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November 30, 2007
Rhode Island's Literal Depressed Status
The number and kinds of lists that Rhode Island is placing near the bottom of is starting to get just plain ridiculous. Here is yet another one from an organization called Mental Health America…
Using data from nationally representative surveys conducted by the United States government, Mental Health America created two different rankings of the states: one showing the state rankings of depression and one showing the state rank in terms of suicide rates.Four different measures of depression and mental health status were used to develop one composite measure of the level of depression in a given state. The four measures were: (1) the percentage of the adult population experiencing at least one major depressive episode in the past year, (2) the percentage of the adolescent population (ages 12 to 17) experiencing at least one major depressive episode in the past year, (3) the percentage of the adult population experiencing serious psychological distress, and (4) the average number of days in the past 30 days in which the population reported that their mental health was not good….
- (12) Vermont
- (16) Massachusetts
- (20) New Hampshire
- (38) Connecticut
- (41) Maine
- (48) Rhode Island
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It's always baffled me why Rhode Islanders keep reelecting the corrupt Democrat Party into power.
Finally an explanation - widespread mental illness!
Posted by: Ragin' Rhode Islander at November 30, 2007 11:56 AMI often hear Vermont dismissed as this dangerous bastion of liberalism. Maybe we'd all be happier there - certainly not as much organized crime, and I'd bet NPR outdraws the Green Mountain equivalent of Dan Yorke. Fewer consultants and lawyers, too.
Posted by: rhody at November 30, 2007 12:22 PMFrom my visits there, Vermonters strike me as independent folk who don't give a damn what either left ot right orthodoxy tell them to think. I'll still pass on the granola, though.
As a half-Vermonter, my impression is that the attitude that Rhody lauds is true of the natives, but that one of the reasons the state has become so liberal is the migration of NYC libs to the state (vaguely seeming to have started with that Baby Boom movie).
Migrating Rhode Islanders might be too much for Vermont society to bear.
Posted by: Justin Katz at December 1, 2007 8:06 AMI shared space in college with too many New Yorkers. I have some friends in that group, but the vast majority were not people I'd be too crazy about as neighbors (the pushy, superior attitude, I found, transcends ideology). Plus, I don't think I could afford a house in a town New Yorkers have colonized.
Posted by: rhody at December 1, 2007 11:44 PM