Tables of contents
- Mental Health
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Help
Overview
Mental Health has been a rising concern within all communities around the word and a lot of people are struggling in Chicago. Some of the most common and undertreated conditions are depression and anxiety. This page will help you with understanding what anxiety and depression really are and how to get help to better yourself. The concerns for developing and finding anxiety and depression are some of the most common concerns to see, but still left untreated due to people not knowing how to ask for help or being able to identify it as a genuine problem. Mental health can be all sorts of things to so many different people. These problems may be traumatic events that an individual may have experienced in their childhood or adulthood. This can even be something within the inner mind of somebody such as dealing with their emotions that can connect or cause depression or anxiety or can even possibly be both.
Mental Health
What is it?
Mental health can be all sorts of things. These problems may be traumatic events an individual experienced. This can even be something dealing with emotion such as depression or anxiety. Mental health can affect all people differently from causing eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, or a feeling of being worthless. If you feel any of these it is crucial you find a way to get help so you can heal and get a way to feel better.
Who does it affect (ages)?
Unfortunately, age does not matter with mental health. If somebody is exposed to a traumatic event it can affect children or adults. Events that cause sadness or fear can affect people greatly. Traumatic events including gun violence, have been a big concern for a lot of the teenagers and young adults in Chicago. Children have a hard time expressing their emotions and processing certain events, so they have created therapy tools that help children learn how to think through and process emotions.
Are there different times of the year where Mental Health gets worse?
We all know about seasonal depression in the October-December months; however, it has been proven that COVID 19 that caused a lockdown really affected a lot of people. Depression and anxiety spiked incredibly high it was noticeable how a lockdown can shut down people's task that cause them mental security. With the ability to do the things people enjoy or even ruining people's routines, it caused a major drop in people's emotions.
Depression
What is depression?
Depression is more than just feeling intense sadness. People that have depression deal with more than just intense feelings, having depression involves not being able to do your daily tasks such as brushing your teeth, making your bed, etc. Depression can be caused by genetic and environmental factors, and it is important to mention that this disorder can affect people from all ages.
How does it affect people?
It is a disorder that affects every aspect of someone's life such as work or school, it is very common to lose interest in activities that are enjoyable or just a loss of motivation in general. Depression can change in a negative way your sleep schedule, and this comes together with losing energy and feeling tired all the time. Some symptoms that are not mentioned often are the excessive feeling of guilt or it can also affect your appetite (it may increase or decrease).
Are there ways to get help besides medication?
A very common way to target depression besides getting medication is getting counseling sessions or going to therapy sessions, there's a lot of places where people can get help or even going to support groups can help people dealing with that disorder not feeling alone.
Anxiety
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is more than just being nervous, but every human being experienced a certain amount of it in our lives, is what keeps us to safe from certain things, it makes us be aware of the danger, but anxiety can make people miss out on social, work, or even major life events due to the feeling of anxiety. Feeling anxious can be crippling for some people to the point where going out and doing those activities can be so fear ridden it can be exhausting.
However, when this feeling of fear impacts your day-to-day life and this becomes overwhelming without letting us do anything and making people have panic attacks, then it needs to be treated. Panic attacks can make you sweat and lose the ability to breathe properly. Anxiety can cause many different problems for all different types of people.
Anxiety is one of the most common mental health conditions here in the US so it is really important to be aware of it and be able to identify if it's in a normal level or we might need to reach out for help.
How to identify anxiety?
Anxiety can manifest in physical symptoms and emotional symptoms. Pounding or racing heart can be one of the most common symptoms such as insomnia, cold hands and feet, an immense amount of fear, sweating, headaches, difficulty breathing, dry mouth, dizziness or nausea, or any stomach issue, etc.
The emotional symptoms are as important as the physical ones; this affects the way we function, one common symptom is apprehension or dread, feeling tense or irritable, and always expecting the worst. It is important to seek help if someone is showing these signs.
Who gets anxiety?
Anxiety does not have an intended group audience. Children can have anxiety for many reasons including processing emotions, environments, or even as little as nightmares. Anxiety can affect teens differently since they start having more life experiences, such as school and getting jobs as they grow older, more relationships with friends or family, or worry about upcoming events. Adults can be affected by anxiety because of many different factors including work environment, mental health stresses, real life experiences.
Anxiety can affect any gender as well. Gender does not stop your body or mind from reacting to stressful situations. Everybody can experience different occasions in their life that can worry or scare them into an anxious state of mind.
Help
Mental Health can be a very scary or uncomfortable conversation to have. Most of time, some people don't even know they have mental health problems or sometimes don't seek the help they need. It is important to know that there are ways for you to ask help even if you are uncomfortable and think you should go through it alone. There are many different ways to get help for mental health issues of all sorts. There are phone numbers you can reach out to anonymously or not, organizations that help with mental health concerns of all sorts,
Some organizations to reach out to:
Nami Chicago
This organization has a lot of sources where you can get help. They offer classes that are designed to improve their understanding of mental health, this will give them good tools and will help them develop strategies to manage their mental health. There are multiple options depending on what the person needs; some of the options they have are the WRAP plan, Family to Family, NAMI Chicago chat, etc. Another option to get help with this organization is a support group, they offer in person support groups, or it can also be online, this is made for people who are with the same mental disorder to connect and to know they are not alone in this journey. These support groups are confidential, free and safe to talk things through.
This organization educates to fight stigma and discrimination, their vision is to prioritize mental health. This organization has multiple locations where you can get help. They offer classes that are designed to improve their understanding of mental health, to plan mental health strategies for your own mental health. This will give them good tools to overcome and now how to deal with a mental health condition. There are multiple options depending on what the person needs; some of the options they have are the WRAP plan, Family to Family, NAMI Chicago chat, etc.
Another option to get help with this organization is a support group, they offer in person support groups, or it can also be online, this is made for people who are with the same mental disorder to connect and to know they are not alone in this journey. These support groups are confidential, free and safe to talk things through.
Helplines is something that NAMI also has, they are there to help you at any time and as fast as you need it. This helpline is free and confidential so everyone who calls there is completely safe, they provide help in Spanish too and you can call for your personal conditions or to support someone you know. With this helpline they can offer emotional support, and more.
AAYU
This organization is a primary group in a clinic that focuses on helping with treatments of all mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, etc.. They believe that working with someone’s lifestyle can help to deal with the mental condition, such as exercise and mindfulness combining it with medication if needed, psychotherapy.
Every person is going to have a different dosage if on medication so the work they do with observing your lifestyle helps them understand dosage as well. They approach every person with respect and understanding their conditions. They help everybody including all identities, beliefs, and orientations. This source is not free, but it does have a lot of options to get help.
You can find this organization by searching AAYU Clinics and they will have information about them but also they have a easy access to make an appointment with them so they can guide you through all this and you can discuss your options with them, it is important for you to know that they also work with different types of insurance and at the moment of making the appointment they will assist you to check if your insurance is on the list.
The first visit must be in person but if you are a returning patient they can assist you online, the two clinics are located in Chicago and they also accept walk in patients, so if you don’t have an appointment, they will still assist you.
Podcast
We created a podcast where we talked to a Nami employee, Neal Clay answers questions about anxiety and depression.
https://rss.com/podcasts/mental-health-chicago-illinois
Hotlines
(773) 945-5562
(312) 508-3645
(312) 584-2144
(847) 241- 1195
(847) 610-6763
(800) 615-3564
(833) 626-4244
Resources
“Mental Health Centers.” City of Chicago. City of Chicago :: Mental Health Centers. 2024.
“Local Groups Push For Increased Awareness, Investments in Mental Health Resources during Black History Month.” Gaynor Hall. Local groups push for increased awareness, investments in mental health resources during Black History Month (msn.com). 2024.
“How Chicago Mental Health Professionals Are Handling a Deluge of New Cases” The Local Look. How Chicago Mental Health Professionals Are Handling a Deluge of New Cases – Chicago Ideas Blog. 2020.
"An Integrative Mental Health Clinic." AAYU Clinics. Functional & Integrative Primary Care - Aayu Clinics. 2022.
“Treating Anxiety in Chicago.” Light on Anxiety. Treating Anxiety in Chicago - Light On Anxiety. 2024.
"We are Ascension." Ascension. About Us | Ascension. 2024.
"Everyone has a mental health journey." Nami Chicago. 2010. Mental Health Information — NAMI Chicago. 2023.
"Depression Rates Tripled During the Pandemic." ABC Eyewitness News. September 3rd, 2020. Depression rates tripled during the pandemic: Study - ABC7 Chicago. 2024.
“Community Mental Health Center For Youth Opens In West Town”. Microsoft Start. Community mental health center for youth opens in West Town (msn.com). 2022.
“Chicago’s Preferred Hospital for Depression Treatment” Montrose Behavioral Health Hospital. https://www.montrosebehavioral.com/mental-health/depression/. 2024.
“Depression” Chicago Mind Solutions. Depression | Chicago Mind Solutions. 2024.
“Therapy for depression” Depth Counseling. https://depthcounseling.org/depression. 2024.
