Is Sweden a depressing country?

Many people with US citizenship have moved there. I’m sure a Canadian can as well.

It is perfectly possible to experience Sweden as very, very depressing, yes. With the right approach, you may well feel that Sweden must be the gloomiest, most boring, and most unresponsive place in the world.

I know a few people who have managed to make their lives as depressing as possible here, and who are now caught in a nonstop spiral of misery of their own making, forever reassuring themselves of their opinion that Sweden is a place where everything is dark and grey and without joy.

I know a few people who have managed to make their lives as depressing as possible here, and who are now caught in a nonstop spiral of misery of their own making, forever reassuring themselves of their opinion that Sweden is a place where everything is dark and grey and without joy.

This is how it’s done:

rent some place awful; it won’t be easy, because most Swedish accommodation is lovely, but with some determination, you can find some 1970s concrete block where the sun don’t shine, with graffiti on the walls, and elusive, unsmiling neighbours;
surround yourself with negative friends who aren’t Swedish, ensuring never ending conversations where the awfulness of Sweden is at the center until all participants find themselves weeping on the floor.
buy a car that will give you the most amount of car trouble you can buy; I can particularly recommend mid 90s Renault 19s or the likes, which are guaranteed to absorb all your funds for repairs, to no avail;
use heating that requires constant supervision and is so expensive that you are scared to use it while breaking your back carrying wood around (I know a German lady in my village who is so scared of power bills that she prefers to get up every hour every night to put wood in her stove – now that’s a surefire way to go to hell in a hand basket quickly).
create a little basement room you spend the majority of the year in, ensuring that you never get to see the abundant sunlight of the summer months. A single fluorescent light fixture on the ceiling with powerful, cold, abattoir style lighting will add the finishing touches. Listening to Fado music should further escalate a sense of being confined to a place far away from happiness.
eat a diet high in sugar, so that your blood sugar curve undulates wildly, leaving you feeling hungry and unfulfilled for the majority of the day.
It’s not easy, but you can do it if you are very determined.

Me, I prefer to be happy. And statistics have been proving for years that Sweden is one of the happiest countries in the world, so there is reason to believe this can be done.

I live in a typical, very pretty Swedish house, have positive friends who are Swedish (and some positive friends who are not Swedish, because that variety also exists), I drive good cars (just buy Japanese, like any sane person), use wonderful illumination in a powerfully and centrally heated home environment I have built with the determination to make it my little sanctuary (these things are cheap as chips here), and I eat well.

And this is what that looks like:…
If there’s one thing Sweden isn’t, it’s depressing. This place rocks, if you connect to it.