday; one would have to study most of the individual cases (to see if it was a breakup, medication, depression, etc), news events, weather reports, and so on.i'd like to see where this goes.
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- pnuttbuttajelli
- 4 months ago
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O snap today is Wednesday......
Better go get my knife and start slashing away at myself
