"Most Stressed" Region

[po-boy]

Originally Posted by evmafioso

Yet these cities have the lowest rates of mental health problems, lowest rates of suicide, lowest rates of antidepressant dependance.

Hmmmm...

http://www.who.or.jp/2008/urbanh/US_Big_Cities_Healt_Inventory_2007.pdf (broken link)

Perhaps many of the people drawn to those places are better equipped to handle the stress and/or actually enjoy the stress because it fits their personalities.

Also, (caution VERY broad generalization, but I think it contains some truth) people in the northeast are probably on average better educated than those in other parts of the country which might lead to them taking better care of their health. Thus later in life perhaps they don't have some of the same health problems as those in other parts of the country.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by caphillsea77

Oh you did not just go there. Don't talk to me about suicide, I lost my best friend here in Mass. to suicide in 2009 and Massachusetts ranks among the lowest. When dealing with the gravity of something like that personally, geographical statistics become pretty meaningless and very abstract. Suicide is something to be addressed on a national level. And although I'm ready to move on to somewhere outside the Northeast, I'll admit there are plenty places here in Mass to escape the rat race like Cape Cod and the Berkshires, the I-95 corridor is a bit manic for me but I certainly wouldn't compare it to stress levels in say Eastern Europe. Boston is at the bottom of this list on suicide number, but having lost somebody to suicide in the Boston area has put a magnitude on that topic more than these numbers could ever comprehend and reality is not based on statistics.

I dont know if stress goes hand in hand with suicide. The western half of the nation was hit a lot harder with the bad economy, so i think that may have something to do with it. ANd i still say northeast, its just a gotta go busy busy busy, get it done now attitude.

[BigCityDreamer]

Originally Posted by jman650

Actually that's not entirely true. CA is still in the big leagues and there is plenty of time to relax - though at the same time there is also plenty of the rush, rush lifestyle in places here as well, depending on where you live/work and what job market you're in. (Ex: try working an 8-5 within a 1/2 mile radius of Bush/Battery in SF and count how many sirens you hear a day coming for businessmen having heart attacks.)

Both versions exist out here, but overall people gravitate toward escaping that stress, which is one of CA's greatest strengths. You can live in or next to world class cities while only being a short drive away from nature that feels like a whole different world.

If you want to escape the stress of the urbanized Bay Area and get away from it all you don't need to go any farther than Half Moon Bay or the redwood forests of La Honda w/o even leaving San Mateo County. Or if you don't feel like driving even that amount of distance, you can do anything from hang gliding (Fort Funston) to sailing yachts or sailboats (Aquatic Park to any SF pier) to windsurfing or kitesurfing (Coyote Point) all within 15 minutes of downtown SF.

And that's only scratching the surface, and of only one major CA city. "Time to relax" may be difficult to come by when you're in the "big leagues," but in some places you really can have it both ways. CA is one of those places.

I see what you're saying. California's weather especially is conducive to a more laid-back lifestyle.

However, you have to realize that even though California as a state is the most populated, it still doesn't have nearly the population and overall population density of the east coast.

To give an idea, even if you took out the entire New York City metropolitan area, the east coast would still have more people than all of California. Just the BoshWash corridor has more people than the states of California, Arizona, Oregon and Washington combined.