From Mental Health First Aid Canada: “Self care is anything physical, emotional, social, or spiritual that contributes to managing everyday life (with all its joys and sorrows).” When going through a particularly stressful situation, it is important to find ways to reduce immediate stress. It may help to talk with a friend, family member, cohort-mate, or a professional counsellor or mental health care provider. It is also important to plan care for yourself and pursue healthy coping strategies to use regularly as ways to reduce and prevent stress.
- Eat a well-balanced diet
- Avoid or limit your intake of alcohol, caffeine, drugs, and tobacco
- Drink plenty of water
- Exercise
- Get enough rest
- Know and respect your limits
- Be on the lookout for any changes in your habits, attitudes and moods.
Develop a plan for self care and take some time to do something just for yourself everyday. A self care plan doesn’t need to be expensive or time-consuming! Some ideas include: - Taking a break to read, watch a movie - Savouring a bath or shower - Finding ways to laugh - Keeping your environment clean, bright, and cheerful - Making time to chat with friends - Journaling - Reflecting, meditating, or praying
Thinking Distortions to avoid:
- All-or-nothing thinking
- Using terms like “always”, “never”, or “forever” in situations that have no absolute/have grey areas
- I.e. “I didn’t do well on project one, I’ll never catch up.”
- Overgeneralization
- Seeing a negative event as a pattern of failure
- I.e. “I didn’t understand this exercise, I won’t understand any others”
- Mental filter/Selective thinking
- Only remembering negative events, even when there may be a number of positive experiences related to those events
- Disqualifying the positive
- Taking a compliment, affirmation, or constructive feedback and turning it into a negative thought
- Jumping to negative conclusions
- Assuming a negative outcome despite having no evidence to support this assumption
- Setting unrealistic expectations
- Using “should” or “shouldn’t” as a way to describe behaviours
- I.e. “I should only submit this project once it’s perfect” or “I shouldn’t take a break until I finish this exercise”
- Catastrophizing
- Inflating the importance of events, mislabeling events to the extreme
- I.e. “I didn’t do well on this project, I’ll never get a job as a developer.”
- Personalization
- Seeing yourself as the cause of negative events or assigning moral weight to them
- I.e. “if i was a better student I would have understood this concept” or “I got the design I like the least, I have such bad luck.”
Good2Talk provides confidential support services for post-secondary students in Ontario and Nova Scotia.
- Phone and text support available
A 24/7 distress line at 416-929-5200 for students who are experiencing an emotional crisis and who are in need of immediate assistance.
Crisis Services Canada (CSC) is a national network of existing distress, crisis and suicide prevention line services. We are committed to supporting any person living in Canada who is affected by suicide, in the most caring and least intrusive manner possible.
- 24/7 phone and text support available
Online and text crisis support services
- Crisis Chat (2 pm - 2 am ET): www.dcontario.org/ontx.html
- Crisis Text (2 pm - 2 am ET): 258258
MindBeacon therapy that can help you overcome mental health concerns related to depression, anxiety, panic, insomnia, and PTSD. MindBeacon is now available free of charge to support Ontarians through stress and mental well-being concerns during COVID-19, funded by the Government of Ontario.
AbilitiCBT is an internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) program that you can access from any device, any time. Therapist monitored/guided and self-guided CBT journeys available.
A free, evidence-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) program that offers guided mental health self-help supports for adults and youth 15+ using workbooks, online videos and phone coaching.
An online peer-to-peer support community for mental health
Connect with a licensed therapist for mental health help online. You can chat by text, audio or video.
Online counselling services with licensed therapists that may be covered by individual benefits.
VON is a not for profit, national health care organization and registered charity offering a wide range of community health care solutions on a 24/7 basis.
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