Different cities have shown differences in residents’ mental health
Once a taboo topic, mental health has, in recent years, entered the mainstream consciousness. More and more people are being informed on what makes up mental health and the science behind certain mental diseases, however, since oftentimes the symptoms are not overtly obvious, people still have trouble identifying when they or a loved one are suffering.
Lakeview Health, an addiction treatment and recovery center, recently did a study looking at both obvious and subtle symptoms of poor mental health and in what cities there are greater reports of these symptoms. Their findings are definitely worth noting.
Phoenix, AZ had the worst overall mental health out of all the cities in the United States. Tuscan was close behind it in second. In fact, three Arizona cities made the worst ten cities in terms of mental health and all ten of these cities were located west of the Mississippi.
The symptoms that were considered in the study were feelings of depression, suicidal thoughts, feeling badly about oneself and constant tiredness or low energy. Unsurprisingly, the most people responded as feeling tired or having low energy levels. In Tuscan (which rated the worst in this category), 52.5% of people responded as experiencing these symptoms. Alternatively, the least admitted-to symptom was thoughts of suicide. In this category, Los Angeles had the highest number of affirmative responses with 4.7% of respondents from this area admitting to having had suicidal thoughts before.
On the other end of the spectrum, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C. and Atlanta were ranked as the top four cities (with Washington D.C. and Atlanta tied at third) for the best overall mental health. It’s interesting to note that San Francisco ranked so high, while other cities in California such as Fresno and Los Angeles ranked incredibly low.
So what factors affect a person’s mental health and why do some people experience poor mental health while others remain in a healthy mental state?
There are many factors that contribute to a person’s mental health, and they are often different for different people. Often though, mental illness is caused by a combination of biological, psychological and environmental factors. Biological factors that affect a person’s mental health include: genetics, certain infections that affect the brain, brain defects or injuries, prenatal damage due to disruption of fetal brain development or trauma during birth, substance abuse, poor nutrition and exposure to toxins. There is evidence that all these factors may have an impact on a person’s mental health.
In terms of psychological factors that can affect mental health, four factors were identified. They are psychological trauma as a child (i.e. different forms of abuse), a crucial loss (such as that of a parent), neglect and a poor ability to relate to others. Environmental factors that can contribute to mental health include death/divorce, a dysfunctional family life, negative feelings (such as inadequacy, anxiety, anger, etc.), a change in a job or school, social and cultural expectations and substance abuse by the person or people close to the person.
It is likely that environmental factors play a large role in the fact that there are concentrations of people with strong mental health and concentrations of people with poor mental health in different cities around the US. Though, the other two categories of factors could play a role as well. Mental health is still the topic of many studies as people try to further uncover why people experience different mental illnesses. It will be interesting to see what the scientific community discovers in the years to come.