The “Sunday Scaries” regularly affect more than two-thirds of Britons who report work stresses, lack of sleep and looming to-do lists as the primary causes of anxiety before the start of the working week.
The worst affected were young adults with 74% of those aged 18-24 experiencing what psychologists call “heightened anticipatory anxiety” as the weekend comes to a close.
Ahead of world mental health day tomorrow the government unit responsible for improving national public health policy has unveiled a new campaign urging people to “be kind to your mind”.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) says that by answering five simple questions through the every mind matters website, people can get a personalised “mind plan” giving tips to help deal with stress and anxiety.
The campaign is backed by a number of celebrities including BBC Radio 1 host Vick Hope, television personality Scarlett Moffatt and pop star Tom Grennan, along with leading psychologist Kimberley Wilson.
The NHS Confederation, which represents health bosses, said it welcomed the initiative but ministers needed to go “much further” if they genuinely wanted to improve the nation’s mental health.
Sean Duggan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation’s mental health network, accused the current government of sidelining the issue.
“The previous government had committed to publishing a 10-year plan for mental health. However, mental health is worryingly absent from the new secretary of state’s ‘ABCD’ priority list for the NHS,” he said. However, health secretary Thérèse Coffey said: “My focus is on making sure people can get the care they need, when they need it – and that includes for their mental wellbeing. The every mind matters tool is a great way to build your mental resilience.”
The “Sunday Scaries” are shown to peak just after 5pm on Sunday as thoughts turn to the week ahead with Google searches around sadness spiking, as many people look for help.
According to Google Trends, searches for anxiety have increased 170% over the past decade.
The new research, commissioned by OHID, found that overall 67% of Britons frequently experience anxiety on a Sunday. To distract themselves, those aged 18-24 said they turned to social media, those aged 25-32 were most likely to binge watch TV and respondents aged 33-40 most likely to comfort eat.
Kimberley Wilson said: “These ‘distraction’ habits can actually exacerbate the problem. It’s so important to enjoy every last minute of your weekend and start the week in the best frame of mind.
“If you experience the Sunday Scaries like clockwork every week or feel sad or anxious, try getting active, which can help you to burn off nervous energy, writing down or keeping a diary of what you are doing and how you feel at different times to help identify what’s causing anxiety and what you need to do to help manage it. Small things can make a big difference to our mental wellbeing.”
Grennan said: “I’ve found that keeping up my fitness and really prioritising exercise has helped me stay focused and my other tasks are easier to manage.”
But Duggan warned that mental health services were buckling under the strain of a backlog that he said stood at 1.6 million people.
“Without a clear roadmap for mental health services for the months and years ahead, a generation of people risk not being able to access the services they need,” he said.
