May is Mental Health Awareness Month!

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During the month of May, Canada celebrates Mental Health Awareness month. Mental health is often misunderstood, and stigmatized. Mental Health Awareness month is a time for raising awareness and promoting understanding about mental health issues.

The history of mental health awareness month began with the CMHA—the Canadian Mental Health Association. The CMHA were founded in 1918 and have been strong advocates for the mental well-being of Canadians ever since. In 1951, Mental Health Awareness month was introduced across Canada.

Celebrating mental health awareness month means taking steps to understand and better our own mental health, as well as the mental health of others. Mental health is just as important to an individual’s well-being as physical health. 1 in 5 people in Canada experience mental health issues in any given year, and post-secondary students are commonly affected.

Mental health issues can include conditions like depression, anxiety, ADHD, OCD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. These conditions are heavily stigmatized, and a lack of understanding creates obstacles for those who need to seek help. During mental health awareness month, we work to challenge that stigma. You can do so by talking openly about mental health, sharing experiences, showing support to others, and reading up on various mental health topics to broaden your knowledge!

For mental health awareness month, Alexander College’s library has assembled a display of books and e-resources that cover a variety of mental health topics. Here are some of the titles on display:

You Are Not a Rock – In a world full of high expectations, it is common for people to fall into the spiral of self-guilt and self-hatred. In this book, the author teaches how to embrace who you are, how to embrace and cope with negative feelings rather than trying to suppress them, and how to practice self-forgiveness.

This book is a valuable resource for those who wish to love themselves more, and to take a more positive approach to life.

Kind of Coping – Anxiety is one of the most common mental health issues today, and it is even more present during college years. Kind of Coping is a comic book that uses sense of humor to illustrate an insider’s perspective on life with anxiety.

It is an easy and quick read for people who wish to learn about general anxiety, social anxiety, and introversion. Meanwhile, those who struggle with anxiety themselves will certainly have a laugh when they relate to the book.

How to ADHD – Written by the YouTube personality Jessica McCabe, host of the channel ‘How to ADHD’, this book offers an insider’s perspective on one of the most common mental disorders. It educates its readers about ADHD, as well as provides useful tools for those who have ADHD and are looking for ways to cope and work with it.

This is Depression – Even though depression is a common mood disorder that affects around 280 million people worldwide, there is still a lot of stigmas around it. Through illustrations, humor, and plain language, this book breaks these stigmas by explaining the medical and psychological aspects of depression. It also discusses causes, symptoms, and treatment options.

We encourage anyone struggling with mental health to reach out and seek help. Students at Alexander College are eligible for up to 10 free Health and Wellness Counselling sessions each calendar year. Please visit Health and Wellness to make an appointment.

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