Indiana rated more depressed than most.
Relatively speaking, Indiana doesn’t have many mental health professionals and people who need mental health treatment don’t get it, according to a study. Indiana came in at 39th on the list.
“There’s a certain self-reliant attitude that most Hoosiers have that is part of growing up here, and I think we all tend to think that whatever comes along, we should be able to deal with it on our own,” said Dr. John Nurnberger, the Joyce and Iver Small professor of psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Yup.
And, among other things, I doubt the grey bank of clouds that tends to roll in sometime in November and hang out through March, blocking the limited sunlight helps anything either. And you know, aggravating seasonal affective disorder with our policies on time zones and daylight saving time.
http://www.nmha.org/go/state-ranking
A column in today’s Metro & State section of the Star ranked Indiana more depressed than most states. This is a link to the study. I attempted to find a correlation between a state’s ranking and its location in a time zone. There is something there. 8 of the bottom 10 are located in the western portion of their time zone (late sunrises). Nevada and Rhode Island are the 2 exceptions. Nevada’s ranking can probably be attributed to gambling. It also has a very high suicide rate. Rhode Island’s ranking may be more perception than fact. It has one of the lowest suicide rates of all the states.
It would be interesting to have a Indiana comparison between the years 2005 and 2006-2007. In 2005, all of Indiana was effectively in the eastern part of the central zone during the DST period. In 2006-2007, most of Indiana was in the extreme western portion of the eastern zone (very late sunrises) all year. Also, a national study comparing 2006 to 2007 should be made to determine if our mental health was affected by extending the DST period 4 weeks.
I have found that the mental health professionals we do have in Indiana are very caring and competent. They are also extremely overworked.
I have also found that when I try to refer people to seek mental health services; maybe one out of ten will follow through. The rest just try to “work through it.”
BTW-I refer to that Nov-March cloud cover as “Indiana Permacloud.” This mixed with the 4 pm sunsets here is really starting to affect my mood–so don’t tick me off;-)