"Chicagoans have major self esteem (and mental) issues"

My blog has been up for less then a week and I'm not even sure if it has arrived in any search engines or even blog searches yet. I got my first comment; thank you anonymous. I don't want this blog to be a downer and there are many good people in Chicago who hold the crumbling city together; however, I have found that there is pervasive self esteem and mental problems that plague the city as anonymous said (you can read the whole comment if you click the title). When I was working in the heath care field in Chicago, I saw it everyday. The reason I chose to bring mental illness up is because one of my friends recently had to be hospitalized because of it. When I told him, via e-mail, that he needed to get away from Chicago and move to a more pleasant area of the country his reply demonstrates uniquely Chicago arrogance: "Ya, So what? Don't be a tourist, rep your hood and it's all good. I got taken to a mental hospital by fat people in a XXXXXX ambulence, dude straped me in but I still knew I was smater then him. I love this city, what's right I do all night, what's wrong don't bother me for very long. I learned how to rap in the hospital! Stop thinking of things as weird and sketchy just let it go and for the love of god free your mind, politics will always be bullshit. Jobs kill. None of it concerns me anymore
P.S. Cincinati had a race war like two years ago, Chicago is above that" Ironically, the company I worked for transported him. I no longer talk to this friend; I can't help him anymore. He thinks he is a rapper and he is still proud to be a Chicagoan! The e-mail speaks for itself; I don't even need to begin to analyze it for you.

Chicago Withdrawal Clarification

As critical as I am of Chicago, I still believe I won't fit in anywhere else. I'm from a large Chicago Catholic family--isn't exactly how everyone was raised. I remember being in a bar once with my brother in Chicago and he ran into someone he knew that went to his high school. The guy, Carl I believe his name was, was 27, a college dropout and had been on Jeopardy recently so he wasn't an idiot; he was working on his undergraduate. He said something that I will never forget: "I learned being away from Chicago that not everyone is Catholic." Of course he knew not everyone was Catholic, but that just goes to show how an overwhelmingly number of Chicagoans identify themselves with the religion. Growing up I'd never thought I would live anywhere else: then I realized other parts of the country are much happier in general, warmer, laid back, sunnier, greener. When talking about Chicago, the grass literally is greener in Cincinnati; there are far more trees and less McDonald's gray parking lots everywhere. The best part is no one tells me about how great Cincinnati is like they do about Chicago. So Chicago Withdrawal isn't homesickness, its the feeling I get when I know I won't fit in anywhere else, something Chicago takes from everyone, which is why Chicagoans have to convince themselves they are the best, an awakening would be very painful for them.