Mental health days are great. They really are. And if you’ve been following Diary of the Mind, you know every intricate detail of why you should take mental health days, how to take them, and when to know you need one. You even have an ultimate guide to taking a mental health day. But, one thing we haven’t yet talked about is why mental health days may not be that great. Why a mental health day won’t help you, and could even hurt you. So, here it is. This is why mental health days are (sometimes) a bad idea for students.
#1 : You Don’t Experience Stress and Burnout
If you read our article on signs you need a mental health day, you know burnout is one of the main signs you need a mental health day. What is it? Burnout is just a feeling of complete exhaustion after a mounting of consistent stress. However, the lack of burnout is also a sign you don’t really need one. But, how do you even know if you are not experiencing burnout? Here are signs to look out for:
- You study lightly, and it often doesn’t consume your time
- You perform well in tests and evaluations, or experience minimal stress during them
- You get at least 8 hours of sleep everyday
- You are relatively energetic throughout the day, and not excessively tired
- Your eating habits are normal, not eating too much or too little of anything
These are only a few signs, but things you should still look out for if you are thinking a mental health day might not be for you. I mean, if you don’t have the problem, then why attempt the solution? Mental health days aren’t going to do much if you have healthy stress levels and aren’t on the verge of being burnt out, so there isn’t a reason to go through the hassle of planning and having one.
#2 : You Have a Lot of Important Things Upcoming
Reason number two why a mental health day, or almost anything, is a bad idea is if you have important things coming up. Your mental health is incredibly important, no doubt about that, but it has to take a backseat sometimes. It’s only temporary, but priorities have to change. When you have important things coming up, it might not be the right time to think about a mental health day. What might these important things be? Let’s see:
- Big tests that will be hard to retake (quarterly, midterm, final, state exam)
- Competitions you have to participate in
- Big family events (holiday get-together, wedding, funeral
- Any sort of planned vacation
So, if you have any of these coming up, it’s best to put your mental health day on hold. You can always start planning afterwards, but there’s no need for the unnecessary stress of clashing events.
#3 : You Don’t Study
I know in my other post on why you should take a mental health day, I said that dropping grades could be a sign. But, more importantly, I said dropping grades along with over-studying. And that may not apply to quite a few of us. But how do you know it doesn’t apply to you? Here are some points:
- You spend 2 hours or less on schoolwork
- You don’t have a proper study plan before tests
- You hardly care to check when tests are to study for them
- You don’t stay up late for school work
If your grades are dropping because you’re lazy, or just don’t care, there’s no one left to blame but yourself. You don’t need a mental health day. In fact, you need the exact opposite—A better study plan and more hours of productivity.
We all love making excuses for ourselves. I understand. But at some point, we have to hold ourselves accountable and face the truth. The reason your grades are in the dumps isn’t because you need a mental health day, it’s because you need to actually start studying.
#4 : You Take Off School Often
A mental health day is an absence from whatever obligations you had for that day. If you are out far too much, then there’s a reason why mental health days are a bad idea for students like yourself.
Think about it for yourself. Do you take absences for less important reasons?. Do you get picked up from school often? Are a good portion of your absences just because you didn’t want to go to school? Then, in all honesty, a mental health day is not for you. If you feel so comfortable taking days off, then you are most likely not under the stress and pressure that would lead you to take a mental health day.
However, a large number of absences can mean multiple different things for people. If you have had major emergencies (major sickness and hospital visits, familial tragedies) that forced you to have many absences, this reason doesn’t apply to you. You know your situation better than anyone else, and it is ultimately up to you to decide what it is and what it isn’t.
#5 : You Have Too Much Free Time
This is the final sign why mental health days are a bad idea for students, and that is that you have a lot of time on your hands. Lots of it. A lot of us as students have busy schedules, with academics and extracurriculars eating up our time, but many of us may not have much to do at all. But how do you know if you have a lot of free time? Try answering these questions. Be honest with yourself.
- Do I bed-rot and doom-scroll regularly?
- Do I often feel bored afterschool with nothing to do?
- Do I try to make plans a lot because I don’t have much else in my schedule?
- Do I feel like I have no hobbies or interests?
- Do I feel like I don’t really do a lot with my time?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, it might be time to reconsider the mental health day you may be planning. A mental health day is usually there if you don’t have a lot time to do what you like to. If you have a ton of time and are bored, then what you need is something you like, a hobby. There are multiple things you can do. You can try journaling your thoughts, learning crochet from a YouTube video, or even playing video games. Anything that can consume your time in a creative way is a good way to fill up that time, but a mental health is not what you need.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. 5 Reasons why mental health days are a bad idea for students. And that’s okay, because you can still experience mental health struggles without being one to need a mental health day. Boredom and lack of stimulation is often a cause for mental health struggles. But, mental health day isn’t the solution to all your problems. As we’ve outlined in this article, there are numerous other things you may need other than a mental health day. Get a good a good study plan, and find hobbies you enjoy, and you will feel just as fulfilled and you might have thought you would get from a mental health day.
