Minds On

Mental health

Everyone’s mental health is important. Mental health needs to be taken care of to stay healthy overall.

What are some ways that people can take care of their mental health?

Explore the following ways to help care for our mental health and try to provide an example for any four of the categories.

Ways to Help Care for Our Mental Health
Take care of our body	Learn to cope with stress	Set goals for ourselves	Keep connections with others
Volunteer our time	Practise mindfulness (being aware of how we feel)	Avoid taking substances that affect our mental health	Ask for help when we need it

Ways to Help Care for Our Mental Health

Take care of our body

Learn to cope with stress

Set goals for ourselves

Keep connections with others

Volunteer our time

Practise mindfulness

(being aware of how we feel)

Avoid taking substances that affect our mental health

Ask for help when we need it

Press ‘Example’ to help you get started.

Example

Treat ourselves with kindness and respect.

Example: take time to engage in activities that bring us happiness

Complete the Taking Care of Our Mental Health in your notebook or using the following fillable and printable document. You can also record your ideas using another method of your choice.

Taking Care of Our Mental Health
Factors to help take care of our mental health	Example
Treat ourselves with kindness and respect	Take time to engage in activities that bring us happiness

Press the ‘Activity’ button to access Taking Care of Our Mental Health.

Activity

Brainstorm

What might happen to a person’s mental health if they aren’t able to properly care for their mental health?

Record your thoughts using a method of your choice.

Action

Substance use

Focusing on our mental health is critical to leading a healthy life. There are ways to care for our mental health as was explored in the Minds On section. Unfortunately, there are times when people cannot properly care for their own mental health. One of these reasons includes substance use and addiction.

What is substance use?

Harmful substance use is when a person uses medicines, drugs, alcohol, or tobacco in an inappropriate way. When this use becomes a pattern, it has a negative impact on a person’s health, including their mental health.

Some examples of harmful substance use can include:

underage drinking
binge drinking
injecting drugs, which is harmful to the body

Some examples of mental health issues can include:

Depression–when a person has a deep feeling of sadness that is hard to eliminate from their thoughts. They may become disinterested in the world around them.
Anxiety disorder–when a person feels extremely worried and has feelings of mental tension. Anxiety is often accompanied by a faster heart rate and recurring intrusive thoughts.
Losing contact with reality–this leads to a person developing hallucinations (sensing things that are not there) and/or delusions (a false belief).

Problematic substance use and mental health issues are often closely connected. Many people suffer from both. Sometimes a mental health issue can cause problematic substance use. Sometimes problematic substance use can cause a mental health issue.

Press each tab to reveal different causes of problematic substance use and mental health issues.

This means that the cause is passed down through a part of the family.

This means that the cause is internally found in the person.

This means that the cause is external and is found in a person’s environment.

Learning check!

For each sentence, select the missing word from the drop-down menu.

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Short- and long-term effects of cannabis use

Frequent and long-term cannabis use at a young age can harm the brain and lead to problems with memory, concentration, thinking, learning, handling emotions, decision making, and mental health.

Let’s explore some of the short- and long-term effects of cannabis use and its effects on developing minds of adolescents provided by Government of Canada.

Press the following tabs to access short-term effects of cannabis use.

Cannabis can cause drowsiness, slow reaction times, lower the ability to pay attention, and impair coordination. Using cannabis and then driving or operating equipment can result in an accident, serious injuries, or death.

Cannabis can impair thinking, concentration, memory, and decision-making, which could impact a person’s ability to perform well on the job or at school.

Cannabis can cause disorganized thoughts, anxiety, or trigger a psychotic episode (not knowing what is real).

Press the following tabs to access long-term effects of cannabis use.

Cannabis smoke contains many of the same harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke.

Frequent use of cannabis over a long period of time increases the risk of dependence which may develop into an addiction of the substance. It may also increase risk of developing anxiety and depression. Addiction is the inability to stop using a substance or engaging in a behaviour that could cause psychological and physical harm.

Pause and Reflect

Pause and reflect

Respond to the following questions using a method of your choice.

What information surprised you about the effects of cannabis use?
What is the connection between problematic cannabis use and mental health?

Press ‘Learning Check’ to review your answers.

Learning Check

What information surprised you about the effects of cannabis use?

What is the connection between problematic cannabis use and mental health?

Cannabis can cause drowsiness, slow reaction times, lower the ability to pay attention and impair coordination, impair thinking, concentration, memory and decision-making.

Consolidation

Getting help

Addictive substances can negatively impact one’s physical and mental health. There are many effective strategies to respond to problematic substance use, including self-coping and self-awareness strategies to help manage stressful situations. However, sometimes professional help is needed to better understand the root causes of problematic substance use. There are several organizations available for support within the community.

Explore one of the various support organizations that can help someone who is engaging in problematic substance use. Each of these organizations have their own website.

Kids Help Phone	CAMH
YMCA	An organization of your choice that helps support those engaging in problematic substance use

Use the following checklist to ensure you include all the required information.

Website Check List

The website address Phone numbers Target audience (e.g., teens, adults) How the organization can assist

Complete the Getting Help Activity in your notebook or using the following fillable and printable document. You can also use another method of your choice to record your ideas.

Getting Help Activity
Support organization
Website address
Phone number
Target audience
How can the organization assist?

Press the ‘Activity’ button to access Getting Help Activity.

Activity

Reflection

As you read the following descriptions, select the one that best describes your current understanding of the learning in this activity. Press the corresponding button once you have made your choice.

I feel…

I have an excellent understanding of the concepts I have a very good understanding of the concepts I have some understanding but need to review some more my understanding of the concepts needs a lot more work

Now, expand on your ideas by recording your thoughts using a voice recorder, speech-to-text, or writing tool.

When you review your notes on this learning activity later, reflect on whether you would select a different description based on your further review of the material in this learning activity.

Minds On

Mental health

Brainstorm

Action