It’s not always easy to love your brain, especially when it can sometimes feel like a toxic partner. Your own brain can gaslight you and lovebomb you! But your cerebellum isn’t going to buy you a dozen roses or take you out for oysters and breaking up with your brain is simply not an option. It’s also not easy to admit your relationship with your mind isn’t always great. Canadians are more likely to reveal they have cancer than depression. This affects all of us. Half of Canadians will have experienced mental illness by the age of 40. Young people are especially vulnerable to mental illness. One in four young people need to access mental health services every year. Even if you aren’t one of them, you know someone who is. This season of Playing with Marbles is all about young people who have a complicated relationship with their brains: six episodes, six people, six mental health conditions. This isn’t your typical awareness campaign. This is lived experience alongside cutting-edge research. It’s how having a mental illness feels, and what is going on inside your brain. Playing with Marbles Season 3 turns the situationship between science and the people it serves into a loving partnership. We’re hoping that by showing you that every brain is different, you can start to give your own brain the love that it deserves.
Strap in for another exciting season of Playing With Marbles, brought to you by Brain Canada. In past seasons, we learned about all of the cool brain science research coming out of labs in Canada, from mini-brain organoids in petri dishes to women’s health beyond the bikini. We’ve taken a look at the brain at a microscopic level and learned how each part of your marble functions to help you encode, process, and remember the world around you.
This season, we’re going a step further to understand all parts of the brain, and this one’s a little more difficult to see with a microscope. Now that we know the brain’s inner workings, we want to understand how those inner workings might affect how someone thinks, feels, and behaves. In simpler terms, we’re going to explore the intricacies of mental health, and mental illness.
Just as we focused on women’s brain health last season, we want to make sure we’re zeroing in on those who have been forgotten or who need the most support. As heard in this episode, mental illness is the leading cause of disability for people in Canada between the ages of 15 and 29 - that’s why we’re centering this season on youth mental health! There’s tons of information out there for young people about mental health, but much of it falls into the category of pop science at best, and misinformation at worst. To combat the junk science out there, we’re talking to real scientists about what goes on in the brain when someone is experiencing mental illness.
To make sure we’re getting all sides of this complicated topic, we’re doing something we’ve never done before on Playing With Marbles. This season, we talk to real young people who struggle with their mental health. Our guests range in age, gender, and diagnosis. You’ll get to hear what it’s like living with obsessive-compulsive disorder, the day-to-day struggles of ADHD, and what it’s like to seek treatment for an eating disorder. We hope pairing the real, lived experiences with the science behind these disorders will provide a nuanced look at the long-maligned topic of mental health and mental illness.
This episode serves as a primer for all to come on this season of Playing With Marbles. Hop on in and listen to what’s in store.
Fast Facts
Learn More about This Episode’s Cool Research
The focus of this season of Playing With Marbles is all about youth mental health. As heard in this episode, one in every four young people are in need of mental health services every year. That’s why Brain Canada has partnered with RBC Future Launch and Power Corporation to support the Canadian Youth Mental Health Insight Platform, led by Dr. Sean Hill from the Centre for Addition and Mental Health (CAMH). The platform seeks to provide a state-of-the-art informatics platform that can serve as a foundation to optimize mental health for youth across Canada. It will support knowledge and data integration, open data, machine learning and improved communication between key networks, research databases and stakeholders in the youth mental health community. Read more about the platform through Brain Canada’s website here.
Support
If you’re struggling with your mental health, you’re not alone.
If you are in immediate danger of harming yourself or others, call 9-1-1, or head to your nearest emergency room. You can also call or text 9-8-8 to reach the Suicide Crisis Helpline. Support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Young people can chat anytime with Kids Help Phone by calling 1-800-668-6868. Services are available in English and French.
Wellness Together Canada provides one-on-one counselling, self-guided courses and programs, and peer support and coaching. Youth can contact this service by calling 1-888-668-6810 or texting WELLNESS to 686868. Adults can contact this service by calling 1-866-585-0445 or texting WELLNESS to 741741. You can also find credible articles and information on their website.
The Canadian Mental Health Association can help you find resources, programs, or support for yourself or others. Find a CMHA branch in your area here.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health provides Mental Health 101 tutorials and online courses on their website.