Early recovery is not always easy. Even after taking time off from work to go to treatment, you will still be in need of an occasional mental health day from work. Taking a day off from work to take care of yourself is always okay and often necessary.
Two Kinds Of Mental Health Days: Preventative And Emergency
Sometimes it is easy to see the stormy weather coming in. All indicators point toward a necessary mental health day coming up, with plenty of warning. This is the need for a preventative mental health day. Other times, the storm hits without advanced notice. Even though the weather reports predicted sunshine, the sky is dark and gray. This is the need for an emergency mental health day. Each type of mental health day can be planned for differently and should be approached in different ways.
Preventative Mental Health Day
- Plan your preventive mental health day ahead of time so you can be completely free from responsibility and obligation at work.
- If you feel burnout coming, it might not be the best idea to push yourself extra hard at the office in order to take a day off.
- Instead, fulfill your immediate responsibilities, delegate any tasks which will be unfinished, and make sure your team knows you will be unavailable for your mental health day.
- One of the most challenging but effective things you can do on a preventative mental health day is turn off your phone. Being out of touch for a day can help you indulge in the much needed time to yourself, focused on yourself, for yourself.
- Schedule something healing and restorative for the day like a massage, a yoga class, or whatever helps you relax.
- Taking the day off entirely from work might be the perfect way to take on other tasks you haven’t had time for at home. Clean out your closet, organize your living room, or freshen up your bedroom. Sometimes, a clean house is a clean mind and can do wonders for your mental health.
- Sleep in late and go to bed early to catch up on sleep you might have been missing lately. If there’s room for an afternoon nap, take it.
- Stock up your house on what you will need to keep your energy going and sustain your mental health.
Emergency Mental Health Day
- Check in with yourself before taking the day off. If you are avoiding some task or person at work, it might be better to fulfill your responsibilities and make an appointment with your therapist to discuss what is challenging your mental health.
- If you are truly burned out and cannot fathom the idea of going into work without feeling like you might fall apart, there is a definite need for an emergency mental health day.
- Compared to a preventative mental health day, on an emergency mental health day it is important to do only what you need to do to take care of yourself today.
- Self-care is a personal program of routines and actions which help you feel the most calm, relaxed, safe, and secure, as you struggle with your mental health. If you need to stay in bed and sleep, give your body the rest it needs. When you need to eat, provide for yourself.
- Notice if you are feeling isolated in your mental health day. Sometimes, the best emergency mental health day is spent with the loving support of a close friend.
Avalon By The Sea provides a full continuum of care from residential treatment to outpatient services. Our primary mental health treatment programs help clients heal mind, body, and spirit, while learn the essential tools they need for a lifetime of recovery. For a confidential assessment and more information on our programs, call us today at 888-958-7511.
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