Crain’s Chicago Business estimates the population of the Chicago Metropolitan Area, commonly referred to as Chicagoland, to be 9.6 million in 2016.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) approximately 61.5 million Americans experience mental illness every year.
If the population living with mental illness were a city, it would be 6.4 times the size of Chicagoland. It would have a population larger than the top 10 biggest cities combined, the top 25, even the top 50. If a virus were to affect a population of this size, there would be worldwide panic.
And while it may not be virus, America faces an illness that affects about one in five people. And yet, stigma revolving around mental illness causes us to ignore the fact that one-fifth of our family, friends, children, and neighbors suffer silently.
Everyone can become exhausted from working, especially those who walk the earth with a mental illness that makes work, thoughts, and social interactions more difficult. It becomes common in these stressful, poor mental health days for people of all types to take a mental health day off. Though, many employees and students lie and claim they are sick due to the stigma surrounding mental illness.
Some may argue that a mental illness isn’t as hazardous as a virus or infection to warrant a day off, however our mind and body are connected. Low energy, headaches, upset stomach, aches, chest pain, insomnia, frequent colds and infections, fatigue, and weight gain are common physical symptoms of teenage mental illnesses such as depression, eating disorders, and anxiety. And while these may not seem like enough to take a day off from work, the effects of them on a person’s overall being are.
Those with anxiety are prone to bouts of panic attacks, which can leave them incapable of attending work or school. Depressed individuals may find themselves unable to perform normally simple daily activities, preventing them from completing work and interacting in social situations. According to NAMI 10.2 million individuals with mental illnesses also have a co-occurring addiction disorder, putting those with mental illnesses in further physical danger.
Perhaps most frightening is the fact that 90 percent of those who commit suicide had an underlying mental illness. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, even more common than homicide, and is the third leading cause of death for young adults.
So with one-fifth of our nation at risk, why is it viewed so negatively for someone to take a day off because the world has become too much for them to currently handle? Many psychiatrists such as David M. Reiss, stated in the Fox News article “Taking a ‘mental health day’: Your rights in the workplace” that mental health days are beneficial as long as they aren’t used “just to avoid dealing with issues that need to be faced”.
Some argue that mental health days would just encourage people to skip work or school, which has some validity to it. However therein lies the problem. People already view mental health as a joke, and they invalidate those with mental illness by claiming most people would use a mental health day to skip responsibilities.
The term ‘mental health day’ itself also presents a problem, as it further stigmatizes mental health by suggesting that it is a separate condition from being ill in general. You wouldn’t call in because you are having a ‘flu-day’ or a ‘broken arm-day’. You would simply call in that you need the day off for personal reason. While creating separate ‘mental health days’ is a step in the right direction, it is not the end all solution.