Feeling like there's a royal baby overload? You might be suffering from IGS - Irrational Grumpiness Syndrome

There is a kind of grumpiness that dares not speak its name. It is one kind of one crankiness too far, the sort you keep hidden from friends and family and only mutter to yourself on the commute to work.

It’s irrational grumpiness syndrome, or IGS, the type of foul mood that ruins a lovely Christmas morning or spoils a special birthday and it’s exactly the type of emotion that has everyone moaning about the warmest summer in seven years.

IGS is only ever of the moment. Who ever confessed to spending the Swinging Sixties whinging like hell? Or what about that famously long hot summer before the outbreak of the First World War when everyone played croquet on the lawn? Did no-one sit moaning about flies or the fact the potted meat sarnies had gone off in the sun?

Well here we are in the midst of what will, without argument, be viewed as one of those idyllic chapters in the history of our Isles.

[Are cheap teabags bad for your health?]

[The working week diet: Are you on it without realising?]

We won medals at the Olympics; we watched Royal flotillas during the jubilee; we organised Big Lunch street parties where we learnt to love our neighbours; we won Wimbledon and the Tour de France, and we might be winning the Ashes; the economy perked up a bit and the sun came out, and the cherry on this muffin of bliss was the royal baby.

What’s not to like? You will be boring your children and grandkids with stories of this glorious year for decades to come, but are you actually grinning you way through it? Are you out dancing in the streets and putting up bunting, or hopping with anxiety over your own foul mood?

If so here are a few reasons why, plus a few ways to help you to lighten up.

SCHADENFREUDE

As a nation we have learnt to embrace the emotion of schadenfreude, meaning we often gain immense pleasure from reading of the misfortunes of others, making our own lives look sort of ok by comparison. All those celeb divorces and marital melt-downs might have hit the spot so many times that an overdose of good news leaves you unable to cope. This behaviour makes the celebration of other’s bad news easier to digest than the good. If your own relationship is going down the plug-hole which will make you feel happier, reading about the Gallaghers or watching Denise Welch and her new groom’s idyllic PDAs on honeymoon?

HOW TO COPE:

This syndrome is down to faulty programming. While it might be ok to have a quick smirk when someone slips on a banana skin in the street, feeding yourself on a diet of disasters will create a false sense of comfort over the thought that ‘their lives are worse than mine.’ Try a diet of good news stories for a month or so and go cold turkey on any moaning. And keep off the negative Tweets.

THE HEAT

Ok, so we love the hot weather when we’re on holiday but when you’re under pressure at work or rushing to commute it can add to the state of suppressed irritation and tetchiness, especially if the humid nights or thunder mean you’re sleep deprived.

HOW TO COPE:

Stop feeling guilty about your mood. The old adage is "Be careful what you wish for" but I doubt you put 34 degrees upwards plus storms on your weather wish list. I also doubt that nature will punish us for our patent lack of gratitude by sending 340 days of rain and cold (Although it might!).

CHOREOGRAPHED JOY

There is a theory of human behaviour that says an action will have a reaction. So when a smiling newscaster dressed in royal red smiles straight into camera and bubbles about the new royal baby it will tend to bring on one of two responses: Matching or Opposing. You either mirror their mood of glee in an act of Free Child empathy and smile and jump about, or you find yourself snapping into Rebellious Child and scowling and muttering ‘It’s just a baby!’ instead.

HOW TO COPE:

You know it’s happy news, you just need to grab control of the method of transmitting it and then make your own mind up. It’s not the baby, it’s the incongruent joy from someone who has probably run out of happy adjectives twelve hours ago. Turn down the sound and watch the pictures instead.