Many people can have a poor body image, seeing their general physical appearance in a negative light (e.g., “I hate my body”). However, the term Body Dysmorphic Disorder, or BDD, is used to describe a particular more specific type of body image problem. BDD is marked by an intense preoccupation with a perceived flaw in one’s physical appearance. Individuals with BDD often spend significant periods of time worrying about and evaluating a particular aspect of their appearance. Large amounts of time may be spent checking their appearance in the mirror, comparing their appearance with others, and engaging in behaviours designed to try to hide or conceal the area of concern.

Canadian Mental Health Course is now freely available for students and teachers on the ChatterHigh platform. Learn about a wide range of mental health topics and resources that can help youth become better help-seekers and mental health leaders! These modules will bring you right to the experts–like Kids Help Phone, Anxiety Canada, and the Canadian Mental Health Association. Content has been thoughtfully designed for the appropriate school level. Topics include:What is Mental Health?Exercise, Sleep, and Nutrition Emotional Well-being & Self CareStress & AnxietyBody Image & Self-esteemMindfulnessSupport Networks, Friendship & Communication SkillsBullying, Safety & Helping OthersGrief, Loss & Major Life ChangesSocial Media, Online Safety & Mental HealthMental Health Disorders & Substance UseQuestions within these modules will guide students through government and non-profit resources. 

Worry and Rumination

While worrying and feeling nervous is something that all human beings experience, as with many things in life, too much of something may not be good for you. Normal anxiety can become a problem when it is excessive, feels uncontrollable, is experienced as intrusive in your life, is persistent (seeming to always be around), and causes you significant distress, or impairs your ability to go about your day-to-day life. This is when normal anxiety becomes generalised anxiety disorder.
One of the important features of generalised anxiety is that the worry and anxiety is spread across a number of different areas such as health, work, interpersonal relationships, finances, and so on. This makes it different from other anxiety problems, such as social anxiety or phobias, where nervousness and worrying are more specific to particular situations.

**Site includes workbook, worksheets and information sheets for download.

Panic

Many people experience some mild sensations when they feel anxious about something, but a panic attack is much more intense than usual. A panic attack can be very frightening and you may feel a strong desire to escape the situation or to seek emergency assistance.
Panic disorder is used to describe the condition where panic attacks seem to happen unexpectedly rather than always in predictable situations. Importantly, someone with panic disorder has a persistent fear of having another attack or worries about the consequences of the attack. Many people change their behaviour to try to prevent panic attacks. Some people are affected so much that they try to avoid any place where it might be difficult to get help or to escape from. When this avoidance is severe it is called agoraphobia.

**Site includes worksheets, workbook and information sheets available for download.

Perfectionism is not necessarily about being ‘perfect’. Ask yourself this question… Is it ever really possible to be 100% ‘perfect’? So, if it’s not about being ‘perfect’, then what do we mean when talk about perfectionism?
Although there’s no perfect definition, we understand perfectionism to involve three things: Firstly, the relentless striving for extremely high standards for yourself and/or others that are personally demanding. Secondly, judging your self-worth based largely on your ability to strive for and achieve such unrelenting standards. Thirdly, experiencing negative consequences of setting such demanding standards, yet continuing to go for them despite the huge cost to you.

**Site includes workbook and information sheets available for download.

Self-compassion involves being aware of our own pain and suffering, and understanding that this is a hard, but normal human experience. Directing feelings of kindness and care towards ourselves, and focusing our attention and energy on how we might alleviate our pain, are also crucial components of self-compassion. Self-compassion can bring great benefits for our mental health and well-being. Particularly, self-compassion can activate our soothe system, which calms the threat and drive systems. Our threat and drive systems tend to be overactive for many of us much of the time, and responsible for the difficult emotions we may be struggling with (e.g., anxiety, anger, depression). The opposite of self-compassion is self-criticism. This very negative thinking style often links to difficult emotions and mental health problems. Those who are highly self-critical particularly need to develop the ability to relate to themselves in a compassionate way.

Low self-esteem is having a generally negative overall opinion of oneself, judging or evaluating oneself negatively, and placing a general negative value on oneself as a person. People with low self-esteem usually have deep-seated, basic, negative beliefs about themselves and the kind of person they are. These beliefs are often taken as facts or truths about their identity, rather than being recognised as opinions they hold about themselves. It is important to know that low self-esteem is a common problem for many people in our society – so you are not alone. Low self-esteem can occur as part of a current problem (such as depression), or as a result of other problems (such as chronic illness, relationship problems) or it can be a problem in itself. Either way, the good news is that you can take steps towards developing more healthy self-esteem.

**Website includes worksheets, workbooks and information sheet on self-esteem.

This site incudes information on the following:
-Facts about sleep
-Insomnia
-Insomnia and your thinking
-Sleep hygiene

This site also includes worksheets and information sheets available for download.

Most people dislike feeling uncomfortable. There are many different ways that humans can feel uncomfortable…we can be hot, cold, tired, in pain, hungry, unwell, and the list could go on. The type of discomfort we will be talking about in these modules is emotional discomfort, or what is often called distress. We may not like it, but experiencing uncomfortable emotions is a natural part of life. However, there is a difference between disliking unpleasant emotions and experiencing unpleasant emotions as unbearable and needing to get rid of them. Being intolerant of experiencing emotional discomfort can interfere with living a fulfilling life, and can escalate any emotional discomfort we might be experiencing.