Agreed...I would have expected Seattle to rate much lower than it did. My guess is that one reason for this is precisely what you mention, which is something I've noticed here too. People from all over the US read glowing magazine accounts of how Seattle is such a 'wonderful, livable city' and so people move here based upon that. After a few years of subjecting themselves to the 11 months of overcast and drizzle and one month of sun out of each year they get fed up with it and move back to Phoenix. Therefore, they don't stay long enough to become truly clinically depressed and get into the medical treatments for it....they simply leave and so they don't become part of a study like this.
I have a question. I've been in Seattle 4 years now. I can take the cloudiness. I can take the rain. I welcome it.
What I can't take is the summer sun. The unrelenting, clear, cloudless days. I find no joy or comfort in them at all.
Is it possible to have reverse SAD? My son and I both seem to have this problem. I truly don't even want to leave the house when it is a bright day. This was never a problem when I lived on the east coast, where I really think the light was a bit dimmer than it is out here, but maybe that's just the comparison between the usual greyness and the summer.
Do other Seattlites have a problem w/the sun?
Despite the fact that there has been nothing but sunshine here for the past three months, while Phoenix and LA get heavy rains, I will be out of here (Seattle) as soon as I get a good job offer elsewhere.
Could be, but it took me less than a year to become truly clinically depressed in Seattle. A friend, born and raised here, told me "get used to it. You have to enjoy depression to enjoy Seattle."
But stay longer and the adaptations start. This should have been a wonderful winter: blue skies, sunshine, warm, not too much rain (drizzle)... right now it's too warm to wear my jacket and I can't see a single cloud (it's late April weather) -- but I just want it to cloud up and rain!