The urge to skip class is a legitimate struggle in college. No one is there to send you to the office if they catch you and no one is there to tell you that no, you should not skip class because it is going to seriously affect your GPA if done often enough. These are things that college students have to find out on their own, but hopefully won’t skip class enough for it to be a problem. Although skipping class is generally not the best thing to do, sometimes you just need to take a mental health day.

There is a very real stigma around mental health, many people think that having a mental illness doesn’t really mean that you are sick, but that is definitely not the case. There are some nights where I can’t get myself to sleep because I have too many crazy thoughts running through my mind, there are days where I honestly cannot find it within myself to put on a genuine smile, and there are some days where I just cannot get myself out of bed. Sometimes you need a mental health day or even a half day to help you get through the week, and that is okay.

I don’t condone skipping class purely for the fact that you don’t want to go or that you don’t want to do your work, but I definitely won’t deny someone a mental health day. You don’t even need to have been diagnosed with a mental illness to take a day to yourself. Everyone knows that stress can have some seriously negative effects both mentally and physically. Therefore, it’s totally ok to know when you need to take a day off and to do so. Catch up on your work; make sure you’re getting the sleep that you need; use a mental health day to take care of yourself.