World Mental Health Day

[JgS]

Today is World Mental Health Day. So what is everyone doing today to keep their sanity?

[morea]

keep? I lost mine years ago. ;)

[colonel5]

When we were kids my mom would give us a mental health day once or twice a year, meaning we didn't have to go to school.

Speaking of, I should take a mental health day soon.

[captain spanky]

yeah i lost mine too
but i found it again down the back of the sofa.
it's a bit fluffy but I'm planning on dunking it in some vodka at the weekend, that usually does the job.

[Broacher]

Imagine if health plans covered minor mental illnesses?

I mean, if you sprained your ankle while playing weekend warrior whatever, no one balks at you taking a day or two off, right?

Imagine if you were OFFICIALLY entitled the same kind of privilege for a minor mental injury. I dunno... your dog died, your obnoxious relatives left after a six day demanding visit, you didn't get that promotion you thought you'd get.

And if you didn't use them... could you accumulate them?

Or maybe it would be better if you couldn't. Would it put more pressure on bosses to avoid 'injuring' their staff with clumsy management tactics if their bosses knew it would translate into less time off to absorb in the bottom line?

And then there's the idea of a partial injury. Something where you can work still, just not as efficiently. Like that sprained ankle-- you can still sit and design, just not run around to do other things. Would it be acceptable to say I can't do any mind-numbing drive-thru design work today because I sprained my creative working on a big campaign last week?

Hmm.

[captain spanky]

that sounds scarily like it might actually happen in the not too distant future Broacher... :(

[Broacher]

Here's another aspect of that issue: for many job placements, you cannot discriminate against a person on the basis of their temporary physical condition. That makes sense. You expect some 'allowance' of consideration when the candidate is suffering from a severe migraine or say a sinus infection during an interview, right? If day-to-day mental health becomes equal in status to day-to-day physical health, would we need to work out some kind of system where a candidate could say something like, "I would like to preface this interview by mentioning that I'm currently suffering from a mild case of corporate cynicism brought on by an exceptionally long and difficult period of being jerked around by my current employer's management. Please adjust your assessment accordingly."

This gets into the whole new emerging field of neurological research which can prove that people can do terrible and illegal things while under the influence of brief, but intense, mental 'distubance states'. Temporary insanity is technically, getting much shorter. Many predict that the advances in polygraph technology-- most specifically, lie detection technology that is more than 95% accurate-- will soon raise fundamental legal and societal questions that we are simply not equipped to deal with.

Oh, my brain hurts just to think of it.

Think I'll take an early lunch to see if that helps.

There's another thing: smokers have designated smoking areas. Could people who need to relax demand more accommodations from their employers to provide areas/resources to achieve this?

[Mynock]

Mine was in a dumster in Eagan.

[colonel5]

Mine was in a dumster in Eagan.

and now it's in my office, I am training it to become part of my braintrust.

[Virgo Nightingale]

I keep my mental health in check by printing out a sample of Comic Sans every day, crumpling it up into a ball, tossing it in the toilet and doing my business on it. Works like a charm. *twitch*

[Broacher]

Is that why it's known to be such a popular 'business' font?

[Danger_Mouse]

what about PMS? Is that a good reason for a mental health day? And what about the suffering that I have to endure from my wife's wacky few days of unstability? Can I take a day for that. I tell you some days I need it!

At my new job, not feeling the need for a mental health day ....but at an old job the stress level was high and every now and then I took a "mental health day" and spent the day at a climbing gym. theraputic yes!

[Red Kittie Kat]

I lost my mind years ago .. nothing to worry about keeping healthy ;)

[budafist]

Have you seen me marbles?

[AlexNJ210]

If IN-sanity were healthy, well just call me jack lalane.