In the middle of February, when it seemed like there wasn’t a break in sight, I found myself wanting to take a mental health day. The assignments and tests seemed endless, and I struggled to find time to relax and de-stress. A mental health day seemed like the perfect way to relieve my feelings of burnout. 

Despite the short-term relief it might have offered, I decided against it. Like many other students, I worried about falling behind and the inevitable buildup of work that would follow a missed day at school. 

While mental health days seek to benefit students by providing a much needed respite, the reality is that missed classroom instruction and assignments often add to preexisting stress. 

The Student and Family Handbook allows a mental health day if a student needs a break to “rest, recalibrate and recharge.” The day counts toward attendance thresholds, and if two or more mental health days are taken, a school counselor may check in with the student.

A mental health day does not pause assignments and quizzes — it only delays them. As a result, the missed work begins to pile up, which can make the purpose of taking a mental health day feel counterproductive. Rather than relieving stress as intended, a mental health day can often end up increasing the workload that must eventually be completed. 

For mental health days, students have the number of school days that they were absent to make up missed assessments and assignments. Communicating with each teacher for extensions is often difficult, and this policy only counts toward work due on the day missed, not work assigned upon return. This often leads to the workload following a mental health day doubling.

Despite its disadvantages, mental health days have very important benefits. The Mayo Clinic attributes mental health days to reduced feelings of burnout, improved morale and attitude and improved resiliency.

As high school students, it is imperative that we learn to prioritize our mental health and know when to take breaks, even if taking a mental health day doesn’t feel realistic with busy schedules. Finding time for smaller breaks to rest and reset can make a big difference. While mental health days have their challenges, especially with make-up work, they highlight the importance of taking care of ourselves.