{"id":195085,"date":"2025-10-07T11:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T11:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/195085\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T11:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T11:43:07","slug":"importance-of-world-mental-health-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/195085\/","title":{"rendered":"Importance of \u2018World Mental Health Day\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">October is Depression Awareness Month and Oct. 10 is the World Health Organization\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/campaigns\/world-mental-health-day\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:World Mental Health Day;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">World Mental Health Day<\/a>. It\u2019s a distinction that is important to local mental health experts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThe way I think about it as a psychiatrist is the importance of that day is elevating the idea that mental health is as important in medicine as anything in the physical realm,\u201d said Dr. Luke Piper, a psychiatrist at UPMC Lititz. \u201cI think one of the problems that contributes to the stigma of mental health is the idea is that it\u2019s somehow different from the rest of the things in the body that could go wrong\u2026that mental health is something people have clear personal control over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Piper says it\u2019s important that mental illness is viewed the same as other medical issues with the body. He says there are many different factors that can cause depression or anxiety and that if you notice a family member or friend is off, you should encourage them to seek help.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sometimes there are physical symptoms like not sleeping, sleeping too much, low energy or a change in appetite. But sometimes the symptoms are less noticeable. In children and adolescents, it can appear more like irritability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">What is the difference between depression and just feeling down?<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cAs opposed to normal sadness or grief where a person might feel bad or feel sad, but they\u2019re still able to do things they would normally enjoy,\u201d Piper said. \u201cThey\u2019re still able to socialize, they\u2019re still able to go to work and function well, they\u2019re still able to live their lives. Depression is a much broader collection of symptoms that can be quite impairing and disabling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">If you\u2019d like more information on World Mental Health Day, click <a href=\"https:\/\/share.upmc.com\/2014\/08\/depression-causes-symptoms\/?pk_vid=9e7ad6566d61dd521759758057a9669f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc27.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October is Depression Awareness Month and Oct. 10 is the World Health Organization\u2019s World Mental Health Day. It\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,96959,393,394,96961,96960,16119,96958],"class_list":["post-195085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-luke-piper","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-physical-symptoms","tag-stigma-of-mental-health","tag-world-health-organization","tag-world-mental-health-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}