Mental Health Week: Name it, don’t numb it

CMHA Mental Health Week 2021 – Fact Sheet

About Mental Health Week
• Every year since 1951, CMHA has hosted Mental Health Week in the first full
week in May, making 2021 the 70th year.
• This year, CMHA Mental Health Week is being observed May 3-9, 2021.
• Mental Health Week is a Canadian tradition, with communities, schools and
workplaces rallying to celebrate, protect and promote mental health.
• The core objective of Mental Health Week is to promote mental health because
mental health is something we can promote and protect, not just something we
can lose.
• Visit www.mentalhealthweek.ca for info and tools about CMHA Mental Health
Week.
• Connect on social media using the hashtags #GetReal and #MentalHealthWeek.

About the 2021 CMHA Mental Health Week campaign
• The theme of this year’s Mental Health Week is understanding our emotions.
• Recognizing, labeling and accepting our feelings are all part of protecting and
promoting good mental health for everyone.
• Naming, expressing and dealing with our emotions—even when they’re
uncomfortable—can make us feel better.
A time of unprecedented stress and anxiety
• People are experiencing unprecedented stresses and feelings of anxiety related
to COVID-19.
• 40% of Canadians say their mental health has deteriorated since the onset of the
pandemic.

About the basics of emotions
• Emotional literacy is the ability to recognize how we feel, understand our
feelings, label them and express them.
• When we are emotionally literate, we are better able to manage our emotions, or
“regulate” them.
• Although we “feel” our emotions in the body and may recognize they are there,
sometimes our emotions can be hard to put into words.2
• An event can trigger emotions very quickly, automatically, and even
unconsciously.
• Emotional events can trigger changes in our facial expressions, muscle tone, and
voice tone, in our autonomic nervous system that regulates our heart and
respiratory rate, digestion, perspiration, and in our endocrine system, which
involves our hormones.

About putting emotions into words
• Scientists call the act of putting feelings into words affect labelling.
• Saying “I feel sad” or writing about what’s upsetting you are both examples of
affect labelling.
• When we put our feelings into words, we are actually constructing and making
meaning of our emotions. Without words for emotions, our feelings might seem
unclear to us.
• Affect labelling has been compared to the effect of hitting the brakes when
driving a car. When you put feelings into words, you are putting the brakes on
your emotional responses.

How affect labeling works
• When people put their feelings and thoughts about upsetting experiences into
language, their physical and mental health often improve. Writing about our
feelings can reduce physician visits and positively influence our immune function.
Writing can also reduce cortisol (stress) levels and negative mood states.

• Giving attention to our feelings can help ease anxiety and decrease rumination
(or obsessive thinking).
• Naming, talking and writing about our emotions helps to regulate them by
decreasing our anger or fear response.
• Naming our emotions lowers amygdala activity – the part of the brain involved in
the fear response – and activates the prefrontal region of the brain thought to be
involved in inhibiting behavior and processing emotions.
• Affect labeling can reduce the anxiety response in our bodies; for instance,
talking about your feelings before giving a speech can help reduce your
physiological stress response and anxiety.

About uncomfortable emotions
• Although negative emotional states like sadness are not usually considered
desirable in Western society, these emotions can actually help us adapt.
• The experience of “negative” emotions has traditionally been linked to physical
illness and decline. However, research shows that our health is based on a
complex interplay of positive and negative emotions and that good physical
health is promoted when we feel both “the good with the bad.”
• Expressing so-called negative emotions can have a positive impact on our
relationships.
• Expressing “negative” emotions – such as anxiety, fear and sadness – increases
support from others, builds trust in new relationships and deepens intimacy.

If emotions are overwhelming, please seek support
• Naming – or labelling – our emotions can help us understand and process them.
It can even make us feel better. However, if your emotions are overwhelming,
persistent and/or are interfering with your daily life, it is important to seek mental
health supports.

If you’re in need of immediate assistance, call the FSEAP Hotline at 1–800–667–0993. The Employee & Family Assistance Program (EFAP) is a confidential and voluntary support service that helps employees, and their families find the right options and solutions to resolve personal, family, or work-related challenges.