Mama We're Crazy

I've always thought of lots of my fellow West Virginians as "nuts," in the colloquial sense. Turns out

I was onto something:West Virginians are more likely to have serious psychological distress than residents of any other state, according to a federal report released Thursday.

From 2006-07, more than 14 percent of Mountain State adults experienced serious psychological distress (SPD), an indicator of mental health problems, according to the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The national rate was about 11 percent.

West Virginia also has one of the nation's highest rates of adults who experienced a major depressive episode in the past year, according to the report. About 9 percent of West Virginians did, compared to about 7 percent of the total U.S. population.

Although it makes for a juicy headline (and blog post title!), the numbers don't look that much higher than average, honestly. It does explain some of the phone calls I get, tho'.