What is the most all-around depressing US state to live in?

No joke, had a family member that got transferred for work from Denver to nowheresville Oklahoma. He and his kids are super outdoorsy and loved the Front Range. I feel so bad for him because he's def. miserable. Hopefully he can get another transfer.

Hands down Illinois......born and raised there, have lived in 14 states since that time, they're all better than Illinois (12 yrs Chicago, 10 springfield, 3 Decatur, and 4 a small town). Illinois people are help full but not friendly......currently traveling the world (home base Philippines), 20 countries in 18 months

btw....favorite states, Texas and Tennessee

The worst states are red states. This is just fact.

Anti-American Dream wrote:

K, you're right man.

Thanks bro.

Of course I'll use my own experiences over what someone tells me I should think.

I don't get depressed because some study tells me I should. You should try living your own life instead of one tied to some arbitrary study. You might actually enjoy living instead of being stuck on your anti-depression meds.

Howard Dean wrote:

Anti-American Dream wrote:

K, you're right man.

Thanks bro.

Of course I'll use my own experiences over what someone tells me I should think.

I don't get depressed because some study tells me I should. You should try living your own life instead of one tied to some arbitrary study. You might actually enjoy living instead of being stuck on your anti-depression meds.

Haha! You're reaching man....big time.

On another note, I'm actually surprised to see so much disdain for Illinois. I would have thought Chicago would have made it sort of a beacon of the midwest, but doesn't sound like the case.

Anti-American Dream wrote:

Howard Dean wrote:

[quote]Anti-American Dream wrote:

K, you're right man.

Haha! You're reaching man....big time.

On another note, I'm actually surprised to see so much disdain for Illinois. I would have thought Chicago would have made it sort of a beacon of the midwest, but doesn't sound like the case.

Just trying to help out. You sound depressed and miserable. I hope you get well soon. Maybe the Big Sky State will be the answer to your woes.

Anti-American Dream wrote:

Alaska is awesome wrote:

Dude, if you get depressed in Montana, Wyoming, or Alaska, you're not doing it right. Get out and enjoy the greatness of the outdoors. Those are great states.

Louisiana and Mississippi are the most depressing, hands down. Poor economy. Outdoors is flat and not scenic. The weather is humid 9 months of the year. The water and beaches are awful. You're a loooooooooong drive to any place worth visiting.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6345a10.htm

Top 3 states by suicide:

1) Wyoming

2) Alaska

3) Montana

The mountains aren't everything, my dude. I'm a climber, so please believe I love the mountains. But there are so many other factors when determining quality of life in a particular locale. Every day life is tough in these places.

Hard to argue with those statistics. Now I wonder why suicide is so common in those 3 states. Alcoholism and depression are rampant problems on native reservations, but there are states besides these 3 that have higher percentages of natives. Maybe in Alaska, problems are compounded by the long dark winters. Economic opportunities are probably sparse in all 3 states.

Howard Dean wrote:

Anti-American Dream wrote:

Haha! You're reaching man....big time.

On another note, I'm actually surprised to see so much disdain for Illinois. I would have thought Chicago would have made it sort of a beacon of the midwest, but doesn't sound like the case.

Just trying to help out. You sound depressed and miserable. I hope you get well soon. Maybe the Big Sky State will be the answer to your woes.

You continue to put your foot in your mouth! Unreal. Instead of actually acknowledging you were wrong, you doubled down on your stupidity and disregarded an actual study, and substituted your simpleton personal experiences as the norm. Then you proceeded to derail the thread. Beat it!

Alaska is awesome wrote:

Anti-American Dream wrote:http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6345a10.htm

Top 3 states by suicide:

1) Wyoming

2) Alaska

3) Montana

The mountains aren't everything, my dude. I'm a climber, so please believe I love the mountains. But there are so many other factors when determining quality of life in a particular locale. Every day life is tough in these places.

Hard to argue with those statistics. Now I wonder why suicide is so common in those 3 states. Alcoholism and depression are rampant problems on native reservations, but there are states besides these 3 that have higher percentages of natives. Maybe in Alaska, problems are compounded by the long dark winters. Economic opportunities are probably sparse in all 3 states.

Definitely. I spent a few months in Alaska during the Summer months for some climbing endeavors, and the local folks in Anchorage told me that the combination of harsh weather, very dark winters, and lack of job opportunities are big factors. Sounds like alcohol and drugs are just the coping mechanism, which in turn leads to more problems...

Flordia is the cest pool of the U.S. Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Alaska are all too pretty to be considered depressing.

Id have to say Florida or Nevada

I'm surprised no one has mentioned New Jersey.

All of you spouting midwestern states are showing both your complete ignorance and kind of comical coastal elitism. Depression is almost always mainly from loneliness, and the loneliest places are either those with almost literally no one or very large megacities. (The bigger the city, the lonelier it gets.) The reason those excessively rural states have the highest suicide rates is the suicides are driven entirely by old and middle aged single white men who have access to guns. The social isolation combines with the fact that suicide is a decision normally decided and carried out within 5 minutes, so the fact that they have guns means they can efficiently carry it out without time to rethink their decision. Its actually so extreme in that way that suicides like this are what make places with more guns have more gun deaths than places with fewer; it's not actually crime that goes up!

If you want to look for really depressing places, look for the places with inordinate amounts of people who frequent message boards and social media outside of their actual real friend group of any kind (think letsrun, 4chan, reddit, imgur). That's a sign of loneliness; replacing real interaction with fake internet interaction. You'll also find that places like that are dominated by those on the coasts (and no, I'm not talking about the southeast).

It's true that blue states are generally better governed. But the coastal states have worse cultures and worse people. That makes them more depressing.

Anti-American Dream wrote:

No joke, had a family member that got transferred for work from Denver to nowheresville Oklahoma. He and his kids are super outdoorsy and loved the Front Range. I feel so bad for him because he's def. miserable. Hopefully he can get another transfer.

Lol wow one of the worst places ever

Anti-American Dream wrote:

I have traveled extensively across this country, and lived on both coasts. I can't, however, determine the most miserable place to be in for an extended amount of time.

I spent a little while living in Montana, and I think it ranks up there on the depression scale. No real measurable economy, and rampant alcoholism and drug abuse. But the mountain scenery moves it up a few notches. I think I'd put Alaska and Wyoming in the same category.

I have a feeling that places like Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and North/South Dakota may be the most miserable states.

What say you?

Not a US native but Michigan has got to be at the top, Detroit is known around the world as a total s__t-hole.

Anti-American Dream wrote:

White trash 123 wrote:

How about Flo-Ree-duh?

Nope. While I dislike the state of FL in general, the combination of hot women, "decent" beaches, sports teams, and Miami keep it away from the title of Most Depressing.

Flaw-duhh wins by a landslide. People from the north go there to die. Pro football and baseball, suck, drugs and bizarre crimes rampant.

Summers are brutal, flooded with illegals and layabouts from P.R.

Missouri for me was a hybrid of the worst of the North and South without their respective charms. Bitterly cold winters, brutally hot summers. Uninspiring scenery. Much of the population is ignorant, suspicious, and narrow-minded without the genuine friendliness of the South or the quick wit of the North.

Subway Surfers Addiction wrote:

Not a US native but Michigan has got to be at the top, Detroit is known around the world as a total s__t-hole.

But no one [that you'll ever meet] actually lives in Detroit, so no one cares. The businesses all moved out, and the population followed. Most of the suburban areas are doing fine to extremely well. It's a very diverse area. Ann Arbor is cool, and Grand Rapids has a great reputation. The secret gems are the western and northern Michigan coastal towns (don't tell anyone please). Michigan has the 2nd longest coastline in the US (only behind Alaska), over 11,000 lakes, and over 19 million acres of forest. If you're miserable there, you have bigger issues.

Illinois and New York.

OKC Thunder?