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Psychiatrists Discovered Doing This Just Once a Month Cuts Your Risk of Depression in Half
Whatever your goals for 2025, science shows being happier will make you dramatically more likely to reach them. Being depressed, quite obviously, won’t. Which means no matter what you hope to accomplish, doing a few small things to cut your risk of depression will help.
What should those things be?
Psychology (and super-achievers) often offer the same worthy, well-known suggestions — things like exercise, spending time in nature, or more social connection.
These are all great ideas. But if you’re looking for a fun, lesser-known mood booster to add to your 2025 to-do list, I point you to a recent Cambridge University study. It found going out on the town to enjoy some culture just once a month cuts your risk of depression in half.
The surprise link between cultural outings and depression
The study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry examined data on 2,000 British adults over the age of 50 over a 10-year period. After analyzing information on their health and lifestyle, a clear pattern emerged. When people got out to enjoy a movie, show, or museum regularly, their chance of suffering from depression decreased dramatically.
Just one such outing every few months cuts your risk of depression by 32 percent. Make enjoying some culture a monthly habit and your risk of depression falls by nearly half (48 percent).
You might think this is just because people who are privileged enough to have the time and money to go to the theater every month are also less likely to deal with the kind of stressful circumstances that make people more prone to depression. Fair enough. But the researchers controlled for people’s wealth. The mental-health boosting effects of enjoying culture remained.
“We were very pleasantly surprised by the results,” commented lead author Daisy Fancourt. She thinks others might be surprised to learn about the relationship between cultural outings and reduced instances of depression too.
“Generally speaking, people know the benefits of eating their five-a-day [servings of fruits and vegetables recommended by British…
