What is mental health?

Mental health is about how you think, feel, and handle life’s ups and downs. It’s important for living a healthy life and is a big part of our overall health. Having good mental health helps you think clearly, feel positive, and behave in ways that make it easier to enjoy life and handle difficulties.₂

Mental health can be affected by many things, like:

• physical health
• school and work
• family, friends, and other relationships
• experiences of prejudice and discrimination
• spirituality
• tools you have to manage tough emotions and situations
• access to counselling
• stigma

What is mental illness?

Mental illnesses include a number of brain-related conditions that affect how a person thinks, feels, or behaves, like mood or anxiety disorders. Having a mental illness can cause ongoing distress and make daily life difficult, affecting things such as school, work, and relationships.₃ Mental illnesses can last for different lengths of time; some may only last a few months, while others may be more chronic or long-term conditions.

Unlike temporary sadness or stress from life changes, mental illnesses do not just go away on their own. With the right support and treatment, people can manage their symptoms and improve their well-being.

About 1 in 5 Canadians experiences a mental illness each year.₄ Mental illness can affect anyone, no matter your age, culture, education, etc. Mental illness often starts in childhood or adolescence.₃ That makes talking about mental health and illness early, and asking for help when needed, very important. When young people get help for feelings of anxiety, depressed mood, or other mental health problems early, it can help prevent more serious difficulties later.

Mental illnesses, just like mental health, can change over time. On the mental illness continuum, people can experience different levels of severity. For example, some people might not have any mental illness at all, while others may experience mild or minor symptoms that don’t greatly affect their daily life. At the other end of the mental illness continuum, some people may experience more severe symptoms that can make it harder to do things like go to school, work, or maintain relationships. These conditions can change, meaning someone’s symptoms might get better or worse depending on factors like stress, support, or treatment.

How are mental health and mental illness connected?

Showing mental health and illness as two separate continuums helps to explain how we can move along each, but that isn’t the full picture. Mental health and mental illness are actually two separate, but connected, ideas. It’s a dual continuum that we all move along.₅

The dual continuum helps explain how someone can have a mental illness and still experience periods of good mental health, or have no mental illness but still struggle and need help.

Moving along either continuum is possible, and with the right support, people can improve their mental health and/or manage their mental illness.

Identity, mental health, and mental illness

Who you are – your race, culture, faith, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, and other aspects of your identity – shapes how you experience the world and your mental health. Feeling accepted and valued can strengthen well-being, while discrimination, exclusion, or oppression can increase stress and mental health challenges.

Research tells us:

• Experiencing racial discrimination can lead to mental health problems, like anxiety or depression, as a person gets older.₆
• For Black youth, anti-Black racism is a major factor contributing to mental health problems.₇
• Indigenous youth in Canada face higher rates of mental health challenges compared to their non-racialized peers, and this gap is widening.₈
• 2S/LGBTQIA+ students face unique mental health challenges related to homophobia, transphobia, and discrimination.₉
• Newcomer students face challenges in understanding the school environment, finding mental health support, and communicating due to language barriers. School staff and/or mental health professionals may also lack the cultural knowledge and experience to help newcomer students, making it harder for them to get the support they need.₁₀
• In Ontario, Francophone children and youth face challenges in getting mental health support that meets their language needs.₁₁
• Students with disabilities are more likely to face mental health challenges than students without disabilities.₁₂

Western models of mental health support have often focused on developing individual insights and on building evidence-informed strategies, and this can be helpful. At the same time, it’s also important to think about how our family, friends, school and community can help us stay mentally healthy.

Being connected to your culture, having good people around you, and feeling like you belong can all help you feel more supported and better able to manage life’s ups and downs. By building positive, encouraging environments, we can create more hopeful and inclusive spaces in our schools where everyone’s mental health is valued and cared for.

To learn more about what identity-affirming actions look and feel like, check out:

The significance of small affirmations: Juno’s story

The importance of affirming spaces: Saede’s story

How to take care of your mental health

No matter who you are, your mental health matters.

If you’re struggling, reaching out for support is important. This can mean talking to a trusted friend, family member, teacher, or counselor. Finding community spaces where you feel accepted and understood can also help. Stigma can make us think or feel that mental health challenges are not worth taking about. This is not true. You deserve support, understanding, and care – we all do. Check out the Support your mental health page for tips and more on reaching out.