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Mental health has been prioritized by society now more than ever, however, many schools have failed to recognize the necessity for mental health days. While you may be wondering what a mental health day is, a mental health day is far more than just another excused absence for a student. A mental health day is a day you take off from work or school, as an excused absence, and do not have to worry about responsibilities and rather be able to focus on your mental health. In short, a mental health day is simply a break so you can recharge your mind. The following are various reasons as to why schools should offer mental health days:

• Mental health days help reduce stress: Students experience much more stress than ever before, due to increased academic competition and expectations, as well as social and other extracurricular pressures. Mental health days offer students a day to destress when they are experiencing increased stress levels throughout the school year.
• Mental health days reduce burnout: Burnout occurs when students are completely overworked and oftentimes extremely stressed as well. Mental health days allow students to take a break when they start to feel exhausted from their workload, which prevents them from approaching burnout. Burnout can also oftentimes lead to students simply giving up, so by reducing burnout, mental health days can encourage less giving up academically.
• Mental health days encourage healthy habits: Mental health days offer students the opportunity to recognize when they are too stressed and need a break and make that call for themselves that acknowledges that they need to take a mental health day. This encourages the same behavior throughout these students’ lives and will overall make students more self-aware of their mental health and encourage them to take a break when they know they need one.

While the previous ideas only present a few of the many benefits of mental health days, it is clear enough why they are necessary. If more schools allowed mental health days, students would overall be healthier, more productive, and more inclined to further their educations. Mental health days are a key component in raising and educating the next generations, and that must start with schools offering mental health days.