Saturday, April 6, 2024

Mental Health Days

Taking good care of yourself when you see the signs of mental health struggles emerge can prevent a slide into serious illness

“I took a mental health day.” This is a phrase we hear increasingly as representatives. I have also heard people quote supervisors who say, “We don’t have those.”

What people can take off is a sick day. And when your mental health isn’t strong enough to go to work, that’s actually a sick day. It’s no different than having a back that’s too sore to go to work or a cold or flu.

Mental health is variable for everyone. That means it changes. Nobody is expected to have the same mental health every day of their life.

Depression, anxiety, grief, substance use. There are many reasons for people to feel unable to attend work due to their mental health.

It used to be that we separated the health of our brain from the health of the rest of our body. But those days are over.

Our brain is part of our body. What happens to us in our daily lives impacts our brains on a chemical level, and that has an impact on the rest of our body.

According to Dr. Gabor Maté in his book When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress, more and more evidence is showing that living in a prolonged state of stress is making us physically sick. And unaddressed trauma can often be linked to physical ailments, in particular, autoimmune disorders, which are on the rise, especially in women.

It is so important to take care of your mental health. It’s not selfish. It isn’t a sign of weakness. Taking good care of yourself when you see the signs of mental health struggles emerge can prevent a slide into serious illness.

So, the next time you feel like your mind isn’t well enough to go to work, that’s a sick day. For regular updates and articles about mental health, read CLAC Representative Quentin Steen’s blogs on Your Voice. Every month, Quentin has a new take on how to stay mentally healthy.

Mental Health Days

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