Vacation: A Prescription for Mental Health

There are things that everyone needs beyond food and shelter. These other essentials include, among other things, rest from our usual activities. When we were kids in school, the daily breaks were called 'recess' and, for many of us, recess was our favorite part of the school day. Everyone needs sleep. Our bodies and minds need to rest and recuperate from a day of activities to be fully ready for the next day.

For both children and adults, the need for vacation continues throughout life, no matter what we generally do with our time and energy on a typical non-vacation day. Vacations are a necessary component, for most people, of maintaining adequate resilience on the job, a healthy attitude and good, overall, mental health.

As a therapist in practice for nearly 40 years, it seems that the key element involved in maintain good mental health that is most often overlooked is that of vacation.

Most people understand that computers need occasional rebooting to clean and refresh themselves. We tend to sometimes be less aware that we humans also require intermittent breaks from their regular activities in order to refresh our own systems, both biologic and psychological.

How much vacation is enough? The answer varies from person to person. Like sleep, there is no single correct answer to "How much is enough?" There are, though, some specific indicators that can cue you to when you need a vacation.

If you are not getting enough of it, you will know it. Your ability to withstand the day-to-day stressors or routine life and work begin to diminish. You may tire more easily and those around you begin to let you know that you are becoming more irritable. The challenging and difficult job begins to seem impossible. Thoughts of quitting and finding something new begin to creep into the mind with increasing frequency and intensity. Strained relationships become impossible to sustain or improve. Sleep comes either too easily or becomes elusive. These are hints. It is time to plan a vacation.

Without occasional recesses, everyday life can become burdensome and even depressing. The benefits of refreshing our being that come from taking a break way from whatever we regularly do cannot be overstated.

Vacation does not, necessarily, mean going away to a different place. To some, it may mean simple not doing whatever the usual activity is. The term "stay-cation" has become increasingly popular as people sometimes vacation from their jobs simply be staying home. It is less about how much money is available to spend on a vacation then it is about taking one no matter what and no matter where.

Working hard and achieving job satisfaction is certainly an important element for many people in sustaining good mental health. Satisfying relationships are a customary part of the recipe as well. The sometimes overlooked and under-attended ingredient can be vacation. As is the case with baking a cake, the absence of a single important ingredient can cause the finished product to fall flat.