Why students should have mental health days | Hailey Hardcastle

I know a lot of students would use their mental health days to ditch school but just as many students like myself really need them.

Schools: I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see that

Look out for the children, especially the ones that look like they have it all together 💛🖤

"It is always OK to be not OK, and It's OK to take a break" It deeply touched my heart

Your mental health is so important! If you’re reading this and you’re currently struggling with yours, you are NOT alone❤️

Schools: “Y’all hear summ?”

I think it takes a certain maturity and self-awareness to first acknowledge that you need a "mental health day", and then to use it wisely.

She starts off the presentation with her own stories. She talks about how everyone goes through mental health problems. She speaks about how she did something about the problem and is trying to benefit others with it. She walks around and moves her arms a bit so that she isn't just standing stiff while talking. She's showing confidence by talking in a strong voice. She also knows what she's talking about and she isn't reading off a script. She ends it off with an ending modivational statement. She also asks the croud a question do keep it in there minds.

My parents: Lmao why you sad if you get bad grades study harder.

Mental health days are so necessary. One day, I was home and realized my brother didn't go to school. When I asked him why he didn't go, he said he felt sad and asked if he could just hung out with me. I was really surprised. He didn't tell me why he was sad but I tried to cheer him up as much as I could.

“ I worried about a lot of things other kids didn’t” I always said the same thing

I remember 9th grade, I'd had a rough month school-wise, we suffered a loss within the family and a test I was woefully unprepared for was coming up. My mom noticed how stressed I was and allowed me to take a day off, calling me in as sick. I had a day to relax and catch up on several things. It is strange, how something like not going to school, deviating from the daily schedule for a bit, helped me feel better. Now with the pandemic and having school online, I never feel like I can take a day off and have suffered not just one, but two panic attacks in the last two months, my first and second ever. If there's no set routine to take a step back from, things get harder to manage, and I've never wanted to go back to school this desperately, just to get a day away from my head.

My high school acts all "oh yeah we really care about our students' mental health!" but they don't let us have mental health days, we tend to get in trouble for 'disturbing' the class with a panic attack, and, if we aren't in trouble, then we're left in the hall until we 'settle down'. They don't try to address the situation or try to fix it. They just leave you until you can bottle your feelings back up

I wish we learned mental health care stuff in school when I was young. I’m suffering from vertigo and fatigue, etc so I want to do meditation but it’s harder than I expected.

Before watching: My parents, particularly my dad, advocated for mental health days. No excuses. The only stipulations were it couldn't be on a test day or day a project was due. He knew I didn't require those stipulations, but he told the school this was our agreement. I was an excellent student, but I struggled with my mental health, migraines, terrible periods, and hypoglycemia.

school: do i look care?

I can understand this. It’s also a person to person issue. You’ll only ever know if there are problems if people are more open. It’s great she’s speaking on this issue.

This makes me cry. I have a breakdown today and i was hard bc i have so many in this month and i tired to be sick. Thank you for this words, this video and your brave

She's so well spoken its insane

Personally, this should be at least introduced to politicians around the world. Even if not adopted, this should be a vocal point for all. In schools, I can vouch that mental health is not respected like it should be. The themes (at least in my school) of mental health were mocked by members of staff. Mocked. I know that as someone who suffers silently, people making those snide remarks don't help, it makes people worse thinking that struggling is bad. It's ok to be not ok, but people don't see that.