What is a mental health day and when you should take one?
I have not thought about mental health in my entire lifetime as much as I have in the last one year. From learning about resources provided at my school to attending workshops and spending time with friends in the art therapy program, my views on mental health have undergone tremendous transformation. To be fair, it wasn't like I had zero information, I just imagined that mental health and treatments for them was only useful in extreme situations- like schizophrenia or bipolar disorders or PTSD- and therefore the only reason to concern myself with it would be if I knew someone with or I myself was experiencing it.
Then I enrolled myself in an art school and that assumption started to loosen up and my definitions broadened. I learned that anxiety and OCD can be serious conditions, serious enough to debilitate someone from being productive, from delivering presentations, from being social and in some cases even leaving their bed. Then it started to include depression and widening that definition and how oversleeping, consistent lack of motivation, perpetual exhaustion could also be signs of a deteriorating mental health situation.
Mental health just like physical health requires constant checking-in, maintaining and in some situations medicating. The same way you check in with your body through aches and pains, bruises and scars, inflammations and discomfort, you need to with your head. Obviously the head functions in non-tangible and physical ways that are hard to observe unlike body parts. So it takes extra effort- you check-in with your mood and how often its been a bad one, a dissatisfied one, has it been affecting productivity or your social interactions? Are you slower to respond to things? Its not always age or "laziness," sometimes it can be a mental health problem. This isn't to say one symptom and you are anxious or depressed and so on. Its like catching a cold or the flu. It builds up gradually and if its neglected too long it gets worse and suddenly you're like WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?
Enter mental health day, its not like friendship day or siblings day or something. There is such a thing as Mental Health Awareness Month in May but that is more a collective action day. This one is private and for yourself. Sometimes if you feel brain fatigue, stuck with an idea, consistently unproductive or just not-in-the mood take a day off. Its like calling in sick but for your brain/soul/mind. Not just when its a headache that you can feel but sometimes these can be indicators that in the long run are helpful.
Some people take a year off between school, go on sabbaticals, sometimes take long holidays or even fall off the internet so they can recover- that's also a version of mental health day. Think of it as a day to process, relax and sometimes recharge and rejuvenate so you can return with enthusiasm and gusto to your work/life. You can't do it all- rest, process, recharge- on the same day, it's a gradual process. It takes consistent work like reading positive books, watching inspiring interviews, resting when you're tired, doing nothing, mediating, stretching and things like that. It's about making time to tend to your body and mind in between constantly being productive, staying relevant, finding purpose and draining energy.
Some of the way I cope or destress is take long baths with epsom salts and scented candles, hide all my devices and read all day whilst drinking lots of tea, going on walks or exploring my neighborhood, trying a new recipe, browsing the Brainpickings website or watching an enormous amount of SNL sketches. Sometimes when I feel particularly sad I watch a lot of standup. On less exhausting days I read interview with celebrities and artists to inspire me.
Good luck out there!
Then I enrolled myself in an art school and that assumption started to loosen up and my definitions broadened. I learned that anxiety and OCD can be serious conditions, serious enough to debilitate someone from being productive, from delivering presentations, from being social and in some cases even leaving their bed. Then it started to include depression and widening that definition and how oversleeping, consistent lack of motivation, perpetual exhaustion could also be signs of a deteriorating mental health situation.
Mental health just like physical health requires constant checking-in, maintaining and in some situations medicating. The same way you check in with your body through aches and pains, bruises and scars, inflammations and discomfort, you need to with your head. Obviously the head functions in non-tangible and physical ways that are hard to observe unlike body parts. So it takes extra effort- you check-in with your mood and how often its been a bad one, a dissatisfied one, has it been affecting productivity or your social interactions? Are you slower to respond to things? Its not always age or "laziness," sometimes it can be a mental health problem. This isn't to say one symptom and you are anxious or depressed and so on. Its like catching a cold or the flu. It builds up gradually and if its neglected too long it gets worse and suddenly you're like WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?
Enter mental health day, its not like friendship day or siblings day or something. There is such a thing as Mental Health Awareness Month in May but that is more a collective action day. This one is private and for yourself. Sometimes if you feel brain fatigue, stuck with an idea, consistently unproductive or just not-in-the mood take a day off. Its like calling in sick but for your brain/soul/mind. Not just when its a headache that you can feel but sometimes these can be indicators that in the long run are helpful.
Some people take a year off between school, go on sabbaticals, sometimes take long holidays or even fall off the internet so they can recover- that's also a version of mental health day. Think of it as a day to process, relax and sometimes recharge and rejuvenate so you can return with enthusiasm and gusto to your work/life. You can't do it all- rest, process, recharge- on the same day, it's a gradual process. It takes consistent work like reading positive books, watching inspiring interviews, resting when you're tired, doing nothing, mediating, stretching and things like that. It's about making time to tend to your body and mind in between constantly being productive, staying relevant, finding purpose and draining energy.
Some of the way I cope or destress is take long baths with epsom salts and scented candles, hide all my devices and read all day whilst drinking lots of tea, going on walks or exploring my neighborhood, trying a new recipe, browsing the Brainpickings website or watching an enormous amount of SNL sketches. Sometimes when I feel particularly sad I watch a lot of standup. On less exhausting days I read interview with celebrities and artists to inspire me.
Good luck out there!
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