I woke up at 06.30 AM today. The wind was rattling my windows and the rain was lashing down in epic proportions. I trudged my way in the dark to my tube station with my once working, now broken, umbrella only to be forced to wait in a tunnel for 25 minutes due to "signal failures".

It was at this point that I remembered why this was happening - today is "Blue Monday".

According to experts today is the most depressing day of the year, or as the pessimists at the Daily Mail put it: "The most depressing day in HISTORY".

Today is apparently so depressing it has been predicted that up to a quarter of workers would call in sick.

Cliff Arnall, a former psychology academic at Cardiff University, claims that there are six factors that combine to make today the ultimate of all bad days:

Lousy weather
Post-Christmas debt
Failed New Year's resolutions
Time elapsed since Christmas festivities
Motivation levels
The need for something to look forward to

Basically what this means is that most of us won't have been paid since before Christmas, the credit card bills are looming and the next national holiday is ages away - 82 days to be exact.

According to Dr Arnall, "The credit crunch means today is potentially the most depressing Blue Monday we have had," and with today's news of tax payers funding another bank bailout I'm not going to argue with him.

Dr Arnall advises that the best way to overcome Blue Monday is to "put on a fun DVD, get some friends over for something to eat or call someone they've put off calling for months or years."

A society of optimists, cunningly called the Optimists' Society, has its own ideas and in order to battle the depression it will be sending out "cheer packages" to celebrities in need of a cheer-up such as Jeremy Paxman and will also be hosting a free comedy show in London.