Editorial: Should you take a day off

“Hi Professor,

I’m sorry for the short notice, but I have been having a rough week, so I will be taking a mental health day and will not be able to make it to class today. I have uploaded my answers to Quiz #3 on CourseSite. Could you please let me know what the readings are for next week’s class?

Best,

A mentally exhausted student”

Is this an email you would feel comfortable sending to one of your professors? It probably depends on the person reading this and the professor who would be receiving the email.

While some people would rather opt to send an email with a fake scenario about their dog needing surgery, their car breaking down or a COVID scare as an excuse to miss class, some of you are likely willing to send a message like this one. Some of you may have already sent an iteration of a “prioritizing mental health” email this semester.

And there’s no shame in that.

Especially in recent years, social stigmas toward personal wellness have gone down considerably. 

Generally, students are more willing to talk to one another about their anxiety, depression or other neurodivergence with which they may be struggling. Despite persisting issues with these services at the university, seeking therapy or other counseling services has become more commonplace among students.

It is clear that this decrease in social stigma is an overall positive thing for students’ mental health, but has the academic stigma around these issues decreased at a similar rate?

It depends on who you ask.

With the increase in understanding and awareness of mental health afflictions, it is undeniable that professors are more exposed to these issues than they have been in the past. However, they aren’t all progressing at the same rate.

There seems to be a generational divide between professors when it comes to mental health. 

Though there are certainly outliers in both demographics, younger professors seem to be more understanding of mental health issues, while older professors who did not grow up in an environment where neurodivergence was accepted are lagging behind.

In the admittedly small sample size of this Editorial Board, we have mostly experienced both younger professors telling us, “You can’t learn when you’re stressed,” and older professors telling us, “‘I don’t feel like it’ is not an excuse!”

In addition to generational differences, there is also a sizable variance in stigmas surrounding the acceptance of different mental illnesses a student may be dealing with.

It seems it is easy to understand and empathize with the symptoms of anxiety and depression, but other conditions like autism or ADHD are not as easily understandable and thus are not treated the same way.   

These differences permeate throughout the departments — largely journalism — the members of this board belong to, but the attitude toward mental health issues in other disciplines likely varies greatly. 

No matter how accommodating the professor is, many intensive STEM courses simply do not have the wiggle room to allow students to take a day off without that student or others falling behind.

In spite of all this, even if your professor is not understanding and your course load is not conducive to a healthy work-life balance, mental health is health. Allowing yourself to take a break to get back on track will be much better for you in the long run, even if you have to miss an assignment — regardless of who you are.

This likely is not a sentiment shared by all of our readers, both current students and alumni, and that’s okay. Unfortunately, though, the Editorial Board has had a rough week, so in an effort to prioritize our own mental health, we might refrain from reading any comments on this editorial for the next couple days.

Thank you for understanding.

Best,

The Brown and White Editorial Board