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Comment by bluetomcat | Hacker News Reader

Iceland and the Scandinavian countries have, let's say, "weather-related" reasons for their depressions. They are introvert societies with the highest percentage of single-person households.

The reason for the US being close to them could be the high prescription culture and the social aggression inherent in everyday US life, masked behind curteous words, customer-oriented interaction and polished looks.

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OK but I don't think chalking it up to 'weather-related reason' is entirely accurate either. That may make up a portion of it [1] but it doesn't make up all of it [2]. And I agree that the US has a high prescription culture, but you could argue too that this is an artifact of having an exceptional health care system by most metrics. Mental health disorders are complex with a multitude of causes and it's rather reductive to say that they're due to "the social aggression inherent in US life".

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4258674/ [2] https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/stressed-a...

I mean sure, if you are being as charitable as possible with Scandinavia while also being as uncharitable to the US (with pretty insane stereotypes about american society), you will always find a way to conclude that "america bad, nordics good". But what's the point ? Can I also use tired, extremely hyperbolic stereotypes about Scandinavia?

(Funny though that you actually say that everyday life is masked behind courteous words in the US, which is one of the those widespread stereotypes about... Scandinavia and nordic countries in general.)

What was that about Swedes not even sharing meals with visitors, and eating in front of them while the visitor sits at the dinner table looking at them eat? Or Denmark kicking out all of their syrian refugees after they have lived there for years, kids included, to send them back to a warzone? See that explains the antidepressant intake!

> Iceland and the Scandinavian countries have, let's say, "weather-related" reasons for their depressions.

Seasonal Affective Disorder also occurs in the United States. Much of the US population lives in areas with significantly shorter days in the winter.

Most of the US is significantly south of much of continental Europe (not just Scandinavia), as a point of comparison. We (broadly) experience longer days in the winter than Europeans.

Stockholm has 1973 hours of sunshine a year, compared to 2100 hours in Seattle. The US has more sun, but not enough for a significant difference.

GP is talking about winter sunlight, not year-round numbers. (Longer summer days don't help seasonal affective disorder.) Stockholm sees about 6 hours of daylight at winter solstice, while Seattle sees 8.25.

And Seattle is sort of cherry-picked -- it's one of the northern-most cities in the continental US, representing 1.2% of the US population (including the full metro area). LA sees 9.75 hours of daylight on the solstice. Honolulu sees 10.75 hours.

The US population-weighted centroid is approximately Missouri[1], which sees 9.5 hours of daylight on the solstice -- more than 50% more than Stockholm.

[1]: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/mar22/center-population.h...

You seem to be mixing up daylight and sunshine hours.

Sunshine is what helps alleviate seasonal affective disorder.

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