Primary Care: Mental Health Issues

Talk to your family physician if you'd like more information on mental health visits.

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Print this Action Plan and check off items that you want to discuss with your healthcare provider

• Addiction may involve the use of alcohol, drugs, nicotine or gambling. People who struggle with addiction pursue the behaviour despite the consequences, in order to experience the high or euphoria it brings them.

• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) causes people to have difficulty focusing or sitting still. Commonly diagnosed in children and teens, it also involves impulsive behaviour and hyperactivity.

• Anxiety disorder causes people to intermittently feel nervous, have a sense of impending doom or danger, sweat, hyperventilate or experience an elevated heart rate. Many people with anxiety disorder have panic attacks.

• Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, causes a periodic cycling of manic (heightened emotions and extreme activity) and depressive phases (sadness and lethargy).

• Depression refers to a number of conditions that negatively affect how you think, feel and act. Many people with depression lose interest in activities and withdraw from others.

Adherence:
Adhering to your medications, prescribed exercises or lifestyle changes (such as dietary changes, smoking cessation, reduced alcohol consumption, etc.) is essential to improving health outcomes successfully. Compliance to any prescribed treatment is the number one thing you can do to ensure positive changes and optimal treatment outcomes.