When to Take a Mental Health Day at Work

Dealing with different levels of stress can be particularly difficult to manage, most especially for people who have symptoms of depression or anxiety. If you feel like you’ve been stressed at work for a long time, then maybe it’s time for you to take a quick break to reset. Maybe what you need is to take a mental health day, which is a day off that is specifically geared toward stress relief and prevention of getting burnout from work.

Taking a mental health day is probably the best thing you can do for yourself if you are stressed out and anxious lately. It can give you your much-needed break to pause, recuperate, and come back to work with a fresh perspective.

Work-life balance is indeed important. That’s why taking a break is also necessary for us to be more energized and be less stressed in the coming days. But the question iswhen you do think is the best time to take a mental health day at work? If you have the same question in mind, then you’ve come to the right place. We are going to give you some scenarios on when you can take a mental health day at work.

woman relaxing by the lake with a great view

When to Take a Mental Health Day

Well, the best way to take a mental health day is by scheduling a day off ahead of time. But before doing this, you need to ensure that you have taken steps to fix your workload or find a replacement for the day you will be taking a break. However, if you woke up and you feel like you cannot face the stressful day, then that can also be a good time for you to take a mental health day.

The decision of when to take a mental health day really depends on you or your situation. For example, if your employer is supportive, and you can comfortably share your reasons on why you need to take a mental health day, then you can feel free to plan it in advance. But if you do not want to talk about your reasons for taking a day, or if your employer is less understanding, then you are not obligated to tell them your reasons.

Some of the ways you can do are, plan to use some of your time off, schedule your mental health day on the weekends or on your day off, or if it is necessary, you can just call in sick. To give you more ideas, here are some of the scenarios wherein you can take a mental health day.

1. If You Need to Relax

If you have been so stressed from work lately, and you feel the need for some relaxation, then you can take a mental health day from work. Taking some time out to relax can mean watching TV in your pajamas, or simply do nothing at home. This is fine, as long as it is not your everyday thing. Aside from that, there are many other things you can do, such as taking a walkin nature, swimming, getting a massage, or attending a yoga class. When you take a mental health day to relax, make sure that you spend time doing an activity that you find relaxing. It can be as simple as spending some time reading a good book.

There are also some things you need to avoid, including binge-watching TV, drinking alcoholic beverages, overeating unhealthy foods, and spending the whole day reading posts on social media. Rather than doing these things, it’s better to just catch up on some much-needed sleep or hang-out with a friend. Make sure that you spend your day on things that can help boost your mental wellness.

2. If You Need to Have Some Fun

Another perfect time to take a mental health day from work is when you feel the need to have some fun, or if you need a change of scenery. Well, all work and no fun can totally ruin the work-life balance. Therefore, it is fine to take a break and seek out a fun event you can attend. For example, you can try to do either something that you normally love to do or something that you’ve always wanted to try. Or if you just want a simple day off that is fun, then you can work on your hobbies, play some video games, or go out and watch some movies.

3. If You Need to Make Some Changes

Another great time to take a day from work is when you feel like the stressors are loading up, and you want to slow down and stop the noise. It can be the perfect day to restructure things. Well, you cannot eliminate all the ongoing stressors in just one day, but you can spend it making some changes. These changes may help in creating a long-term impact on the levels of stress.

During your day off, you can list all the things that stress you out or drains your energy at work. From there, you can work on removing stressors. Using your list, you’ll be able to see your priorities and cut out the larger stressors. You can also use this to work on increasing job satisfaction.

You cannot really expect to take all of these in just a single day. If you plan on using your mental health day to make real changes in your life, you can instead use it to plan, evaluate, and be prepared to work on those changes.

These are the best times when you can take a mental health day from work. But if your stress levels are high and you feel like you need more of a break than just a day, then you can consider taking a vacation or staycation. You may also consider if you are headed toward burnout. However, if a mental health day or a vacation won’t help, maybe you should bring up your concerns with your doctor or talk to a professional.

Remember to always look for ways on how you can keep your stress levels low at work. A mental health day can be useful on certain days, but you also need to make every effort to make your mental health a priority every day.