Negative Thinking

  • When you are depressed, your thoughts become too negative and stop matching the reality of the situation. It’s like you are looking at everything through negative lenses.  One way to improve your mood is to look at your thoughts and test whether they are realistic by looking at the evidence for and against them.

How Common is Anxiety?

  • Anxiety is one of the most common mental health disorders. It affects about 10-20% of children, adolescents, and adults.

Activity Scheduling – A Good Way to Improve Your Mood

  • Opposite action is one way to change your mood. The opposite of being by yourself and doing nothing is to do things, preferably with others. This is called ACTIVITY SCHEDULING.

Anxiety at Different Ages

  • Anxiety disorders can occur at any point in a person’s life, but certain types of anxiety disorders are more common in particular periods of life. For example, worries about social situations tend to be more common in the teen years.

Making Sense of Experiences

  • Our mind tries to make sense of our experiences by looking for patterns in our life, like putting pieces together to make a puzzle. Based on the patterns it finds, the mind comes up with ideas about how the world works. These ideas are important because it helps our mind process information quickly and easily.

Does Anxiety Go Away on its Own?

  • Anxiety disorders that begin in childhood or adolescence can continue into adulthood if the person does not receive help.

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy

  • In Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), youth are taught about depression to help them recognize when they have changes in their mood and to identify triggers. They are then taught strategies to help improve mood including scheduling activities and replacing overly negative thoughts with realistic ones.

Negative Thinking

  • When you are depressed, your thoughts become too negative and stop matching the reality of the situation. It’s like you are looking at everything through negative lenses.  One way to improve your mood is to look at your thoughts and test whether they are realistic by looking at the evidence for and against them.

How Common is Anxiety?

  • Anxiety is one of the most common mental health disorders. It affects about 10-20% of children, adolescents, and adults.

Activity Scheduling – A Good Way to Improve Your Mood

  • Opposite action is one way to change your mood. The opposite of being by yourself and doing nothing is to do things, preferably with others. This is called ACTIVITY SCHEDULING.

Anxiety at Different Ages

  • Anxiety disorders can occur at any point in a person’s life, but certain types of anxiety disorders are more common in particular periods of life. For example, worries about social situations tend to be more common in the teen years.

Making Sense of Experiences

  • Our mind tries to make sense of our experiences by looking for patterns in our life, like putting pieces together to make a puzzle. Based on the patterns it finds, the mind comes up with ideas about how the world works. These ideas are important because it helps our mind process information quickly and easily.

Does Anxiety Go Away on its Own?

  • Anxiety disorders that begin in childhood or adolescence can continue into adulthood if the person does not receive help.

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy

  • In Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), youth are taught about depression to help them recognize when they have changes in their mood and to identify triggers. They are then taught strategies to help improve mood including scheduling activities and replacing overly negative thoughts with realistic ones.

Resources for Anxiety and DepressionA good website for anxiety is www.youth.anxietycanada.com, and for depression is http://dwdonline.ca.

Resources for Anxiety and DepressionA good website for anxiety is www.youth.anxietycanada.com, and for depression is http://dwdonline.ca.