It’s not the first time that Dunham has addressed such a topic; just last year, she penned a message to women battling mental health issues, reminding them that they should never be ashamed of making the decision to take some time out for themselves.

“Work is, organically, a place of yes,” she wrote in a guest post for LinkedIn. “Because I had so much shame about the private strings of unanswered texts, broken plans, re-made promises, at work it became my mission to answer every email no matter the hour, agree to every added task, finish the day off by reading a link sent by a colleague rather than a book for pleasure.”

Lena Dunham’s powerful message reminds us why we need to take sick days