Written by Karen Tang, YCRH member.
This month’s theme at the YCRH is around Mental Health and Well-being. This topic is deeply important to me on both a personal and professional level. I am in my 5th year of graduate school pursuing my PhD in Clinical Psychology, about to embark on my year-long accredited residency, with the goal of becoming a registered clinical psychologist (soon!). I have also had my own lived experience with mental health challenges, such as panic attacks, burnout, as well as anxiety and low mood when I suffered from a traumatic brain injury (see “How to Cope with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) as a Student” YCRH blog).
Over the past nine years (i.e., undergrad + grad school) of pursing psychology in higher education, here are some of the takeaways I have learned about mental health, from the point of view of a clinical psychology trainee.
Main Takeaway #1: Mental Health Continuum
As part of my degree, I had the opportunity to pursue a Certificate in University Teaching and Learning, where I was able to leverage my existing clinical experience and knowledge to design a short course titled, “Me, Myself, and My Mental Health: How to Thrive, not just Survive”. Within this presentation, I shared about the Mental Health Continuum (created by The Mental Health Commission of Canada), which is an easily accessible and visual way of determining your current state of mental health, as well as corresponding actions to take.
If you fall under the Healthy stage (highlighted in green), you may be thriving (e.g., feeling like “I got this”). Under the Reacting phase (yellow), you might be simply surviving (e.g., “something isn’t right”). In the Injured stage (orange), you may be struggling with your mental health (e.g., “I can’t keep up”). Lastly, if you are in the Ill phase, you might be in crisis or feeling burnout (e.g., “I can’t survive this”).
The Mental Health Continuum Model is a good tool to use to help identify signs of good to challenging mental health and offer you ways to get back to the healthy/thriving (green) phase. It is super important to keep in mind that where you stand presently may not be where you will stand 10 mins from now. Where you stand on the continuum can change quickly so being aware of where you might be at a given time will allow you to assess how you are doing mentally.
Main Takeaway #2: Mental Health is Health
Oftentimes, I have personally noticed that mental health is not treated the same way as physical health. I find that the stigma surrounding mental health and mental illness is slowly decreasing in our society, however, we often still treat mental health as being separate from health and well-being. We often consider physical health challenges as impacting our health, but what about our mental health? It is important to remember that mental health is an important aspect of our health. Can we start considering mental health challenges and illness to have the same priority and empathy as physical health ailments (e.g., diabetes, cancer)? When will our healthcare system and broadly, society, start prioritizing mental health, and treated as urgently, as physical health?
Mental health is more than the absence of mental disorders. Mental health is an integral part of health; indeed, there is no health without mental health.
Main Takeaway #3: You Need To Take Care of Your Mental Health
It is imperative that you take care of your mental health. Just like you may engage in physical activity to take care of your physical health, the same must be done for your mental health!
Tune in to my future YCRH blog on “Mental Health and Self-Care: How to Take Care of Your Mental Well-Being” to learn more!
References
How to Cope with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) as a Student” YCRH blog: https://sandboxproject.ca/the-ycrh-blog/2024/1/5/what-is-bullying-h784l-4zm2b-rme5w-8wktw
Mental Health Continuum (created by The Mental Health Commission of Canada): https://tourismhr.ca/resources/mental-health-support/
Additional resources: https://www.camh.ca/en/driving-change/mental-health-is-health