Only, hang on... Why do I feel more depressed than I've felt at any point during my eight-month cancer journey? Oh, that's right, it's because there is no "final straight" for cancer survivors. Cancer is a life-long journey. It doesn't stop when the treatment ends.

Granted, January is a pretty gloomy month (I was shocked to see a blue sky today, having forgotten what one looked like), but why is that particular day more depressing than any other? Well, of course, it's not. Blue Monday was actually invented by a psychologist to help promote some travel company.

Why is the media so hooked on a patent PR whim, and why do they trumpet it every third Monday of January?

Sure, I understand that the headline: 'Sally fights depression, holds down a full-time job and volunteers for the local community', is hardly shocking. But, by all accounts, perhaps this is exactly the sort of thing that we, the public, need to hear more about in relation to mental health?

You're either scrambling around manically, driving the people around you to the point of distraction, or stuck in a heap on the bathroom floor, searching frantically for the inner strength to stand up and face another day.

For many, the season of goodwill will have been a far cry from the ideal of family gatherings overflowing with gifts and laughter and will instead have been a period haunted by disappointment, anxiety, sadness, depression or even suicidal thoughts.

My new year's resolution this year was to start smoking and so far it's going very well... I needed another guilty pleasure because a second new years resolution is to give up the booze since my folks - monitoring my lubricated antics over the festive period - have threatened me with rehab.

If this Christmas "state of mind" helps free us from stress during the holiday season wouldn't we want to keep bringing out these same spiritual elements in our lives throughout the year?

Alcohol is ubiquitous at this time of year. Abstinence may make you feel virtuous but can also be dull. If you do drink, I'd advocate men avoiding beer. Beer increases levels of an enzyme called aromatase. This converts testosterone into oestrogen and leads to fat deposition around the pectoral - the dreaded man boobs. Stick to a few glasses of good quality red wine instead.

For all of you reading this and who are experiencing this very debilitating condition now, REMEMBER YOU WILL GET BETTER, it is a gradual and timely recovery, but postnatal depression does go and you will live life to the full again.

Many of us are choosing a greener lifestyle, and that goes for medication too. Holistic therapist Sorrell Robbins explains "The idea of alternative medicine - namely herbs - is to help moderate and balance the individual alongside medical and/or psychiatric care and not to cure conditions that mainstream doctors were unable to".

My friend remarked on how he'd had the top medical care and had taken almost 10,000 pills in the eight years between the doctor's diagnosis and its reversal. Yet that time was still filled with such mental and physical lows that he frequently felt suicidal.

Amidst the dense fog of confusion lies the grounding of some basic and indisputable truths. Eat your veggies, cut down on sugar, exercise more often; these are all examples of statements that your mother would have iterated, and ones that should not go unheeded.

Here are some of the common misconceptions of mental health I've heard over the years (and calmly kept schtum).

Today is World Kindness Day, and we're all being encouraged to help change the world by committing one simple act of kindness. I for one fully intend to play my part - and not for entirely selfless reasons.

Maybe the masks of Halloween aren't so very different to the masks we all wear, every day, at every time of year. I do this all the time. We all do, I think.