The most depressing states in the U.S.
On its own, where you live isn't enough to make you depressed. Personal circumstances and genes also play an important role in mental health, so an area that feels like a downer to one person may be home sweet home to another.
That said, mental distress is unusually and persistently common in some states, whether due to economic troubles, lack of access to health care, or other factors.
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Using data from federal health agencies, Health.com has identified the 10 states with the highest rates of depression, psychological distress, and other indicators of poor mental health. Here they are, in alphabetical order.
Arkansas
Like the many other rural southern states on this list, Arkansas consistently ranks among the worst in the nation on several measures of mental health, especially among young adults.
Young Arkansans have a dedicated advocate in their corner, however. The state's first lady, Ginger Beebe, has taken up mental health care for young people as a cause. In 2007, Beebe-who lost a son-in-law and a friend to suicide-went on a "listening tour," in which she talked with families who have been affected by mental illness. "They have such courage and they go through so many struggles," Beebe told the Associated Press (AP).
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Indiana
Like many of its neighbors, this Rust Belt state has struggled with a sluggish economy, high unemployment, and massive budget shortfalls. And the financial trouble seems to be having a direct impact on mental health care for Hoosiers.
Due to budget pressures, many community mental-health centers have closed or downsized in recent years, and the state is facing a shortage of psychiatrists. "This is happening all over the country," Indiana University psychiatrist Alan Schmetzer, MD, told the South Bend Tribune in 2010. "(But) the Midwest in particular is very short of psychiatrists."
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Kentucky
Rates of depression and other mental-health problems are higher than the national average throughout the mountainous and sparsely settled region known as Appalachia. They are higher still in the coal-mining areas of central Appalachia, which includes most of eastern Kentucky.
Poor mental health in Kentucky is part of a constellation of social problems that includes high joblessness and drug abuse. "When people don't have good jobs to support families, I think that leads to depression and anxiety, which in turn leads to substance abuse," Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear told the AP in 2008.
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Michigan
Few states have been as battered by the economic downturn as Michigan. With unemployment as high as 20% in some counties, it's not surprising that residents might be feeling distressed.
The most recent government data, from 2009, may not even do justice to the true psychological fallout from the state's misfortunes. "When people are under those kinds of stresses, the need for mental health care escalates," the director of a state social-work organization told the Holland Sentinel in 2009. "What we're seeing, anecdotally, is an increase in the need for substance abuse services and depression."
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Mississippi
The poorest state in the U.S., Mississippi ranks at or near the bottom on many health measures, from obesity to heart disease. Mental health is no exception. The state has the highest rate of depression in the nation (14.8%), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and it has the third-highest rate of frequent mental distress (13.5%).
Indeed, the state's many health problems may feed one another. "Depression can both precipitate and exacerbate the symptoms of a chronic disease," Lela McKnight-Eily, PhD, a clinical psychologist and epidemiologist at the CDC, told Health.com in 2010.
See which other states made the list. Keep reading:Health.com: The Most Depressing States in the U.S.
