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

moranic discusion

states are too large of a region

each state has good areas and bad areas full of crime, poor economy, ignorance, racism, etc.

Six pages and not one mention of North Dakota?

I dated a chick from there and would go a few times a year. Nice people but it's COLD AF and it would be a pretty miserable place to live for most.

There have been a couple mentions of ND. It looks awful to me, but someone said they actually do okay in the 'quality of life' department.

Fargo was a good movie. Maybe the ND residents are permanently stoked on that.

Why didn't you quote my entire post? Especially the part where I said

"The midwest- Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, literally just fields and dirt, no historical culture, no natural scenery, flat and boring, but the people are just as Red State-ish as the southeast. I'd actually rank these states below the southeast"

A lot of midwest states have very few black people, they are even more shitty than the southern states. In The south it doesn't matter what color you are, mostly everybody is obese, hyper-religious, and uneducated.

feldman wrote:

I visited Mobile Alabama a few years back. After taking a trip to the mall to kill some time we got back to the hotel. The person at the front desk casually asked where we'd gone. We mentioned the mall we visited, her response was "that's surprising, that's the black mall", we were obviously white.

It would be pretty goddamn depressing living in a state that's still stuck in 1955.

Didn't learn much about the south, I see.

I would say that Alabama has not quite caught up yet, but we are far from depressing. Depressing is a Seattle kind of thing where people kill themselves regularly. Here people are fat, dumb, and happy.

California is turning to shite. Too many people, prices through the roof. A crappy house in the ghetto sells for 750k.

No one comes out of their house, knows their neighbors and there's no sense of community.

"all around depressing" as in the highest depression rate among it's residents? Look no further than Portland Oregon. I believe it ranks highest in the nation for depression with Seattle a close second. It's a good place to live, but the weather makes people depressed. Would you truly be happy without seeing the sun 300 of the 365 days a year?

But I don't think you are using the word depressing in this nature.

If you think Montana and Wyoming rank as the most miserable you have a very different definition of miserable than I do. Misery to me: hot, flat and crowded, so Texas, Florida, pretty much anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains.

Oreeegoooonnnn wrote:

"all around depressing" as in the highest depression rate among it's residents? Look no further than Portland Oregon. I believe it ranks highest in the nation for depression with Seattle a close second. It's a good place to live, but the weather makes people depressed. Would you truly be happy without seeing the sun 300 of the 365 days a year?

But I don't think you are using the word depressing in this nature.

I posted a suicide study from the CDC earlier in the thread. I don't remember how high up Oregon ranked, but I do agree with you about Portland having a high depression rate. I think in a general sense, there seems to be a strong correlation between the Pacific Northwest and depression rates/suicide.

I lived in Portland for 3 years and traveled all over the PNW. It's very beautiful, but the gloomy and grey backdrop that persists for roughly 7-8 months a year can be tough. I have often thought about how growing up in this region would affect the development of your brain as it relates directly to the lack of sunshine. Maybe it has no effect whatsoever, but I have always noticed that native PNWers have very different social characteristics than say people who grew up in sunny states like California/Florida.

The qualifications that I consider for most depressing state are things like: lack of interesting geography, harsh weather, unintelligent/uncultured locals, job scarcity, high crime rate, etc.

Dude, did y'all forget about how hot the girls are down here in Mississippi and Alabama? Ole miss and bama have the hottest girls every year. Any straight guys know these states are where it's at. Nicest people too.

Ps...every time I had to race in Terre Haute in cross country I was temporarily depressed. That place sucks, and is always overcast. The girls were dogs too.

California Running wrote:

California is turning to shite. Too many people, prices through the roof. A crappy house in the ghetto sells for 750k.

No one comes out of their house, knows their neighbors and there's no sense of community.

true story

Lol the people saying Florida crack me up. You probably came, visited your grandparents a handful of times and categorized the entire state as one big retirement home.

I must say that Idaho by far is the worst state -more Dickfaces per capita that any state or territory in the union

Glughut wrote:

Wisconsin is niceish

I love that Wisconsin has not been mentioned and Illinois has been mentioned over and over. The Fibs love to brag up their state (mostly Chicagoans) and put down Wisconsin, but every weekend you see thousands of Illinois plates coming into WI and many of them own second homes up here. Must be sad to live in a state where every weekend you can't wait to escape it.

On a side note, I once saw an Illinois driver that was actually a good driver. Pretty uncommon occurrence.

Idaho- the Dickface state wrote:

I must say that Idaho by far is the worst state -more Dickfaces per capita that any state or territory in the union

Why is Idaho so bad? In all seriousness, I am thinking of moving there!

alabamarunner wrote:

I would say that Alabama has not quite caught up yet, but we are far from depressing. Depressing is a Seattle kind of thing where people kill themselves regularly. Here people are fat, dumb, and happy.

After catching up on this thread, there were multiple times I wanted to comment on the defenders of The South. Ever heard of the phrase "happy as pigs in the muck?"

It's true that life satisfaction rates often aren't bad in some areas of The South...but like this guy said, they're too stupid to know otherwise. The western states & PNW with culture & character attract educated, cultured people with a higher standard of life fulfillment...it's probably true that these expectations are too high & they're painfully aware of the limitations forced existence imposes. You won't find a true Southerner thinking in these terms. And yes, most of one side of my family is from the South & have spent a fair amount of time there. I could see people being pretty happy with their circumstances if they don't know any better. Probably all depends whether you are from there or moved there. I spent a good deal of time living in the midwest & it truly is a god awful hell hole - all of it besides maybe parts of Minneapolis & northern Minnesota & Wisconsin. But the people "from" there couldn't have been happier than pigs in the muck. You throw in the even lower life fulfillment expectations, a blind/ignorant belief in a higher power/purpose & the hot sub-22 year olds & I bet many of us would be THRILLED growing up & growing old in The South.

the only way to know how bad Illinois is, is to leave Illinois and live some were else.....then you will know

I'm somewhat confused about the frequency Illinois is listed. I can understand not liking the Midwest, although I don't really agree. However, Illinois is nowhere near the worst midwestern state. Indiana, where I have also lived, is clearly worse in almost every way. I've never lived in Nebraska, Kansas, or the Dakotas, but I can't really see liking these places either.