Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Também tenho cuidado com a minha saúde mental, fazendo pausas regulares. - I also take care of my mental health by taking regular breaks.

Também tenho cuidado com a minha saúde mental
Emphasises an attitude of caution and attention toward your mental health.
Também cuido da minha saúde mental
Sounds more like actively looking after it, doing things for it.

Both are correct here. The original sentence highlights being careful or mindful about mental health rather than just performing care actions.

Why is the preposition com used (cuidado com) and not de or da?

Because ter cuidado com is a fixed expression:

ter cuidado com algo/alguém = to be careful with something/someone
- Tenho cuidado com o dinheiro.
- Tem cuidado com o que dizes.

By contrast:

cuidar de algo/alguém = to take care of something/someone
- Cuido da minha avó.
- Ela cuida da alimentação.

You cannot mix them (*ter cuidado de, *cuidar com in this sense), so in this sentence com is required after tenho cuidado.

Why do we say com a minha saúde mental and not just com minha saúde mental?

In European Portuguese, possessives are normally used with a definite article:

a minha saúde
o meu trabalho
os meus amigos

So com a minha saúde mental is the natural pattern.

Leaving out the article (com minha saúde mental) is:

Very unusual in European Portuguese
More typical or acceptable in Brazilian Portuguese
Sometimes seen in very formal, literary, or fixed expressions

For everyday European Portuguese, you should almost always say a minha, o meu, os meus, etc.

Could we use de instead, like cuido da minha saúde mental? How would that differ?

Yes, you can say:

Também cuido da minha saúde mental.

Here:

cuidar de
- a minha saúde mental → da minha saúde mental

Difference in nuance:

Tenho cuidado com a minha saúde mental
Focuses on being careful / paying attention to it.
Cuido da minha saúde mental
Focuses on actively taking care of it (doing things like therapy, breaks, exercise, etc.).

In many contexts they overlap, but they are built from two different verbs: ter cuidado com vs cuidar de.

What exactly is the role of também here? Could it go in other positions?

Também means also / too, and it can move around a bit:

Também tenho cuidado com a minha saúde mental…
Neutral and very common. Adds this whole fact to something previously mentioned.
Tenho também cuidado com a minha saúde mental…
Slightly more formal/emphatic: “I also take care of my mental health” (on top of other things I take care of).
Tenho cuidado também com a minha saúde mental…
Emphasises mental health as one more thing among several things you’re careful with.

All three are grammatically correct; the original word order is the most natural in everyday speech.

What does fazendo pausas regulares add, and why is it in the gerund form?

Fazendo pausas regulares is a gerund clause explaining how you take care of your mental health. It can usually be understood as:

by taking regular breaks, or
while taking regular breaks

So the structure is:

Tenho cuidado com a minha saúde mental, fazendo pausas regulares.
= I take care of my mental health, by taking regular breaks.

If you wrote:

… e faço pausas regulares.

that would sound more like two separate actions:

I take care of my mental health, and I take regular breaks.

The gerund links the second idea more tightly as a means or manner of doing the first.

Is the comma before fazendo necessary?

Yes, it is normally expected.

Fazendo pausas regulares is an extra clause (an adverbial phrase of manner/means), not part of the core subject–verb–object structure. In writing, Portuguese usually separates such gerund clauses with a comma:

Tenho cuidado com a minha saúde mental, fazendo pausas regulares.

Leaving the comma out would not usually cause misunderstanding, but it would be considered poor punctuation in standard written language.

Does the gerund fazendo work like English -ing (as in “I am doing”)?

Not exactly.

Progressive (ongoing) actions
- In European Portuguese, you usually say estar a fazer:
  - Estou a fazer uma pausa. = I am taking a break.
- In Brazilian Portuguese, you normally say estar fazendo:
  - Estou fazendo uma pausa.
Adverbial use (like here)
When the gerund is on its own, without estar, as in:
- … fazendo pausas regulares
it does not form a continuous tense. Instead, it shows:
- Manner: by taking regular breaks
- Time: while taking regular breaks

So in this sentence, fazendo is not “am doing”; it’s more like English taking in “I take care of my mental health, taking regular breaks.”

Why is it saúde mental and not mental saúde?

In Portuguese, most adjectives come after the noun:

saúde mental (mental health)
casa nova (new house)
comida saudável (healthy food)

Putting the adjective before the noun (mental saúde) is ungrammatical here.

Some adjectives can precede the noun with a change in nuance (e.g. um grande amigo vs um amigo grande), but mental is not used before saúde in normal Portuguese. The fixed, natural order is saúde mental.

Why is it pausas regulares and not pausa regular or pausas regular?

Two things are happening:

Plural vs singular
- pausas regulares = regular breaks (more than one break)
- uma pausa regular = a regular break (one break)

The sentence suggests you take more than one break, so the plural is natural.

Adjective agreement
- pausas is feminine plural.
- The adjective must agree: regulares (feminine/masculine plural).

So the correct combinations are:

uma pausa regular (singular)
pausas regulares (plural)

Forms like *pausas regular or *pausa regulares are incorrect.

Why is there no eu at the beginning (no Eu também tenho cuidado…)?

In Portuguese, subject pronouns (eu, tu, ele, nós, etc.) are usually dropped, because the verb ending already shows who the subject is:

Tenho cuidado → clearly eu (I) from the form tenho.
Tens cuidado → clearly tu (you, singular, informal).
Temos cuidado → clearly nós (we).

You only add eu when you want to emphasise the subject:

Eu também tenho cuidado…
= I also take care… (maybe contrasting with someone else who doesn’t).