When Your Brain Needs a Day Off to Veg : PERSONAL HEALTH
The minute after she called in sick, Jill felt guilty. Physically, she was fine. No sniffles. No flu. No fever. But psychologically, she was overloaded because of the pressure at her job as an office manager.
What she needed was a breather.
Call it ditching. Call it playing hooky. Call it a “mental health” day. By whatever name, it’s not limited to kids skipping class without a note from mom or dad.
According to a 1991 survey commissioned by the Hilton Hotels Corp., one-fifth of 1,010 adults admitted they called in sick at least once during the past year because they simply needed time to relax. More than one-fifth also said they felt they had no time for fun and 29% said they constantly felt under stress.
Kip Morrison, who runs a marketing communications firm in Beverly Hills, is a proponent of mental health days for herself and her employees.
“I take about three a year, usually in the middle of the week,” she says. “I spend time at home, catch up on errands or finish a good book. It’s my way to keep myself healthy.” (Of course, being the boss makes it easier since there’s no need to fake a racking cough over the phone.)
But are such days--which are not formally recognized by most employers--really healthy?
The vote from three experts is a qualified yes.
* “Taking a mental health day is preferable to being disabled by psychological or physical stress symptoms such as depression or nausea or vomiting,” says Dr. Roderic Gorney, a UCLA professor of psychiatry. But he concedes that not every boss will see things that way.
* “There are times when you just need to veg,” agrees Charles T. Hill, a professor of psychology at Whittier College. But he adds that professional or salaried workers can take time off more easily than other workers because they can generally postpone deadlines or shuffle workloads.
* The reason for your mental health day should be carefully considered, says Albert Marston, USC professor emeritus of psychology and psychiatry. “If you are emotionally stressed because of the job, a mental health day might be (just) a way to avoid it,” he says.
He suggests that you ask yourself: Is taking an occasional day off healthful or is it a stopgap measure, like taking aspirin for a headache when the problem is a brain tumor? If so, you might want to figure out a way to improve the work situation.
Hill also suggests asking how much your absence will inconvenience others. For example, he says he would never consider taking a day off if he was scheduled to teach. “But some other things can be put off,” he says. If the day was set aside to grade papers, for instance, it might be reasonable to take the day off.
“A well-timed day off sometimes improves performance,” he notes.
Mental health days also increase “alone” time, which most people lack, says Sabine Jacob, a Los Angeles administrative assistant. “A mental health day can give you time to just sit, have a cup of tea and recharge your batteries for a couple of months.”
But what if you are a parent? Should your kids get the same privileges?
Yes, say some experts. “Kids should know there is relief possible when things have gotten to be too much,” Gorney says, quickly adding: “The definition of too much has to be carefully worked out. We still want to raise kids to be psychologically strong.”
Why not just have employers formally recognize that workers need time to veg and add a mental health day or two to the benefits package--right along with teeth cleaning and hospitalization?
“It could be extremely valuable for many people,” Gorney says. But he’s not sure it would be a good idea for everyone.
For some, taking time off is truly beneficial, he says, but for others the relief is not in just taking time off, but in getting away with it.
If that’s the case, an employer-endorsed mental health day could spoil the whole experience.
Mental Health Days
* Find out your employer’s policy. Are mental health days frowned upon or are they accepted as traditional sick days?
* To reduce the stress usually associated with mental health days, consider getting to the root of the problem, especially if you start taking too many days off.
* Don’t make these days a habit.
* If taking time off is impossible, consider such stress management techniques as exercise.
* Don’t feel guilty for taking a day off, but if you are guilt-prone, minimize these feelings with planning. Take off when your workload is most manageable and when others aren’t severely affected by your time off.