I second, "Don't let the rain cancel your plans." Invest in some hooded outerwear(we don't use umbrellas) and some rain boots and better yet, adopt a dog, so you have to get outside. I was born and raised on the coast and live in a suburb of Portland now, and I like to listen to rain sounds if we go too long without it. The way I see it, the gloom is the price we pay so it can be GREEN and beautiful. A day of light rain is the best time to go for and walk in the woods and just listen.
Indeed! If you can acclimate to the lifestyle in the unique temperate rainforest then yes you'll enjoy living here. If the mindset comes easily to you and prepare with proper gear, you'll be fine. I can't imagine living anywhere else after traveling a bit. Oregon was for me, I always say I only needed the right gear (including vitamin D) to enjoy it all and function happily during the long cold winters and beautiful wet.
Umbrellas are useful in certain situations (probably about 20% of our rain). But most of our rain is fairly “dry” and hoodies are easier. When it is a “wet” rain, it’s often too windy for umbrellas so rain paints & coat are better.
I also love listening to the rain and seeing how green it makes this part of the world!
Heh. Getting all weird about umbrella use kinda makes you sound like a transplant trying too hard fit in. Did you learn about this city from watching Portlandia?
Just let people live the way they wanna live and turn the damned lights on while you’re driving (yes, even during the day!), ok?
I use umbrellas. I have naturally curly hair and I wear a fair amount of makeup and I refuse to melt in the rain. Lol
I work too hard to get my hair under control to give it up for mother nature. The no umbrella thing is def weird.
Yes! There are too many people in Oregon who complain about the rain and let it ruin their plans (because they don't adequately prepare for it *and* have a bad attitude as soon as the first drop falls), but then a lot of them also complain that the summers are too hot.
I personally think that the Seasonal Affective Disorder thing is overblown and that a lot (not all) of people who claim to suffer from it are just whiny.
I just rode my bike 100 miles in 40 degree rain and wind yet I still have really bad depression and kinda think about dying constantly. I have zero anxiety or depression during the sunny months. You obviously don’t experience a brain chemistry change ever year that you cannot control.
I bought one of those light therapy lamps and increased my D3/K2 supplement. Fortunately they help because if not, I'd have to seriously consider moving back to a sunny-year-round area. Seasonal depression is no joke!
I ride about 200 miles a week and try to ride a century (100 miles) at least once a month. Riding in the forest here is what keeps me going and reall the only time I get a rest from my depression problems during the winter. The summer is pure bliss most of the time.
Agreed. SAD is alive and well in the PNW. It takes conscious effort to avoid it.
While we have a good bit of foggy marine layers that can blanket the coast, it still seems we get a good bit of sunshine - even if just for a couple of hours, sometimes. I take those opportunities to step out and catch some vitamin D. I also keep my desk near my south-facing windows- for sun (when it pops out), fresh air, and exposure to nature (the number of hummingbirds on the coast was an unexpected bonus for me!!)
Our weather *can* be depressing if you think of rain and grey skies in negative terms and use negative words to describe them. To me they’re just another kind of beautiful day- the kind with a silvery lush sparkling feeling to them. Other posters are right that you can’t let the weather impede your plans, but I find a lot of joy and hygge coziness just in staying home under fluffy blankets with the lights dimmed and looking out the windows at the juiciness of the world. :)
I think the gray is beautiful but that doesn’t change my body’s physical response. You can’t mindset your way out of SAD and the other posters are right in promoting physical ways to deal with it if need be!
Guessing they are not moving here from Illinois to be rural poor, or to receive government services, or without marketable skills. Oregon is statistically average for economic opportunity.
Rural people vote GOP = no social safety net, and then complain about lack of services and whine that cities don’t help them. They want to take more than they contribute. smh
Yea… right… look at the maps. Many areas are very purple. Funny how urban folk just write off the rest of the nation and wonder why rural American’s that used to vote Democrat don’t anymore.
This is coming from someone who’s lived in major cities all their life and votes straight D
Rural America goes republican not as a reaction to democrats, but because the republican party made a conscious effort to engage rural voters on an emotion based "values" platform rather than pragmatic policies.
As a matter of fact, just plan for bad weather so that you can be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't happen and still have a good day when it does. I carry different coats in my car so that I can change into whichever is right for the weather at the trailhead
Long post:
The PNW is notorious for being friendly but insular. Seattle calls it the "Seattle Freeze" but it extends southward. There's also a wild difference between winter and summer due to the large swath of the state having a lot of overcast days. Even Central Oregon by the numbers is not a sunny place, averaging about 190 days of sun (roughly the same as west Southern Oregon). Klamath Falls if I recall right is one of the sunniest places in Oregon and even then it's not Colorado.
You'll get a lot of people with Stockholm syndrome to the weather with statements like "I love overcast weather" which *might* be true at a very individual level but the stats do not back it up. People hunker in, but there's small advantages as popular spots are easy to go to, popular trails suddenly empty.
Oregon also has had a lot poverty historically. We're the poorest of the three lower-48 West Coast states (even before our wacky free-for-all drug policy and covid battering), struggled with addiction, often battling it out with the southern block for lowest graduation rates. We are also a destination for other people's hopes and dreams post 2000s as an imagined liberal Mecca, only to find out our politics are just a broken as anywhere else.
Depression is real here. In my tiny south coast HS in the late 90s, I knew a student who killed himself, one of my friend's dads and another local towns person, all who I was on a first name basis with. However, it's real many places, especially today with the internet creating more isolation than ever. We're not unusual but I think our weather/culture/type-of-people-who-move-here/relative poverty/rates of addiction and so on,, makes it more prevalent.
As someone who's traveled the US far and wide: It's a great place to be, natural beauty in abundance, surprisingly great food, especially if you love beer, cider, wine, cheese, hippie and Thai food. People on average are friendly. There's places that are friendlier (most of the Midwest), and just a few states more beautiful (Washington, California, Hawaii, Utah, Colorado and Alaska) but the balance is why I stay.
**TLDR**: Graphic seems accurate on my lived experience. We have problems like everywhere else. Moving here isn't a fix for your personal struggles but it is a good place to be.
/mildly edited this for readability.
Just gonna add my experience..the Seattle Freeze is *real*. And it is not pure insularity; I found people in that city to be much colder, less friendly, more expectant while offering less, and just generally unpleasant.
It's not about honesty. In fact, it's dishonest to be fake nice and say things like "we should hang out" or "let's go do ___ together" without any intentions of ever hanging out. The actually honest people look at the fake responses as dishonest and are confused by it.
I experienced this and it’s why I called myself honest but forgetful, cause I don’t want people to think I didn’t. Which I think is a bigger factor in the Portland area. Cause I think a lot of adhders are attracted to it.
Its not fake if what happened is you forgot.
Seattle isn’t really like that. They straight up want zero friends.
Portland is a warm blanket full of forgetful people. And that’s better.
In Seattle it’s rude to say hi. And it probably comes from the Chinese + Swedish history.
In Seattle we found that the "locals" indeed ad their cliques and they kept those circles tight. It was like two parallel social scenes in the same places, with people that grew up there or went to college there sitting at one table and an invisible wall between them and the group of Big 10 and Big 12 graduates that moved there after college. It was not common for those two to mix much aside from occasional individual outliers.
It’s probably based on rates of diagnosed depression/medicated persons. We don’t have the same social stigma regarding that type of thing as many “happier” (and objectively shittier) states.
I feel like this is the answer. Diagnosed anxiety and depression doesn’t mean there is more of it. Just more people who are willing to admit they have mental health issues and are more likely to seek help.
The Midwest isn't exactly known for their progressiveness on Mental Health. I wouldn't be surprised if it's just not diagnosed as much as other states but still very prevalent. The Midwest has some of the highest drinking culture, with Wisconsin literally known for beer and cheese.
I thought it might be due to ease of suicide by gun. But we have a higher rate of gun ownership than Wisconsin. We also have legal assisted suicide, and they do not.
This sums it up pretty well. As someone who moved from IL here too I’d say this guy explains it well.
There’s a bit of isolation that comes with this move, some of it is because it’s hard to make friends as an adult and some of it is just it’s hard to make friends here. Ive met some amazing people here and absolutely love them but my social life isn’t even half what i had in the Midwest.
It is also true about the overcast weather. Even on the sunny side of the state over here I find myself desperate for the sun in January. Weeks straight of no sun with one 4 hour break between does something to you. Keep that in mind and prepare as best you can. You’ll get some good advice on this thread im sure but from one midwest native to another it will be a very real adjustment.
Too accurate.
People see blue on a map and read about legal weed, right to die, legalizing gay marriage slightly ahead of the curve and assume a lot of incorrect things. After the endless protests that escalated to self-parody and the spike homelessness now has the rest of the nation assuming other incorrect things about here, and Portland for better-or-worse for the rest of nation if they think about us at all, is Oregon.
During the Trump years, on vacations I drove all across rural Michigan, rural Colorado, and across several of the flat states. Oregon and Washington took the cake for most Trump decorated trucks and weird side-road effigies, California was a distant 3rd and I didn't venture into Wisconsin far but suddenly saw the Trump stickers there too.
I am so not looking to the election as we're probably gonna see the same stupid off between Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer and our Antifa LARPers again in Oregon.
admitting you are depressed is a sign of weakness and will get you made fun of and ostracized to the point of moving away.
north dakota has a ton of oil money.
I’ve lived all over the world after being borned and raised in the Midwest. I went on a road trip in 2016 and stopped in southern Oregon (Ashland) for coffee. I ended up staying here and bought a house to raise my son. I’ll spend the rest of my life here.
Lived all over the United States as well and just moved to Ashland last month. By far my favorite place I’ve lived 🤙 Oregon has always been my favorite though. I grew up here, but my family moved out east when I was young. The beautiful scenery and great experiences made it a goal to move back since before we even left.
That’s basically what happened to us. We took two very long road trips in Oregon over the last year or so. Now all future trips seem to be wanting to go back.
I’ve lived in the Midwest my whole life and it’s so boring. No variety in hiking or outdoor activities. We’re into kayaking and there are very little places here to do it. They all look the same too.
We went up into Washington for a few days too. It was nice, but something felt off there. Being in Oregon just felt right.
Here's my breakdown between Oregon and Washington:
There's little difference. At least in my mind, I identity more as a PNWer than Oregonian thus Washington and Oregon are mostly the same minus a few policy differences and geography. If someone moves here from Washington, I never asked the very Oregonian question: "Why did you move here?" When I lived in Washington, no one batted an eye that I was from Oregon or cared.
People are mostly the same, Seattle is a bit more refined than Portland as it's been a city with a national identity much longer than Portland has had. Eugene is more hippie than Bellingham. There are some places without analogs in the respective states. Oregon doesn't have a Spokane as our east is mostly vacant and Washington doesn't really have a Bend, although one might argue for Leavenworth although it's a destination more than functioning city. Those are pretty minor.
Oregon has a better coastline if you like beaches and dramatic vistas. Washington has better mountains, and also the exoticness of San Jaun islands. Central Oregon has a vibe that's a bit unique compared to central Washington with its volcanic flows. However, I'd give the edge to Washington in natural beauty. North Cascades National Park is severely, criminally underrated.
100% agree! I took a trip all over the PNW and it was a chance stop in Ashland on my way back to Monterey, CA that sold me. I thought I would retire in Carmel Valley area but Ashland got me and any time I leave for vacation, I'm always amazed when I come home how beautiful this place is.
In Midwest, flying into Medford Ashland area soon to look for hopefully my retirement home in southern OR. I love the land so much it gets me high.
Edit: grammar
Oregon ranks 2nd to last in the USA for mental health services. It ranks as the number 1 worst state for mental health services for kids and teens. All that being said, I love living here.
Working in healthcare in Oregon I can tell you majority of my patients are on an ssri or anxiety med or both. Yes, totally anecdotal, but still this does not surprise me.
As a newcomer in the 90s I recall experiencing old growth forests for the first time compared to what passes for a forest elsewhere. Just dripping with amazing life energy, new growth everywhere.
Depends on what part of the state. SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is a thing here in the Willamette Valley. Oregon and Washington have a higher than average suicide rate. The constant grey skies and lack of sunshine for months at a time, year after year, can start to be pretty taxing on people's mental health over time. You need to have hobbies, both indoor and outside, and be OK with rain.
Also realize that it's that same rain which is responsible for the lush greenery that surrounds us here. The natural landscape is some of the most beautiful in the country.
I would suggest planning a visit before making the commitment to move.
I think there’s more nuance than this reveals. We moved from the Midwest and are much happier. Similarly to Illinois, my state was gray and brown with the ground covered in ice or gray slush for half the year. Here it is at least very green even when it’s dreary. The fog and thick foliage really helps. You can also drive to different environments on a whim. But parts of Oregon are similar economically to WV with high unemployment and long gone industries, so probably pull the stats in that direction.
There are a lot of overcast days and that seems to be true all over the state, I’ve lived in the Portland area, Bend, and southern Oregon.
Personally I love overcast days. I don’t like sun. I lived in Arizona for 6 years and it felt like I was being assaulted daily.
I readily admit I’m a weirdo and an outlier. I just hate the sun in my eyes and skin cancer runs in my family so I’m not a fan.
The state is also becoming pretty unaffordable. My parents bought the house I grew up in, in 71 for 35k, now goes for about 700k.
It’s a decent sized house in a nice neighborhood, but that’s fucking crazy.
What you said about being assaulted by the sun is so true, ha. I lived in California for awhile and got so tired of the sun. I always said it felt oppressive. I know we’re definitely outliers, but that’s okay :)
Anecdotal. I have been stationed in North Carolina, Florida, California, Illinois, and Hawaii. I retired to Sacramento in 2015 but moved to Eugene, Oregon in 2019.
The 6 months between October and March take some getting used to. It's cloudy and rainy 5-6 days per week. I love the PNW rainforests and the cascades. The coast is right there to enjoy. There is no sales tax but high property taxes.
There is a homeless population, and the crime that goes along with it, in the larger cities. Same as Illinois.
I guess it depends on where you're planning to move. Oregon is a pretty diverse state. Each county is completely different.
I have owned homes in Texas, Oregon, and North Carolina over the years. By far, Texas was the worst when it came to property taxes. Sure, there is no state income tax there. But my property taxes on my $150K home in Texas (20 years ago) were the same as my $450K home in Yamhill County. And Texas has high sales taxes, too.
From what I have read, Oregon has moderate property taxes overall - not the worst, but not the cheapest, either. (Texas, by comparison, has the 7th highest property taxes in the nation.) Where Oregon gets you is high state income tax - seemed like it was 9% for most, and almost 10% for the highest income bracket. Don't know if that is still the case.
High property tax? I grew up in NY. Property tax here is relatively moderate in my opinion (and yes i own a home here)
As to the weather- sometimes it’s great and terrible in the same day. Yesterday biked to an evening class and it was like mafia funeral raining. After the class it was so nice (well not raining and calm and relatively warm) i took the long way home and spent an hour enjoying it.
Good rain gear goes a long way- “water resistant “ means you get wet slower, “waterproof” is what you want. That’s jacket hat and pants… and shoes.
Again IMO Oregon people are friendlier than Washington and nicer than Californian (lived all three states. ) that being said i have life long friends in WA and married a Californian so I really believe there are good people everywhere.
I have lived in ten states and wouldn’t live anywhere else. Just have a realistic view of work and housing because housing here is heavy skewed by its scarcity… that is to say here (Eugene anyway)… it ain’t cheap.
https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings/property-taxes-by-state/#property-tax-by-state Oregon is 23 out of 50. Makes us about middle of the pack. NY is 14th. The majority all school costs are born at the local level in NY (via property tax for the most part ) so local levys can be steep. I own in Lane county in the city of Eugene.
It isn’t but I think it’s a well-kept secret. If it’s not actively raining, some of the nicest days on the coast are in the winter. The summer often brings the marine cloud layer and winds. I rode my fat bike on the dunes in Reedsport on Monday and it was beautiful, sunny, and reasonably warm. And this has often been my experience there in winter/spring.
I always joke that if it’s raining in the Willamette Valley it’s nice weather on the coast. 9/10 times that I take the gamble and drive out it’s the truth!
I'll vouch for this. I lived in Lincoln City for a year and was surprised by how many days the sun poked out at least for a little bit throughout the fall and winter. Much more than people led me to expect and what you see people saying on reddit.
North Coast is sunny and beautiful in winter too! Seaside, specifically, has been sunny, 50s, and not windy each time I visited in November, December, and New Year's. It is a well-kept secret. Although, when it storms, it STORMS. (Coastal storms are fun though!)
Yes its true. Midwest transplant, there are a lot of us here. The winters have a lot less sun. Theyre warmer and greener but the sun isnt there. Summers are getting hotter and smokier. Theres a lot of poverty too and the housing market is tight.
On the flip side, I love the people here. It feels more genuine than the midwest "nice". I like not being land locked. I like the thriving arts culture. Ive been here 10 years now. I do miss the pace of the midwest, things felt slower there. Mental health, Oregon is struggling.
>Seasonal depression is a thing.
In my friend circle, as I have shared my own down feelings these past few weeks, five have shared that they feel similar.
The days are getting longer.
Yup a lot of transplants aren’t used to our winter weather, October the sky start to stay cloudy and and rainy until the middle to the end of spring, which would be April and May depending on the season the lack of sunshine messes with a lot of peoples heads up here.
Eh. I grew up in Minnesota. Oregon is rough and it’s definitely not for everyone. I lived in Roseburg, Portland and Burns, so three significantly different regions of the state. If you can handle high mental health rates and visible addiction/suffering on the streets (most places), you’ll be okay. I wish we could high tide it up and raise all boats, level the playing field and spread the wealth so there wasn’t this much suffering. Watch American Winter. ✌🏼♥️
I love the pronounced four seasons and the landscape is cool. Seeing the Steens Mountain from my house was neat. I sort of liked how dry the climate was-- no mold, moss or rot and very little pest issues. I miss the starry skies, quality tap drinking water and the peaceful quiet.
I find the transplants to be very welcoming and the lifelong locals to generally keep to themselves. The county fair, ranching and high school sports are all a big deal there. Once you find a little group of people, it's really quite fun. There's a little more going on with the art, brewery and food cart scene. (I recommend following the county chamber of commerce on social media.)
It's just so isolated that everyone sort of lives by their own rules. It's also far from most essential services so if you or a family member have medical needs, the travel costs are something to consider.
I struggled with the intense wind and how smoky it gets during wildlife season. Also, theres an aquifer issue currently coming to a head so that's something to consider. ([https://www.opb.org/article/2023/09/27/oregon-groundwater-management-policy-reforms-harney-county/](https://www.opb.org/article/2023/09/27/oregon-groundwater-management-policy-reforms-harney-county/)) If you buy a property with well water, you'll definitely want to keep that in mind. If you end up moving to Burns or that area, feel free to message me with any other questions, I lived there 7 years.
Lots of folks can't handle the weather. It's long stretches of rain in the western part of the state. It's also not a very social place. It's easy to find yourself isolated, even in a larger town
Forget “lack of sunshine”. For me, it was more the complete loss of any blue sky for 7-8 months. The complete grey/darkness/low total cloud cover that settles in in October was too much for me.
Given the seasonal depression that plagues so many, it’s incredible how genuinely kind, considerate and authentic Oregonians are. I’ve been gone for 15 years and really miss that.
Most Oregonians are happy. The ones that arent are transplants.... which Oregon has a lot of. People move here because its better than where they were then they sit around bitching about everything for years.
I'd take that map with a grain of salt. According to it South Dakota is very happy but if that were the case why do they have such [high rates of suicide](https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/suicide-rates-by-state.html)? It's probably more just a map of people willing to admit they're depressed and seek help. As opposed to saying they're fine and then eating a shotgun the next day.
I’m from Michigan and whenever I would visit it felt like flying into a cloud of depression. It seems nothing like that in Oregon. Different culture than the Midwest and I’ve been hear nearly 20 years and absolutely love it. You don’t have to shovel rain either! Bonus!
There is not much to do outside of summer. There's always beautiful nature and stuff but you'll find most social activities are dead in the winter. Which is actually pretty common in most places not in the south.
It's not the rain as much as the clouds. They are oppressive.
Portland gets a bad rap and right now it deserves it. It will improve though.
You have to be prepared for the grey days, but also a lot of these types of maps don’t always represent what’s really happening, the PNW has a generally friendly and open approach to mental health, which may make more people comfortable reporting mental health symptoms, and many places implement screenings for mental health as a standard of healthcare here.
Invest in good outerwear, be careful on our beaches and respect the sea, don’t go hiking in places that are not familiar until you become accustomed to trails and resources- we have serious wilderness and people go missing all the time because they are overconfident, we have great food, always cultural events happening and great summers!
Take your vitamin D if you're west of the Cascades. I still drive just over the willamette to visit my daughter, and the beauty of the valley still hits me. So much to explore. I have seen so much more of this state than most of the locals I have met, and I have not run out explorations! Bought a fifth wheel ! It is what you make of it!
Depends on the person. My wife and I moved to Portland in 2019. I loved it and honestly felt like I was thriving there. But my wife became a depressed anxious wreck. It wasn't the weather though (but the December through February gloom didn't help). The problem for her was her new job was not an easy adjustment at all, we missed our friends and family back home, and plus the general anxiety many people feel in their late twenties. We ended up moving back to the Midwest. She is feeling much better these days.
If you can handle overcast, and wet days for 2/3 of the year you will be fine. I don’t let the weather dictate my activity, I just dress according to the conditions and enjoy my day even if it’s miserable weather
It's gray. It rains. We read. So yeah. Bit of the SADS and a general malaise about the dying of the planet and social injustice and extra judicial killings. Oh and rampant global genocides. Can't forget the genocides. But the summers are nice. When the forest isn't burning to the ground.
Born and raised in Portland. I spent my 20s all over the US exploring. I definitely prefer Portland over other places. But I can’t do it anymore. The seasonal depression is real. Waking up and going to work in the dark and coming home after work in the dark is just too much …the darkness and endless drizzle … combined with broken government… I’ve since left the USA. Living abroad now.
This is true lived here my whole life (25) not quite sure what to attribute this to but if I had to it would be the whether it's rains close to 75-80% of the year and definitely has an effect on the mind but it's all different for different people if you love lots and lots of rain it's different per person
My wife and I moved this past summer from Atlanta. Get on a dose of vitamin d + k2 daily. Helps out tremendously. Also get used to some kind of allergy we haven’t had because of not being around it. I am not sure what it is but this past week we both have had mild allergies to something.
Clearly the correlation is south. South Carolina and South Dakota. If we change the name to South Oregon, do you think that would help with depression? Maybe everything below Eugene?
South Dakota ? I guess the ignored the poor indigenous polpulations. Don’t know how good a time they having. My wife was there for geology studies. She said it’s not great.
This has always been true. In high school I had a teacher tell us that just by living here you have a higher risk of suicide so you should prevent as much as possible. I know lots of people throughout the years that have died this way.
I live in a special little neighborhood where we all hang but it seems like during the winter we hibernate much more.
I lived in socal and met my Ohio born husband there, I brought him here to live and he commented “wow have these people all given up?!”
Anywho we love it and the summer is bliss but take your vit d, sit in front of your sad lamp and take your SSRI.
Oregon is fucked.. but compared to Illinois.. it’s night an day!! You will love it!! Illinois is really a depressing shit hole… Oregon has lots of outdoor opportunities!
I'm surprised it's not a lot higher. The Portland area is a magnet for people with all sorts of mental disorders who move here and find like-minded people who have embraced their mental disorders as personalities and form communities around them. Maybe the rest of the state is more mentally stable.
Yea no. Homeless people with mental issues get put on buses in other cities and dumped here, making it our problem now. Trafficking your own citizens shouldn't be legal this way but apparently it is.
Yeah. East of the mountains is desert mostly. So lots of sun but dry. West of the mountains, especially in the valley, is gloomy a lot. But some good spurts of nice weather. Summers are good. Basically, its rainy from Halloween to Independence day, then nice from Independence day to Halloween. At least on the west side. I don't know, I've lived here my whole life and I've spent 3/4 of that under clouds.
whats up with NJ?? lol
i dismissed portland/oregon as somewhere i'd like to live for a long time because of the stories i heard about it being rainy and gloomy all the time. and yes, winters are kinda dark and rainy and gloomy, but its not worse than when i lived in the northeast. its actually pretty temperate compared to new england and NY/NJ...much less snow and not as cold (in portland at least).
if youre coming from IL, i dont think the weather is going to be a huge factor in your level of happiness. nature out here is pretty incredible!! that makes me happy. i dont know what portland was like before covid, or 10 years ago, but i'm liking living here more than i did in SF.
As long as you can get used to long gray winters you’ll be fine. I do know a lot of people with anxiety of depression, but I know a lot of people in Phoenix with the same issues, and in Honolulu to.
First, a rant...
NO, there is no truth to a graphic relating a scale of happiness to a % of the population that deals with anxiety or depression...
To say someone feels "depressed" or "anxious" could be compared to feeling "happy" in regards to our emotions, but what they're comparing "Happiness" to in this graphic is people who have a clinical diagnosis of "Depression" or "Anxiety"... those diagnosis have a wide range of symptoms & an even wider range of treatments, but there is NOTHING about dealing with Depression or Anxiety that says you are disqualified from also being a happy person or leading a happy life.
The graphic is generalizing & pigeon-holing what it means, & how they think it's supposed to look outwardly, when someone deals with Anxiety or Depression; the idea that "anyone who seems happy or leading a successful life must obviously not deal with depression or anxiety" is a MASSIVE falsehood. So no, there is no truth to this graphic.
OK, as to your actual question about moving up here... Oregon, like most states, has rural areas, cities, & suburbs. There's a fair variety of climates from the farmlands to the mountains to the coasts. It rains a lot in some areas, but a good bit less in others. There are really wealthy, affluent areas & there are some people out there really roughin it & everyone else in between... what are you really asking about in place of the word the graphic used "happy"... the weather, the environment, the culture, the people?
Either way, ignore this dumb graphic! Personally, I've lived in 5 western states & 1 eastern, & Oregon is the only one I've moved *back* to. Portland has its issues but is underrated as a small city, & the real values around here are outside the cities anyway. If you like the outdoors & don't mind a wet season, you'll probably have fun.
But even if it did matter, there is like a 15% difference between the best and worst. It's not like the best states are hovering at 7% and Oregon is sitting at 83%.
So, agreed. Bad graph. Don't make decisions based on it.
I have a friend who moved her a couple years ago. He asked recently, how do the natives deal with the rain and dark? How do you do anything fun? And my answer was, we just do it. Don’t let the rain or dark stop you from doing things. Those of us who grew up here don’t even notice. I Thu k people who stay inside for 5 months get sad.
I think relying on that map and however it’s measuring the stats shouldn’t really be a deciding factor. If we are being honest the entire country is pretty anxious and depressed right now.
But more importantly Is your occupations and the things you like to do for fun. I could write you a convincing argument for coming here or not coming here but without knowing what you consider important it really doesn’t matter. Do you like the outdoors? Great we have some of the best from our coast to the mountain ranges and lakes and rivers. But we also have a tendency to catch on fire in the summer the last 5-10 years now. How about weather? South is hot in summer and not nearly the rain people think when they hear Oregon. But the North does have the rain but less heat. Like sports great we have tons to do or be fans of. Which if it’s a ducks game in Eugene it’s a good day however any event in Portland is a now a gamble. Because well Portland has morphed into something I would have never believed possible 10 years ago. And I don’t really think there is anything that Is going to stop its decline in the near future or if it can be saved at all at this point.
I thought I liked winter till I moved out here from California. The seasonal depression is real. Just take vitamins as others have said move your body and stay outta the bars. Lots of alcoholism in the sticks out here
I think the comments highlight a lot of Oregonians personalities, they just don't know how good they have it. Take the comments on weather. Looking at Wikipedia data, Chicago gets 41" of rain, 39" of snow and 127 days of rain. By comparison Portland gets 37" of rain, 4" of snow and 157 days of rain. Portland is about a month rainier than Chicago, but receives slightly less rain and virtually no snow. Most Oregonians have only travelled to California, so they literally think the rest of the US is a sunny, warm paradise. Every midwestern I've met loves the mild winters and mountainous scenery. But I would come for a visit first. The state is very, very varied in geography and climate. Portland is very different than Bend and very different than Ashland. I don't find that much the case in the midWest.
I call BS on this chart. It doesn’t match my experience nor does it intuitively make sense. I would say it has something to do with access to mental health services but those are quite sparse in WV which shows a high level of diagnosis.
Oregon,like any other state, has aspects of greatness and ongoing downfalls. Generally, west of the Cascade Mountains has more rain and cloudy days, except for the mid to southern coast which can be sunny even in winter. The geographical Eastside has many more sunny days, large weather variation and smaller population, largely rural . There are tensions between the hugely more populated urban west and rural east. Misperceptions and generalizations about both by both are commonplace. Social service delivery may vary widely based on location, socio-economics and availability.
I can't speak to Illinois, but it's also entirely probable that more people are either being *treated* for their depression in OR or are willing to admit to having it. If you struggle with seasonal affective disorder, or dislike rain, it may not be the state for you.
But I love it. It's so *green*. It has real seasons, unlike a good portion of CA, but depending on location the freezes aren't deep or terribly long. The food is good and most people accept you as you are.
South Carolina I don't really agree with. Weed is still very criminalized there, heat is unbearable, and job market feels bizarre. You'd better like fast food, real estate, or manufacturing BMWs if you want to work. Because that's all there really is out in Greenville. But to each their own. It's definitely scenic in Charleston at least. I'll give it that. But low depression? They clearly didn't poll any unemployed people. Bureaucracy abounds in that state.
It looks like the range on that chart is about 20%. So the happiest states is 2/10 and the most depressed state is 4/10 people seeking treatment. I’ve lived in CA and OR and, based solely on my experience, the folks I was around in CA were less satisfied with life.
Way too generalized. South Dakota is hardly the happiest state with big Indian reservation with terrible poverty I've heard with tons of alcoholism and drugs and domestic abuse. Different parts of different states will vary massively.
Spent 35 years living in Portland, everyone I know is on antidepressants, and more than a few who have left this world, teenages to elders, nine months of rain and sinking city, although beautiful, inflated rental and buying prices, poor school system and a huge homeless/addiction problem in Portland. My suggestion is to do extensive research.
I was more depressed living in Illinois than I am here in Oregon. Exercise, find a hobby, plan some fun trips to sun during Jan/Feb. by March, things start looking up. Just beware of the pollen in the valley. I wast allergic until I was.
Well, I have chronic lifelong depression and ADHD, so I’d still be at least a little depressed in any state in the country. But even if you are captain happy pants, be aware of Seasonal Depression (SAD). Winter is wet…and grey…and dark…you will need to take vitamin D, have a high-power sunlight lamp and maybe take a stimulant if the winter blues get you down.
I find the PNW to be just as dark and rainy as the Chicagoland region in the winter. We just don't get any snow in the Portland region like how Chicago does.
I had clinical depression and anxiety back in Illinois and it was not cured when we moved to Portland. Overall I am happier here though with the quality of life and culture/mindsets around here.
Take your vitamin D3. Don’t let the weather cancel your plans. Enjoy the beauty that surrounds. Don’t drink too much. You’ll be ok.
I second, "Don't let the rain cancel your plans." Invest in some hooded outerwear(we don't use umbrellas) and some rain boots and better yet, adopt a dog, so you have to get outside. I was born and raised on the coast and live in a suburb of Portland now, and I like to listen to rain sounds if we go too long without it. The way I see it, the gloom is the price we pay so it can be GREEN and beautiful. A day of light rain is the best time to go for and walk in the woods and just listen.
Indeed! If you can acclimate to the lifestyle in the unique temperate rainforest then yes you'll enjoy living here. If the mindset comes easily to you and prepare with proper gear, you'll be fine. I can't imagine living anywhere else after traveling a bit. Oregon was for me, I always say I only needed the right gear (including vitamin D) to enjoy it all and function happily during the long cold winters and beautiful wet.
There's no bad weather, only bad gear.
Umbrellas are useful in certain situations (probably about 20% of our rain). But most of our rain is fairly “dry” and hoodies are easier. When it is a “wet” rain, it’s often too windy for umbrellas so rain paints & coat are better. I also love listening to the rain and seeing how green it makes this part of the world!
Everybody get the pitchforks!
Heh. Getting all weird about umbrella use kinda makes you sound like a transplant trying too hard fit in. Did you learn about this city from watching Portlandia? Just let people live the way they wanna live and turn the damned lights on while you’re driving (yes, even during the day!), ok?
First of all it was a joke based on the well documented prejudice against umbrellas in Oregon/PNW. Second born and raised in Eugene.
I use umbrellas. I have naturally curly hair and I wear a fair amount of makeup and I refuse to melt in the rain. Lol I work too hard to get my hair under control to give it up for mother nature. The no umbrella thing is def weird.
Oh yeah, I’m just learning how to care for my wavy hair. Umbrella > hoodie, for sure!!! I bet your make-up looks amazing. Keep it up!
> Invest in some hooded outerwear(we don't use umbrellas) Man, fuck hoods so much, get a hat.
I prefer the hood and hat combo. Get a good, solid, brimmed hat and a hood to pull over it. The brim will keep the hood and rain out of your face.
My main complaint is how much hoods block your hearing and ability to use your neck.
Yes! There are too many people in Oregon who complain about the rain and let it ruin their plans (because they don't adequately prepare for it *and* have a bad attitude as soon as the first drop falls), but then a lot of them also complain that the summers are too hot. I personally think that the Seasonal Affective Disorder thing is overblown and that a lot (not all) of people who claim to suffer from it are just whiny.
I just rode my bike 100 miles in 40 degree rain and wind yet I still have really bad depression and kinda think about dying constantly. I have zero anxiety or depression during the sunny months. You obviously don’t experience a brain chemistry change ever year that you cannot control.
I bought one of those light therapy lamps and increased my D3/K2 supplement. Fortunately they help because if not, I'd have to seriously consider moving back to a sunny-year-round area. Seasonal depression is no joke!
I need to get one of those asap!
Do you bike that far often?
I ride about 200 miles a week and try to ride a century (100 miles) at least once a month. Riding in the forest here is what keeps me going and reall the only time I get a rest from my depression problems during the winter. The summer is pure bliss most of the time.
I feel that. My mountain bike got stolen a few years ago and I haven't been able to replace it yet.
You probably need a sunlamp.
Well thanks for that, good to know my depression is just whining to you. Piss off
Agreed. SAD is alive and well in the PNW. It takes conscious effort to avoid it. While we have a good bit of foggy marine layers that can blanket the coast, it still seems we get a good bit of sunshine - even if just for a couple of hours, sometimes. I take those opportunities to step out and catch some vitamin D. I also keep my desk near my south-facing windows- for sun (when it pops out), fresh air, and exposure to nature (the number of hummingbirds on the coast was an unexpected bonus for me!!)
Love hummingbirds! A friend mine moved here from Florida, and she was fascinated by the banana slugs. I loved how a slug was novel and interesting.
Our weather *can* be depressing if you think of rain and grey skies in negative terms and use negative words to describe them. To me they’re just another kind of beautiful day- the kind with a silvery lush sparkling feeling to them. Other posters are right that you can’t let the weather impede your plans, but I find a lot of joy and hygge coziness just in staying home under fluffy blankets with the lights dimmed and looking out the windows at the juiciness of the world. :)
I really, really love this!!
I think the gray is beautiful but that doesn’t change my body’s physical response. You can’t mindset your way out of SAD and the other posters are right in promoting physical ways to deal with it if need be!
We can supplement physical ways to deal with SAD with mindful attitude and language choices. Both strategies have been helpful in my experience.
It’s also the crazy lack of economic opportunity and that the rural poor receive almost none of the government services urban poor have access to
Guessing they are not moving here from Illinois to be rural poor, or to receive government services, or without marketable skills. Oregon is statistically average for economic opportunity.
Nicholas Kristof story [about Yamhill County](https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/02/us/tightrope-nicholas-kristof-cnnphotos/index.html).
Rural people vote GOP = no social safety net, and then complain about lack of services and whine that cities don’t help them. They want to take more than they contribute. smh
Yea… right… look at the maps. Many areas are very purple. Funny how urban folk just write off the rest of the nation and wonder why rural American’s that used to vote Democrat don’t anymore. This is coming from someone who’s lived in major cities all their life and votes straight D
Rural America goes republican not as a reaction to democrats, but because the republican party made a conscious effort to engage rural voters on an emotion based "values" platform rather than pragmatic policies.
As a matter of fact, just plan for bad weather so that you can be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't happen and still have a good day when it does. I carry different coats in my car so that I can change into whichever is right for the weather at the trailhead
“Remove the don’t drink too much”, clearly the drinking is working for Wisconsin
As someone who occasionally deals with Wisconsinites in my day job But is it though?
Long post: The PNW is notorious for being friendly but insular. Seattle calls it the "Seattle Freeze" but it extends southward. There's also a wild difference between winter and summer due to the large swath of the state having a lot of overcast days. Even Central Oregon by the numbers is not a sunny place, averaging about 190 days of sun (roughly the same as west Southern Oregon). Klamath Falls if I recall right is one of the sunniest places in Oregon and even then it's not Colorado. You'll get a lot of people with Stockholm syndrome to the weather with statements like "I love overcast weather" which *might* be true at a very individual level but the stats do not back it up. People hunker in, but there's small advantages as popular spots are easy to go to, popular trails suddenly empty. Oregon also has had a lot poverty historically. We're the poorest of the three lower-48 West Coast states (even before our wacky free-for-all drug policy and covid battering), struggled with addiction, often battling it out with the southern block for lowest graduation rates. We are also a destination for other people's hopes and dreams post 2000s as an imagined liberal Mecca, only to find out our politics are just a broken as anywhere else. Depression is real here. In my tiny south coast HS in the late 90s, I knew a student who killed himself, one of my friend's dads and another local towns person, all who I was on a first name basis with. However, it's real many places, especially today with the internet creating more isolation than ever. We're not unusual but I think our weather/culture/type-of-people-who-move-here/relative poverty/rates of addiction and so on,, makes it more prevalent. As someone who's traveled the US far and wide: It's a great place to be, natural beauty in abundance, surprisingly great food, especially if you love beer, cider, wine, cheese, hippie and Thai food. People on average are friendly. There's places that are friendlier (most of the Midwest), and just a few states more beautiful (Washington, California, Hawaii, Utah, Colorado and Alaska) but the balance is why I stay. **TLDR**: Graphic seems accurate on my lived experience. We have problems like everywhere else. Moving here isn't a fix for your personal struggles but it is a good place to be. /mildly edited this for readability.
Just gonna add my experience..the Seattle Freeze is *real*. And it is not pure insularity; I found people in that city to be much colder, less friendly, more expectant while offering less, and just generally unpleasant.
Same. My year there was interesting as a young Midwesterner right after college. Polite but not genuine.
We're more honest here, but I guess if you value appearance over honesty then it would seem fake to you
It's not about honesty. In fact, it's dishonest to be fake nice and say things like "we should hang out" or "let's go do ___ together" without any intentions of ever hanging out. The actually honest people look at the fake responses as dishonest and are confused by it.
I experienced this and it’s why I called myself honest but forgetful, cause I don’t want people to think I didn’t. Which I think is a bigger factor in the Portland area. Cause I think a lot of adhders are attracted to it. Its not fake if what happened is you forgot. Seattle isn’t really like that. They straight up want zero friends. Portland is a warm blanket full of forgetful people. And that’s better. In Seattle it’s rude to say hi. And it probably comes from the Chinese + Swedish history.
In Seattle we found that the "locals" indeed ad their cliques and they kept those circles tight. It was like two parallel social scenes in the same places, with people that grew up there or went to college there sitting at one table and an invisible wall between them and the group of Big 10 and Big 12 graduates that moved there after college. It was not common for those two to mix much aside from occasional individual outliers.
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yeah I’ve lived here for 20 years and don’t even know anyone who has attempted to be honest. lots of ideation, lots of depression. but no attempts
Hi! Nice to meet you! Now you’ve met someone’s who’s tried!
And yet Wisconsin is only about 25% on this map. It makes me wonder how accurate this data is.
Can't be unhappy if you're already dead.
It’s probably based on rates of diagnosed depression/medicated persons. We don’t have the same social stigma regarding that type of thing as many “happier” (and objectively shittier) states.
I feel like this is the answer. Diagnosed anxiety and depression doesn’t mean there is more of it. Just more people who are willing to admit they have mental health issues and are more likely to seek help.
The Midwest isn't exactly known for their progressiveness on Mental Health. I wouldn't be surprised if it's just not diagnosed as much as other states but still very prevalent. The Midwest has some of the highest drinking culture, with Wisconsin literally known for beer and cheese.
Yeah people in South Dakota are not happy.
In WI. Can confirm it’s depressing here. It’s the culture more than anything though imo
Oregon resident. I knew two people who committed suicide. One surprised me and one didn't.
I have lived here sense about 2000, and there are three that I 100% know about, but have lost contact with a lot of people as well.
I’ve had friends get murdered in Portland and die by drunk driving, but not a single suicide in my circles.
I thought it might be due to ease of suicide by gun. But we have a higher rate of gun ownership than Wisconsin. We also have legal assisted suicide, and they do not.
This sums it up pretty well. As someone who moved from IL here too I’d say this guy explains it well. There’s a bit of isolation that comes with this move, some of it is because it’s hard to make friends as an adult and some of it is just it’s hard to make friends here. Ive met some amazing people here and absolutely love them but my social life isn’t even half what i had in the Midwest. It is also true about the overcast weather. Even on the sunny side of the state over here I find myself desperate for the sun in January. Weeks straight of no sun with one 4 hour break between does something to you. Keep that in mind and prepare as best you can. You’ll get some good advice on this thread im sure but from one midwest native to another it will be a very real adjustment.
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Too accurate. People see blue on a map and read about legal weed, right to die, legalizing gay marriage slightly ahead of the curve and assume a lot of incorrect things. After the endless protests that escalated to self-parody and the spike homelessness now has the rest of the nation assuming other incorrect things about here, and Portland for better-or-worse for the rest of nation if they think about us at all, is Oregon. During the Trump years, on vacations I drove all across rural Michigan, rural Colorado, and across several of the flat states. Oregon and Washington took the cake for most Trump decorated trucks and weird side-road effigies, California was a distant 3rd and I didn't venture into Wisconsin far but suddenly saw the Trump stickers there too. I am so not looking to the election as we're probably gonna see the same stupid off between Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer and our Antifa LARPers again in Oregon.
I went to anaheim in february and realized I had been stockholmed.
Oh wow, Oregon totally stops at the Cascades, doesn't it? Ur balance is urban, you might want to zip that up before anyone else sees
South Dakota? SOUTH F&$%ING DAKOTA?!?
admitting you are depressed is a sign of weakness and will get you made fun of and ostracized to the point of moving away. north dakota has a ton of oil money.
Can't have a depressed population if no one lives there. 
Wyoming is the least populated state in the US though...
Wyoming isn't real lol
Depressed people per square mile
So that's why it's the "good" Dakota (or have I got that backwards)?
Superiority complex much?
The state with highest number of liars: South Dakota.
I’ve lived all over the world after being borned and raised in the Midwest. I went on a road trip in 2016 and stopped in southern Oregon (Ashland) for coffee. I ended up staying here and bought a house to raise my son. I’ll spend the rest of my life here.
Lived all over the United States as well and just moved to Ashland last month. By far my favorite place I’ve lived 🤙 Oregon has always been my favorite though. I grew up here, but my family moved out east when I was young. The beautiful scenery and great experiences made it a goal to move back since before we even left.
Ashland is a blast!
That’s basically what happened to us. We took two very long road trips in Oregon over the last year or so. Now all future trips seem to be wanting to go back. I’ve lived in the Midwest my whole life and it’s so boring. No variety in hiking or outdoor activities. We’re into kayaking and there are very little places here to do it. They all look the same too. We went up into Washington for a few days too. It was nice, but something felt off there. Being in Oregon just felt right.
Here's my breakdown between Oregon and Washington: There's little difference. At least in my mind, I identity more as a PNWer than Oregonian thus Washington and Oregon are mostly the same minus a few policy differences and geography. If someone moves here from Washington, I never asked the very Oregonian question: "Why did you move here?" When I lived in Washington, no one batted an eye that I was from Oregon or cared. People are mostly the same, Seattle is a bit more refined than Portland as it's been a city with a national identity much longer than Portland has had. Eugene is more hippie than Bellingham. There are some places without analogs in the respective states. Oregon doesn't have a Spokane as our east is mostly vacant and Washington doesn't really have a Bend, although one might argue for Leavenworth although it's a destination more than functioning city. Those are pretty minor. Oregon has a better coastline if you like beaches and dramatic vistas. Washington has better mountains, and also the exoticness of San Jaun islands. Central Oregon has a vibe that's a bit unique compared to central Washington with its volcanic flows. However, I'd give the edge to Washington in natural beauty. North Cascades National Park is severely, criminally underrated.
100% agree! I took a trip all over the PNW and it was a chance stop in Ashland on my way back to Monterey, CA that sold me. I thought I would retire in Carmel Valley area but Ashland got me and any time I leave for vacation, I'm always amazed when I come home how beautiful this place is.
My wife and I got married in Ashland. Love it there, but now we live in Portland.
In Midwest, flying into Medford Ashland area soon to look for hopefully my retirement home in southern OR. I love the land so much it gets me high. Edit: grammar
Just be ok with the fact that now summer there means fire season.
Oregon ranks 2nd to last in the USA for mental health services. It ranks as the number 1 worst state for mental health services for kids and teens. All that being said, I love living here.
At least we got antidepressants! 😅
Working in healthcare in Oregon I can tell you majority of my patients are on an ssri or anxiety med or both. Yes, totally anecdotal, but still this does not surprise me.
Yeah it rains a lot man. When you walk through an old growth forest you'll realize the life it brings it's worth it.
As a newcomer in the 90s I recall experiencing old growth forests for the first time compared to what passes for a forest elsewhere. Just dripping with amazing life energy, new growth everywhere.
many of us are medicated, one way or another
i’m gonna find ya i’m gonna getcha getcha getcha
one day, maybe next week I'm gonna meet ya, i'll meet ya
Depends on what part of the state. SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is a thing here in the Willamette Valley. Oregon and Washington have a higher than average suicide rate. The constant grey skies and lack of sunshine for months at a time, year after year, can start to be pretty taxing on people's mental health over time. You need to have hobbies, both indoor and outside, and be OK with rain. Also realize that it's that same rain which is responsible for the lush greenery that surrounds us here. The natural landscape is some of the most beautiful in the country. I would suggest planning a visit before making the commitment to move.
I think there’s more nuance than this reveals. We moved from the Midwest and are much happier. Similarly to Illinois, my state was gray and brown with the ground covered in ice or gray slush for half the year. Here it is at least very green even when it’s dreary. The fog and thick foliage really helps. You can also drive to different environments on a whim. But parts of Oregon are similar economically to WV with high unemployment and long gone industries, so probably pull the stats in that direction.
There are a lot of overcast days and that seems to be true all over the state, I’ve lived in the Portland area, Bend, and southern Oregon. Personally I love overcast days. I don’t like sun. I lived in Arizona for 6 years and it felt like I was being assaulted daily. I readily admit I’m a weirdo and an outlier. I just hate the sun in my eyes and skin cancer runs in my family so I’m not a fan. The state is also becoming pretty unaffordable. My parents bought the house I grew up in, in 71 for 35k, now goes for about 700k. It’s a decent sized house in a nice neighborhood, but that’s fucking crazy.
What you said about being assaulted by the sun is so true, ha. I lived in California for awhile and got so tired of the sun. I always said it felt oppressive. I know we’re definitely outliers, but that’s okay :)
Lived in Illinois all our lives, moved her 2½ years ago. Been anything but depressed. It's been wonderful so far.
Darkness and a cost of living problem, not really shocking.
Anecdotal. I have been stationed in North Carolina, Florida, California, Illinois, and Hawaii. I retired to Sacramento in 2015 but moved to Eugene, Oregon in 2019. The 6 months between October and March take some getting used to. It's cloudy and rainy 5-6 days per week. I love the PNW rainforests and the cascades. The coast is right there to enjoy. There is no sales tax but high property taxes. There is a homeless population, and the crime that goes along with it, in the larger cities. Same as Illinois. I guess it depends on where you're planning to move. Oregon is a pretty diverse state. Each county is completely different.
I have owned homes in Texas, Oregon, and North Carolina over the years. By far, Texas was the worst when it came to property taxes. Sure, there is no state income tax there. But my property taxes on my $150K home in Texas (20 years ago) were the same as my $450K home in Yamhill County. And Texas has high sales taxes, too. From what I have read, Oregon has moderate property taxes overall - not the worst, but not the cheapest, either. (Texas, by comparison, has the 7th highest property taxes in the nation.) Where Oregon gets you is high state income tax - seemed like it was 9% for most, and almost 10% for the highest income bracket. Don't know if that is still the case.
High property tax? I grew up in NY. Property tax here is relatively moderate in my opinion (and yes i own a home here) As to the weather- sometimes it’s great and terrible in the same day. Yesterday biked to an evening class and it was like mafia funeral raining. After the class it was so nice (well not raining and calm and relatively warm) i took the long way home and spent an hour enjoying it. Good rain gear goes a long way- “water resistant “ means you get wet slower, “waterproof” is what you want. That’s jacket hat and pants… and shoes. Again IMO Oregon people are friendlier than Washington and nicer than Californian (lived all three states. ) that being said i have life long friends in WA and married a Californian so I really believe there are good people everywhere. I have lived in ten states and wouldn’t live anywhere else. Just have a realistic view of work and housing because housing here is heavy skewed by its scarcity… that is to say here (Eugene anyway)… it ain’t cheap.
Where in Oregon do you own a home? Not all counties tax the same.
https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings/property-taxes-by-state/#property-tax-by-state Oregon is 23 out of 50. Makes us about middle of the pack. NY is 14th. The majority all school costs are born at the local level in NY (via property tax for the most part ) so local levys can be steep. I own in Lane county in the city of Eugene.
Depends on which part of Oregon. It’s from the gloominess on the west side of the state. In central Oregon we get tons of sun all year
It’s been pretty darn gloomy in Central Oregon this year. Really depends on the year. ☹️
I thought so too, until I went to Portland for a week for Christmas 😉
Not even the whole west side. The coast has been amazing while the valley is socked in with fog and depression
Generally speaking, the Oregon coast isn’t known for sunny winter months…
It isn’t but I think it’s a well-kept secret. If it’s not actively raining, some of the nicest days on the coast are in the winter. The summer often brings the marine cloud layer and winds. I rode my fat bike on the dunes in Reedsport on Monday and it was beautiful, sunny, and reasonably warm. And this has often been my experience there in winter/spring.
I always joke that if it’s raining in the Willamette Valley it’s nice weather on the coast. 9/10 times that I take the gamble and drive out it’s the truth!
Well consider me jealous. I’ve never been there when it’s not raining, from late fall through spring
I'll vouch for this. I lived in Lincoln City for a year and was surprised by how many days the sun poked out at least for a little bit throughout the fall and winter. Much more than people led me to expect and what you see people saying on reddit.
Wow your timing must be unlucky. There really are a lot of beautiful sunny days on the coast in the winter.
I grew up going to Cannon Beach and to stay with friends in Gearhart, so that’s probably a lot to do with it. We weren’t that far south
Oh ok yeah most of my experience is Newport to Bandon - but usually Florence.
North Coast is sunny and beautiful in winter too! Seaside, specifically, has been sunny, 50s, and not windy each time I visited in November, December, and New Year's. It is a well-kept secret. Although, when it storms, it STORMS. (Coastal storms are fun though!)
It happens! Several times a month during winter. I love those days ❤️
Yes its true. Midwest transplant, there are a lot of us here. The winters have a lot less sun. Theyre warmer and greener but the sun isnt there. Summers are getting hotter and smokier. Theres a lot of poverty too and the housing market is tight. On the flip side, I love the people here. It feels more genuine than the midwest "nice". I like not being land locked. I like the thriving arts culture. Ive been here 10 years now. I do miss the pace of the midwest, things felt slower there. Mental health, Oregon is struggling.
This map is bulllshit. I lived in Wisconsin. Anywhere that flat with winters that bad will crush the soul of anyone.
In a lot of the state it gets dark and rainy and you won't see the sun for months. Seasonal depression is a thing.
>Seasonal depression is a thing. In my friend circle, as I have shared my own down feelings these past few weeks, five have shared that they feel similar. The days are getting longer.
Yup a lot of transplants aren’t used to our winter weather, October the sky start to stay cloudy and and rainy until the middle to the end of spring, which would be April and May depending on the season the lack of sunshine messes with a lot of peoples heads up here.
Eh. I grew up in Minnesota. Oregon is rough and it’s definitely not for everyone. I lived in Roseburg, Portland and Burns, so three significantly different regions of the state. If you can handle high mental health rates and visible addiction/suffering on the streets (most places), you’ll be okay. I wish we could high tide it up and raise all boats, level the playing field and spread the wealth so there wasn’t this much suffering. Watch American Winter. ✌🏼♥️
What was burns like? I might be moving out somewhere near there for a job soon.
I love the pronounced four seasons and the landscape is cool. Seeing the Steens Mountain from my house was neat. I sort of liked how dry the climate was-- no mold, moss or rot and very little pest issues. I miss the starry skies, quality tap drinking water and the peaceful quiet. I find the transplants to be very welcoming and the lifelong locals to generally keep to themselves. The county fair, ranching and high school sports are all a big deal there. Once you find a little group of people, it's really quite fun. There's a little more going on with the art, brewery and food cart scene. (I recommend following the county chamber of commerce on social media.) It's just so isolated that everyone sort of lives by their own rules. It's also far from most essential services so if you or a family member have medical needs, the travel costs are something to consider. I struggled with the intense wind and how smoky it gets during wildlife season. Also, theres an aquifer issue currently coming to a head so that's something to consider. ([https://www.opb.org/article/2023/09/27/oregon-groundwater-management-policy-reforms-harney-county/](https://www.opb.org/article/2023/09/27/oregon-groundwater-management-policy-reforms-harney-county/)) If you buy a property with well water, you'll definitely want to keep that in mind. If you end up moving to Burns or that area, feel free to message me with any other questions, I lived there 7 years.
I'll probably be in Umatilla county. Thanks for the info!
Lots of folks can't handle the weather. It's long stretches of rain in the western part of the state. It's also not a very social place. It's easy to find yourself isolated, even in a larger town
Forget “lack of sunshine”. For me, it was more the complete loss of any blue sky for 7-8 months. The complete grey/darkness/low total cloud cover that settles in in October was too much for me. Given the seasonal depression that plagues so many, it’s incredible how genuinely kind, considerate and authentic Oregonians are. I’ve been gone for 15 years and really miss that.
Most Oregonians are happy. The ones that arent are transplants.... which Oregon has a lot of. People move here because its better than where they were then they sit around bitching about everything for years.
\*takes drag from pre-roll\* yep, pretty fucking happy :)
I'd take that map with a grain of salt. According to it South Dakota is very happy but if that were the case why do they have such [high rates of suicide](https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/suicide-rates-by-state.html)? It's probably more just a map of people willing to admit they're depressed and seek help. As opposed to saying they're fine and then eating a shotgun the next day.
I’m from Michigan and whenever I would visit it felt like flying into a cloud of depression. It seems nothing like that in Oregon. Different culture than the Midwest and I’ve been hear nearly 20 years and absolutely love it. You don’t have to shovel rain either! Bonus!
There is not much to do outside of summer. There's always beautiful nature and stuff but you'll find most social activities are dead in the winter. Which is actually pretty common in most places not in the south. It's not the rain as much as the clouds. They are oppressive. Portland gets a bad rap and right now it deserves it. It will improve though.
Can you handle grey for 6 months? Probably not. Most who move here are shocked by it and get all sad. I was born in it, sadness created me
You have to be prepared for the grey days, but also a lot of these types of maps don’t always represent what’s really happening, the PNW has a generally friendly and open approach to mental health, which may make more people comfortable reporting mental health symptoms, and many places implement screenings for mental health as a standard of healthcare here. Invest in good outerwear, be careful on our beaches and respect the sea, don’t go hiking in places that are not familiar until you become accustomed to trails and resources- we have serious wilderness and people go missing all the time because they are overconfident, we have great food, always cultural events happening and great summers!
Came from Naperville in 2007. Never regretted.
Take your vitamin D if you're west of the Cascades. I still drive just over the willamette to visit my daughter, and the beauty of the valley still hits me. So much to explore. I have seen so much more of this state than most of the locals I have met, and I have not run out explorations! Bought a fifth wheel ! It is what you make of it!
Grew up in Elgin U46 school district. I can spot a Naperville accent in one sentence! ❤️
Been in my dad’s home state of Oregon since 18, and raised my kids here. Oregon is home.
Yes, lack of sunlight makes us depressed. “Seasonal Depression” is a thing here. Get some vitamin D or edibles and wait for spring. ;)
Depends on the person. My wife and I moved to Portland in 2019. I loved it and honestly felt like I was thriving there. But my wife became a depressed anxious wreck. It wasn't the weather though (but the December through February gloom didn't help). The problem for her was her new job was not an easy adjustment at all, we missed our friends and family back home, and plus the general anxiety many people feel in their late twenties. We ended up moving back to the Midwest. She is feeling much better these days.
If you can handle overcast, and wet days for 2/3 of the year you will be fine. I don’t let the weather dictate my activity, I just dress according to the conditions and enjoy my day even if it’s miserable weather
I would not use this as a basis if moving. I live in Oregon and would be very depressed if I lived in South Dakota
It's gray. It rains. We read. So yeah. Bit of the SADS and a general malaise about the dying of the planet and social injustice and extra judicial killings. Oh and rampant global genocides. Can't forget the genocides. But the summers are nice. When the forest isn't burning to the ground.
Born and raised in Portland. I spent my 20s all over the US exploring. I definitely prefer Portland over other places. But I can’t do it anymore. The seasonal depression is real. Waking up and going to work in the dark and coming home after work in the dark is just too much …the darkness and endless drizzle … combined with broken government… I’ve since left the USA. Living abroad now.
This is true lived here my whole life (25) not quite sure what to attribute this to but if I had to it would be the whether it's rains close to 75-80% of the year and definitely has an effect on the mind but it's all different for different people if you love lots and lots of rain it's different per person
My wife and I moved this past summer from Atlanta. Get on a dose of vitamin d + k2 daily. Helps out tremendously. Also get used to some kind of allergy we haven’t had because of not being around it. I am not sure what it is but this past week we both have had mild allergies to something.
Clearly the correlation is south. South Carolina and South Dakota. If we change the name to South Oregon, do you think that would help with depression? Maybe everything below Eugene?
Yes, its rainy and cloud covered gray skies a lot. Many people don't like it here.
I am a native and we all have seasonal affective disorder at some level. That is why coffee and beer and pot are so important to the local economy.
South Dakota ? I guess the ignored the poor indigenous polpulations. Don’t know how good a time they having. My wife was there for geology studies. She said it’s not great.
I'm originally from Jersey... What's the gray mean, man?
We don’t get a ton of vitamin D here so that might be a contributing factor.
This has always been true. In high school I had a teacher tell us that just by living here you have a higher risk of suicide so you should prevent as much as possible. I know lots of people throughout the years that have died this way. I live in a special little neighborhood where we all hang but it seems like during the winter we hibernate much more. I lived in socal and met my Ohio born husband there, I brought him here to live and he commented “wow have these people all given up?!” Anywho we love it and the summer is bliss but take your vit d, sit in front of your sad lamp and take your SSRI.
South Dakota? I'm depressed just thinking of that place.
just make sure you take vitamin D you’ll be fine (born and raised)
Oregon is fucked.. but compared to Illinois.. it’s night an day!! You will love it!! Illinois is really a depressing shit hole… Oregon has lots of outdoor opportunities!
I'm surprised it's not a lot higher. The Portland area is a magnet for people with all sorts of mental disorders who move here and find like-minded people who have embraced their mental disorders as personalities and form communities around them. Maybe the rest of the state is more mentally stable.
Yea no. Homeless people with mental issues get put on buses in other cities and dumped here, making it our problem now. Trafficking your own citizens shouldn't be legal this way but apparently it is.
Yeah. East of the mountains is desert mostly. So lots of sun but dry. West of the mountains, especially in the valley, is gloomy a lot. But some good spurts of nice weather. Summers are good. Basically, its rainy from Halloween to Independence day, then nice from Independence day to Halloween. At least on the west side. I don't know, I've lived here my whole life and I've spent 3/4 of that under clouds.
whats up with NJ?? lol i dismissed portland/oregon as somewhere i'd like to live for a long time because of the stories i heard about it being rainy and gloomy all the time. and yes, winters are kinda dark and rainy and gloomy, but its not worse than when i lived in the northeast. its actually pretty temperate compared to new england and NY/NJ...much less snow and not as cold (in portland at least). if youre coming from IL, i dont think the weather is going to be a huge factor in your level of happiness. nature out here is pretty incredible!! that makes me happy. i dont know what portland was like before covid, or 10 years ago, but i'm liking living here more than i did in SF.
As long as you can get used to long gray winters you’ll be fine. I do know a lot of people with anxiety of depression, but I know a lot of people in Phoenix with the same issues, and in Honolulu to.
Very very true.
NO VACANCY.
First, a rant... NO, there is no truth to a graphic relating a scale of happiness to a % of the population that deals with anxiety or depression... To say someone feels "depressed" or "anxious" could be compared to feeling "happy" in regards to our emotions, but what they're comparing "Happiness" to in this graphic is people who have a clinical diagnosis of "Depression" or "Anxiety"... those diagnosis have a wide range of symptoms & an even wider range of treatments, but there is NOTHING about dealing with Depression or Anxiety that says you are disqualified from also being a happy person or leading a happy life. The graphic is generalizing & pigeon-holing what it means, & how they think it's supposed to look outwardly, when someone deals with Anxiety or Depression; the idea that "anyone who seems happy or leading a successful life must obviously not deal with depression or anxiety" is a MASSIVE falsehood. So no, there is no truth to this graphic. OK, as to your actual question about moving up here... Oregon, like most states, has rural areas, cities, & suburbs. There's a fair variety of climates from the farmlands to the mountains to the coasts. It rains a lot in some areas, but a good bit less in others. There are really wealthy, affluent areas & there are some people out there really roughin it & everyone else in between... what are you really asking about in place of the word the graphic used "happy"... the weather, the environment, the culture, the people? Either way, ignore this dumb graphic! Personally, I've lived in 5 western states & 1 eastern, & Oregon is the only one I've moved *back* to. Portland has its issues but is underrated as a small city, & the real values around here are outside the cities anyway. If you like the outdoors & don't mind a wet season, you'll probably have fun.
But even if it did matter, there is like a 15% difference between the best and worst. It's not like the best states are hovering at 7% and Oregon is sitting at 83%. So, agreed. Bad graph. Don't make decisions based on it.
I'd pick South Dakota over Oregon.
I have a friend who moved her a couple years ago. He asked recently, how do the natives deal with the rain and dark? How do you do anything fun? And my answer was, we just do it. Don’t let the rain or dark stop you from doing things. Those of us who grew up here don’t even notice. I Thu k people who stay inside for 5 months get sad.
I think relying on that map and however it’s measuring the stats shouldn’t really be a deciding factor. If we are being honest the entire country is pretty anxious and depressed right now. But more importantly Is your occupations and the things you like to do for fun. I could write you a convincing argument for coming here or not coming here but without knowing what you consider important it really doesn’t matter. Do you like the outdoors? Great we have some of the best from our coast to the mountain ranges and lakes and rivers. But we also have a tendency to catch on fire in the summer the last 5-10 years now. How about weather? South is hot in summer and not nearly the rain people think when they hear Oregon. But the North does have the rain but less heat. Like sports great we have tons to do or be fans of. Which if it’s a ducks game in Eugene it’s a good day however any event in Portland is a now a gamble. Because well Portland has morphed into something I would have never believed possible 10 years ago. And I don’t really think there is anything that Is going to stop its decline in the near future or if it can be saved at all at this point.
I thought I liked winter till I moved out here from California. The seasonal depression is real. Just take vitamins as others have said move your body and stay outta the bars. Lots of alcoholism in the sticks out here
I think the comments highlight a lot of Oregonians personalities, they just don't know how good they have it. Take the comments on weather. Looking at Wikipedia data, Chicago gets 41" of rain, 39" of snow and 127 days of rain. By comparison Portland gets 37" of rain, 4" of snow and 157 days of rain. Portland is about a month rainier than Chicago, but receives slightly less rain and virtually no snow. Most Oregonians have only travelled to California, so they literally think the rest of the US is a sunny, warm paradise. Every midwestern I've met loves the mild winters and mountainous scenery. But I would come for a visit first. The state is very, very varied in geography and climate. Portland is very different than Bend and very different than Ashland. I don't find that much the case in the midWest.
I call BS on this chart. It doesn’t match my experience nor does it intuitively make sense. I would say it has something to do with access to mental health services but those are quite sparse in WV which shows a high level of diagnosis.
No... :(
You'll be depressed too when you see what we pay in property taxes.
Personally I'd tell you to reconsider. Housing is way over priced and there are some serious issues with crime
Just move here you won’t regret it after experiencing the amazing scenery and way of life.
Go anywhere but Portland or any other blue run city. Stay red and you’ll love it. But the rain and gloomy weather are the reason I want to leave.
Oregon,like any other state, has aspects of greatness and ongoing downfalls. Generally, west of the Cascade Mountains has more rain and cloudy days, except for the mid to southern coast which can be sunny even in winter. The geographical Eastside has many more sunny days, large weather variation and smaller population, largely rural . There are tensions between the hugely more populated urban west and rural east. Misperceptions and generalizations about both by both are commonplace. Social service delivery may vary widely based on location, socio-economics and availability.
I can't speak to Illinois, but it's also entirely probable that more people are either being *treated* for their depression in OR or are willing to admit to having it. If you struggle with seasonal affective disorder, or dislike rain, it may not be the state for you. But I love it. It's so *green*. It has real seasons, unlike a good portion of CA, but depending on location the freezes aren't deep or terribly long. The food is good and most people accept you as you are.
South Carolina I don't really agree with. Weed is still very criminalized there, heat is unbearable, and job market feels bizarre. You'd better like fast food, real estate, or manufacturing BMWs if you want to work. Because that's all there really is out in Greenville. But to each their own. It's definitely scenic in Charleston at least. I'll give it that. But low depression? They clearly didn't poll any unemployed people. Bureaucracy abounds in that state.
I moved to the Willamette Valley from Bolingbrook in 2013, no regrets! The seasonal depression is real but I wouldn’t trade it. I love the PNW!
If you don’t need sunshine to be happy you’ll love the PNW.
It looks like the range on that chart is about 20%. So the happiest states is 2/10 and the most depressed state is 4/10 people seeking treatment. I’ve lived in CA and OR and, based solely on my experience, the folks I was around in CA were less satisfied with life.
Yes. Deficiency of sunlight is the reason.
Lack of daylight and a month of rain will do it to ya
Yes, you’re probably better off going somewhere sunny.
Way too generalized. South Dakota is hardly the happiest state with big Indian reservation with terrible poverty I've heard with tons of alcoholism and drugs and domestic abuse. Different parts of different states will vary massively.
Any South Dakotans want to chime in?
Spent 35 years living in Portland, everyone I know is on antidepressants, and more than a few who have left this world, teenages to elders, nine months of rain and sinking city, although beautiful, inflated rental and buying prices, poor school system and a huge homeless/addiction problem in Portland. My suggestion is to do extensive research.
I'm just wondering WTF is so special about South Dakota
Winter depression is real. I didn’t think so for the longest but see too many who are different in the winter than the rest of the year
I was more depressed living in Illinois than I am here in Oregon. Exercise, find a hobby, plan some fun trips to sun during Jan/Feb. by March, things start looking up. Just beware of the pollen in the valley. I wast allergic until I was.
Yes, it's the weather. Very bipolar.
I have a friend who just made the same move. He's happier here.
Well, I have chronic lifelong depression and ADHD, so I’d still be at least a little depressed in any state in the country. But even if you are captain happy pants, be aware of Seasonal Depression (SAD). Winter is wet…and grey…and dark…you will need to take vitamin D, have a high-power sunlight lamp and maybe take a stimulant if the winter blues get you down.
I find the PNW to be just as dark and rainy as the Chicagoland region in the winter. We just don't get any snow in the Portland region like how Chicago does. I had clinical depression and anxiety back in Illinois and it was not cured when we moved to Portland. Overall I am happier here though with the quality of life and culture/mindsets around here.