Spotlight: Blue Monday

Jasmin Ali and Amit Ginni Patpatia

16th January 2023

Its Blue Monday and I imagine like most returning to work after the holidays is not an easy breeze. For those who haven’t heard of it before, Blue Monday originated from Sky Travel in 2005 and they published that it is the most depressing date of the year. They put it down to numerous factors like people struggling financially, the weather being far from fabulous and some failed new year’s resolutions, culminating in a low mood for many. Now of course, this has been looked into by neuroscientists and their conclusion was that it’s “complete nonsense.” But I do think there is something to be said about the New Year and the anxiousness that surrounds it for a lot of us. These ‘Blue’ days hit us at multiple times throughout the year and each of us struggle in different ways to keep our head above water. Within our industry especially it's quite common for people to experience burn out, depression and a whole lot of imposter syndrome. In this article I'll touch on a few points around mental health and support methods, giving insight from my own perspective and speaking with an industry veteran who's recently worked on As Dusk Falls. Which highlights an passionate storyline exploring sensitive topics and has mental health themes running throughout. As usual I’ll be giving some advice on ways to combat Blue Monday which can be carried forward to days you may need a little boost. Am I qualified to be giving advice? Probably/most definitely not! But, caring about the industry and people working within it, gives me a good foundation to open up the dialogue for such an important discussion. Which I believe to be worth so much more than you’d think.

At the end of 2022 I took part in a mental health first aid course with Safe in Our World and delved into support methods and ways to spot signs of concern in those around me. I have always been interested in how people think and how we communicate as a race, but mental health has always been a tricky one for me. In my late teens I thought depression was not so serious and people were just a little bit sad. Awful to think I know and over the course of my life my opinions on the topic have changed drastically. Although it did take first hand exposure to someone dealing with depression day to day in order for me to realise the seriousness of mental wellbeing. It was certainly not a walk in the park, but was the eye opening situation I needed to recourse my thoughts around mental health. Speaking with people close to me at the time a lot of my thoughts weren't justified but they were reconfirmed by many and the stigma of people needing mental health support was still very prevalent. Having a Bengali background and being surrounded by strict Muslim parents, wellbeing was never a talking point and bringing it up was an anxious situation to even think about. Feelings were never really discussed with my parents, and I feel this affected how I saw mental health in others. "If I can suppress sadness, then why can't they." Was my thinking at the time. Since then, I have worked on myself a lot studying psychology and self-educating where I can. I’ve spent time with professionals discussing ways to approach sensitive subjects and offering out support is something I’m very passionate about. Although specialists have some great insight, I truly feel the importance is in creating the safe spaces to allow people to feel comfortable opening up.

Luckily you’ll be hearing from another games industry dev and this month it’s Amit Ginni Patpatia, Senior Lighting Artist at Interior Night. He has been in the industry for two decades and has worked on a plethora of titles. I reached out to Amit as I know he’s been interested in mental health training and emotional support for the last 10 years. His blunt and honest take on the subject is refreshing and to the point. Amit opened up about losing his parents in recent years and how he deals with that, supporting the men closest to him and what it was like working on As Dusk Falls. Initially the importance of learning about mental health and the mind started when he had concerns with two older men in his close circle who needed help and people close to him who he wanted to support. Checking on the statistics surrounding the illnesses and verifying the articles he read really surprised him. The numbers were and still are extremely high and particularly within men. He has seen people close to him use medication and not had any profound changes or major improvements, suggesting other life factors might have a bigger importance in improving mental health. Not all insurance covers mental health, others require special insurance for pre-existing mental health or in some cases you won't get any insurance or needed support at all. Even things like dyslexia and arthritis can be overlooked. A huge factor was the disparity in support systems for men and coming from Indian origins alike my own, mental health is still a taboo subject. Amit professed there are certain things he wouldn’t want to discuss with women and finding comfortability within these areas is a real struggle, although there are certain things he would rather talk to a woman about. The term ‘Man Up’ has been tossed around since either of us could remember, so men having the emotional intelligence to support each other is also an area he pointed out needs work and we’ll go into that shortly. With so many areas to cover we broke down some interesting talking points into a Q&A.

Question 1: From the training you’ve been through, do you feel there’s active steps you’ve taken to support the people around you?

Answer: Yes, so the reason I needed to seek that kind of training is because I’ve developed a strong mindset, as around 10 years ago before my mum died I was really insensitive to people who had depression or mood swings. But, after my mum passed away I immediately became more sensitive to those around me. It’s like something just clicked in me and I had better awareness. Everyone is different and we need to address people differently as a result. But I needed a toolset to handle different people. A lot of it is just mindset, and medicine does not necessarily solve the main problem, which is your thought process. That is where the training came in. Supporting people to address their environment, obligations, and exterior surroundings. It can be dangerous if not taken seriously and a lot of people laugh if you talk about it still. Men are quite sensitive and don’t often show it so I think more men need to talk to other men, not solely depend on a partner for these kind of conversations. In my experience men will often avoid deep conversation when going out and tend to keep conversations on a fun and light-hearted level, which is fine but it should be safe and okay to go far deeper too. With my friends I feel good opening up and they are able to have those conversations. The reason I’m becoming so mentally healthy is because of those type of conversations not just with my friends or on my podcast but with students I teach. I try to make them comfortable by making myself uncomfortable first which seems to be very important.

Question 2: If you notice someone who may need support or who’s withdrawing from usual behaviour, how do you approach the topic of their wellbeing?

Answer: It depends on the person and topic but in my experience men can get very defensive so usually I reveal something about myself to make them more comfortable and open up that kind of dialogue. One of the issues I had previously was the image of perfection towards myself so I had to breakdown that image to make people feel more comfortable. I think it’s important to be fragile and take that first step to connect. I’ve posted recently about imposter syndrome on LinkedIn and very few people mention it. Everyone can experience it but there is a lack of medical and professional support for it. One thing about mental health is it’s hard to spot, so the best way for most scenarios is to make the person comfortable. I also make sure to give a response to their situation if they have opened up to me. I thank them for sharing and try to empathise. Also, if you know stories about famous people who have shared mental health illnesses make them aware that they aren’t alone and people manage to have a happy life. It is about opening up and not ignoring how you feel. Part of the issue is we cater to everyone else but not ourselves when we can do both. In my course I have a six-month mentorship, so I get to know my students on a deeper level. It’s not just about teaching them lighting but life skills. Like overcoming challenges and exterior influences.

Question 3: You’re latest work has been on As Dusk Falls from Interior Night, what were your first thoughts when reading the script?

Answer: I couldn’t believe I managed to read through it, being such a large script. I don’t really read novels so I was impressed I actually managed to finished it, so that was already a sign. It is fictional but at the same time not, which appealed to me. The context, setting and events are things you can find in real life. Zoe with her pills dealing with depression, robbery gone wrong, loss of parents. For the suicide scene we give the option to skip and highlight the scene can be triggering. There’s so many relatable elements to the story. In a sense we have a little bit of each character within us and can empathise with their struggles. I think what’s interesting with the game is it shows you can make any choices in life and have different outcomes. That’s what mental health is about, you can change, you can get better. You just have to make a different choice rather than repeating the same choice as before. Einstein said if you do the same thing over and over that’s insanity. I think that’s so true for mental health and that’s what you see with the characters in the game. It is a good story. Even though I’m a lighting artist I pay a lot of attention to the mood and environment of a scene and coordinate that with the feelings. If there’s a lot of depressing materials in the environment, you will see its unrealistically dark. Like in the scene with Zoe when she wakes up in the bedroom with the fish tank glowing unrealistically bright it’s to emphasise her state of mind which is dark. She is struggling. You can see the same in Jim’s apartment and the grandfather as he struggles with Alzheimer’s. The colour tone shows this dirty greenish background to emphasise the emotion that’s occurring. It’s all well planned and makes sense but isn’t too obvious.

Question 4: When you were working on the sensitive scenes like depression, suicide, abuse. What was the atmosphere and general feeling like in the studio?

Answer: it depends on how deep you get into it. It was probably heavier for the writers and design team. Personally, I have to get quite into it to understand all of the emotion. You have to dig a little and find references to help. Movies were good for this. There are certain moments in the game where the environment is bright but it’s not exactly the happiest thing going on. That’s also a conscious choice. Our Art Director didn’t want to simulate a dark direction throughout. Because that’s how life is, you can be sad on a bright lovely summer’s day. Something bad can happen or you can be depressed on a beach with happy people around you when you’re just not in a good place. If you pay attention to the mood and the lighting when certain bad things are happening, the whole scene is beautiful. We tried to remind people it can happen at any time, good or bad. Which is why the character acting and voice actors are so important too, everything was just done on point to convey that. Something good to know is that with all the sensitive topics we hired Mental Health Consultants.

Question 5: Did you relate to any of the characters in particular?

Answer: There’s a little bit of me in most of them, in the sense that I’m 37 now so over the years I’ve been one or more of them. Probably Dale and the big brothers in my earlier days, I’ve been cheated on in the past too and around people dealing with anxiety and depression. My Friend also saw a suicide so just knowing or experiencing these types of things you kind of think about these times automatically. This of course opens up conversations. I’ve lost both parents as well so that’s the most sensitive topic to me, which is the case anyway. Sometimes when I watch TV Shows or movies there might be some scenes I relate deeply to in relation to my parents, in which case I can get emotional, and some tears might drop in private. I do however control it in public or if I am watching something with others. I think it depends on your life though and where you are at. There’s certain things you can relate to if you’re younger also. The only thing I couldn’t relate to is burglary, I don’t think I’ve broken in anywhere. It’s difficult to pinpoint just one character. Life is ever changing and you don’t just experience one feeling the whole time. That’s another thing that’s important with mental health, if people understood that the bad can just be one moment in time it would help with recovery. It doesn’t have to define you. Just do one small thing a day to make you feel good and over time it’ll build confidence.

Question 6: You are currently partnering with Bulldog Mindset, what made you get into that?

Answer: I was looking into how men deal with their mental health. Online in men's groups, manosphere and so on there is too many places where men are toxic. I found John at Bulldog Mindset, and found him to be more focused towards health, stoic philosophy about improving self without blame on society. Its more about focusing on health and fitness. Being part of that community I’ve seen a lot of young people and I think there’s a lot I can provide to them but also a lot I can learn. So, I started hosting the events where we discuss a lot of topics, like dating, confidence and navigating life. Whenever I see an article online I’m really interested in the statistics and whether they are accurate. So I spend a lot of time researching men’s health. A lot of men are struggling. There’s so many communities that are toxic and previously I’ve been too lazy to do anything about it but now I’m a healthy individual I point people towards safe places where they can be open and honest. We try to solve their problems with resources and tools. Talking about time management, fitness, imposter syndrome.

My Thoughts

Mental Health is not an isolated issue. It affects your family, your friends, your colleagues and even YOU! We cannot just tackle the issue with old fashioned shame and brushing certain topics under the carpet. It’s time to talk. I know for everyone this can be really challenging, so I’ve devised some wellbeing goals for January to help build confidence in reaching out and to inspire more people to create change within their circles.

· Cook with company once this month - I’m no Gordan Ramsay but I know everyone eats and January is usually the time people start a health kick. Whether you do it in person or virtually it can be so much fun. The interaction isn’t too intense as you’ll have both hands busy. Plus, you’ll be able to chat about the recipe so no room for awkward silences or heavy topics.

· Listen to a brand new podcast and tell someone about it – I love knowledge sharing and learning new facts I can pass along. In doing this it may also bring you some insightful returns. Wading through podcasts can be tasking too so if you need a place to start I’d suggest TED Talks Daily, there’s a variety of subjects and speakers. It’s never a dull day.

· Look at the sky from a place you’ve never been to before – Being outside and in nature is incredibly good for the soul. Some therapists have even started using Ecotherapy to help with depression and mood boosting in general. Andy Puddicombe the founder of Headspace says if you don’t have time to mediate, then meditate for twice as long as usual. I apply this to rule to my getting outside too and I definitely feel the benefit. You will too!