This is NPR's life kit.

If you have a broken leg or you know, you're through your back out, there's no judgment

in missing work.

But there's this sort of denial and underlining message that mental health days are taboo

to take.

Psychologist Jody Adewali is a Los Angeles-based medical adviser with the Native Millions Foundation.

Native Millions is a company that works to fight against stigma, build empathy and

be inclusive to all people in the workplace.

He says if you think about it, working all day is kind of wild, but we still do it because

you know, money.

A lot of this relates to our capitalistic mindset of just work, work, work, push through it

and you know, you get to the other end and deal with it then.

We don't put enough emphasis on sleep, we don't put enough emphasis on our eating habits,

we don't put enough emphasis on stress management.

All of these stressors can result in mental health problems at work and having these issues

is more common than you may think, Jody says.

It's not a character flaw or a character defect or a sign of weakness.

It's something that everyone I think on this planet will experience at one point or another

in their life.

Many people have these moments where they wonder why it can be so hard to get out of bed in

the morning for work or feel distracted when they get there.

When you're not in the right headspace, being at work can be difficult.

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