Perhaps nowhere more often do people tend to ‘put on a brave face’ than in the workplace. This might be because you’re a private person, you don’t want your boss to think you’re not doing your job effectively, or you use work as a distraction from your dwindling mental health state.
Whatever the reason, mental health should never be shelved for the sake of work, so here are five signs it might be time to take a mental health day so you can come back feeling more equipped and in a better state to kick goals.
Simple things are becoming overwhelming
You might reach that point of stress where even the slightest thing can cause you to feel overwhelmed and out of control. Running out of milk in the fridge used to be an easy fix, now it’s a big deal. Getting an urgent email at work used to be a good challenge, now it’s causing you great anxiety. If you’re getting overwhelmed by everyday situations that never used to phase you – take a day.
You’re getting sick all the time
You’re usually healthy, but now you can’t seem to shake that cold, or you appear to be a germ magnet for different illnesses. Prolonged levels of high stress can cause the body to divert all its energy to keeping your body in a ‘fight or flight’ state, leaving the automated stuff like your immune system with its defences down.
You can’t sleep, or you can’t stop feeling sleepy
You can drink all the coffees in the world, but you still can’t get the energy levels you need to perform at your usual level. You’re feeling tired all the time despite sleeping more, or you’re not able to sleep at all, causing severe fatigue and sleep deprivation. Either way, sleep is a critical part of physical and mental health, so it’s important to take the time to get it back on track.
You’re withdrawing from social situations
You’re normally quite happy to have lunch with your colleagues or sit around the kitchen having a chat, but now you might find yourself eating at your desk or finding a solitary place to withdraw from socialising. A decline in mental health can often lead to anxiety and/or depression which in turn affects your social life and can cause anxiety around having general interactions that you wouldn’t normally bat an eye at.
You’re having trouble keeping focus
Your mind keeps drifting off and can’t stay on-task like it used to. A task that used to take you little time has suddenly become a challenge to complete as you find yourself unable to keep focus for any length of time. Foggy brain is linked to many mental health factors and can lead to making costly mistakes and affecting your everyday life.
Does it sound like you need to take a mental health day?