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Mental Health Hotlines

Crisis Text Line: New York State has partnered with Crisis Text Line, an anonymous texting service available 24/7. Starting a conversation is easy. Text GOT5 to 741741.

OASAS HOPEline: New York State’s 24/7 problem gambling and chemical dependency hotline. For Help and Hope call 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: If your life or someone else's is in imminent danger, please call 911. If you are in crisis and need immediate help, please call: 988

NYC WELL: New York City’s free, confidential support and crisis intervention for anyone seeking help for mental health and/or substance misuse concerns, available 24/7. Text “WELL” to 65173 or call 1-888-NYC-WELL.

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Mental Health and Immigration in the United States: How are young adults affected by this?

Filmed and directed by Sabinna Cortese.

Interviewee:

Camila Bonet, 21 years old, Psychology student in New York City.

Sources:

Alegría, Margarita. “Immigration and Mental Health - PMC.” PubMed Central, 2018, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5966037/.

Kirmayer, Laurence, et al. “Common mental health problems in immigrants and refugees: general approach in primary care.” CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, 2011, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3168672/.

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College Students & Anxiety: The Real Daily Life

Ethan, 22 year old, student.

Norma Ortega, Therapist.

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Mental Health and Gen Z: Insights from a College Student and a Professional.

This is an audio story about the connection between mental health issues and Generation Z. We get some insights from a 21-year-old college student and a psychologist.

Interviewees:

Mallory Brown, 21, student.

Norma Ortega, psychologist.

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Mental Health and Gen Z: is it worse for this generation?

by Sabinna Cortese 

It’s not rare to see teenagers and newer generations complaining about their mental health. You see them on the streets, anxious and depressed, going to school or to work, and just moving on with their lives. You see it everywhere, but is it connected to their generation? “In 2021, almost one-third of high school students had experienced poor mental health,” said Shelby Crosier, in her article Gen Z, Social Media and Mental Health. But what is causing Gen Z to be more depressed or anxious than other generations?

Some reasons can be the high use of social media, the stress due to the social context we’re living in, or even the economic inequalities that we’re experiencing, as stated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. When interviewing my friend Gabriela, a Gen Z girl who had suffered from serious mental health issues when she was a teenager, she also mentioned how social media and the quick access to information, make teenagers not able to rest or be peaceful at any time of the day. Another thing that she pointed out is the excessive use of drugs, such as marihuana, alcohol, or even nicotine. It’s also important to say, that these statistics are different between groups, targeting especially minorities such as LGTBQ+ communities, females, and racial and ethnic minorities. 

Suicide numbers have also increased among this generation, being the second leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults back in 2022. It’s not surprising, since getting quality mental health care is nearly impossible for a lot of people since it’s not always included in insurance, and it can be particularly expensive. The quality of care can also vary, and in most cases, the diagnoses are not the most accurate. As Gabriela said in the interview, “They diagnosed me wrong at first, due to the pressure that I felt to answer the questions I was being asked. They diagnosed me with schizophrenia, and later on they realized that was not accurate at all.” 

One thing that is also surprising, is the rise in hospitalizations. “Data show ris­ing men­tal health hos­pi­tal­iza­tions and trou­bling read­mis­sion rates among chil­dren and youth in the past decade” as stated in the article Generation Z and Mental Health. Mental Health institutions are known around our generation as something traumatic and, usually, not worth it. In the interview with Gabriela, we went deeper into this. She was hospitalized back in 2022, due to a psychotic outbreak, a consequence of the abuse of marihuana. “There is a lot of power abuse. They forget to treat you like a human being, and as a teenager, that left a lot of trauma on me. They lock you in a room, freezing and out of control. I lost track of time, I don’t remember if I was locked in there for minutes or hours. They would let me out when I was almost unconscious and tired of fighting. I also remember how they would grab me by the arms to lock me in there. To this day, I still struggle with people grabbing me by the arms like that.” Gabriela also mentioned, “I didn’t benefit at all from being hospitalized, all it did was create new traumas and a misdiagnose.”

Overall, it’s accurate to say that mental health issues are greatly connected to Generation Z. Due to multiple factors, our generation had it worse than others, and it’s clear from the numbers and statistics shown. The next question would be, is there a solution to bring the numbers down or this will keep rising with future generations?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Generation Z and Mental Health, by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. https://www.aecf.org/blog/generation-z-and-mental-health

Gen Z, Social Media, and Mental Health, by Shelbie Crosier. https://sph.emory.edu/news/news-release/2024/05/gen-z-social-media-mental-health.html

Chart Number 1. https://www.the74million.org/article/a-slow-motion-crisis-gen-zs-battle-against-depression-addiction-hopelessness/

Chart Number 2. 

Chart Number 3. 

Interview subject: Gabriela Torres, 22 years old, student.