Mormons are always trying to sell the idea that the Mormon life is so great/neat/wonderful/marvelous. Whether through their peppy, upbeat, colorful blog posts on the bloggernacle or the cutesy General Conference one-liners Pinterest, they love to act like they are just the dardnest happy people because they belong to the "one true church".
Yet, in reality, they often seem more depressed than the typical person. Even on LDS Smile, they unwittingly used a picture of members in sacrament meeting to show how happy they all were but only ONE person in the front row is smiling. Everyone else looks about as enthusiastic and happy as if they were next in line on death row. Check it out: http://ldssmile.com/2014/08/31/sacrament-meeting/
Even though the post is super-fragacalistically happy and satirical, their own picture of members in the pews shows a pretty darn somber crowd.

"The father then explained that its because we love Jesus and Jesus wants us to be quiet, to which she yells, ‘I hate Jesus, He always shushes me!’ The parents turned as red as tomatoes.”"

Assisted prayer:
"She then said “And we love Thy Son Jesus Christ” and he then said “and I loooove cookies.” The primary teacher quickly said “No, we love Jesus” to which he simply said “No! I love cookies, in the names of Jesus Christ Amen.”


“When we were little, my older brother stood up on the bench in the middle of the prayer and yelled, ‘THIS IS TAKING TOO LONG!!!’. Coincidentally, he is also the same brother that pulled down my moms skirt as she was conducting the music.”


“My son yelled out as they brought the sacrament tray around, ‘I’m WAY thirstier than that!’”

I think it depends on the person. I am a generally happy, upbeat, outgoing person. That was true as an LDS woman and is still true, after I left the life style.

I can say for certain that my husband was a happy person. Constantly. He was not demonstrative about it, it was a general sense of well being. Always.

He was perturbed, and frustrated, and annoyed, and perplexed, at life's circumstances and at me (mostly likely! hehe). Very rarely angry.

I come from a generation of parents that went through WW1, the depression, WW2, and learned to find humor in anything they could. That was a survival mechanism for them.
Times were very difficult. They had very little.

The people I know as family and friends regardless of their religion (there are a bunch of them in this group) are generally happy people doing the best they can to get through their lives. Lots of laughter.

My experience is that Mormons in general are happy people. No more and no less than anyone else in their society.

Sure there are many difficulties and storms to weather. Often people's faith is a comfort and helps them make sense of their lives.

If people are not happy with their lives, they have many opportunities to change it. Sometimes it's easier than other times. Sometimes it takes a long time, sometimes a short time.

The old saying is still true: "People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/2014 11:32AM by SusieQ#1.

Money worries are also very common because of marrying too young, stay at home moms, and having too many children.

AND GIVING THE CHURCH TOO MUCH MONEY.

As one of my relatives said once, "I don't want frivolous things. I just want a new nightgown."

They wear the smiles- which are really frowns- when they look in the mirror.

one before she went back and one now, you wouldn't think it was the same person. She has this uptight look on her face all the time. She is stressesd ALL the time.

People out of touch with their emotions tend to think mormons are happy people because of all the happy happy buzzwords. Sounds good! Must be good!
Morons.

People in touch with themselves can easily see your average mormon, especially the women, don't look particularly happy, even when smiling. Most mormons look stressed and a little frazzled, as is natural when trying to live up to the crazy demands put upon them.
Of course there are exceptions! And most of the exceptions are why Utah has such a high rate of antidepressant use. :)

ditto.

if outsiders read blogs or FB posts, they sound happier, but it only takes 5 minutes of actually looking or spending time with people to see the manic busy-ness, exhaustion... and then a day to see the prescription drugs come out..

Seeing pictures of people show the biggest difference to me. Before: posed smiles, looking happy because that's how you're supposed to look in a picture... no eye crinkles, fake

After: smiles that reach the eyes, people looking happy (or not) because that's how they're feeling at the moment. Genuine.

I can't imagine how anyone can be happy with so much busy work and with the overwhelming amount of intrusion in your life. Everyone is watching all the time for various screw ups, and certainly if you're not happy, happy all the time, it means you're doing something wrong and god isn't blessing you because, gosh, golly, the gospel makes you happy! No one can be happy when they have to be "on" all the time. It looks miserable and exhausting.

My then-2-year-old managed to escape nursery, go into the other ward's F&T meeting, and bang away on the piano. No one did anything thinking the parents would be there soon, but we were teaching the sunbeams. After a while, someone grabbed her and sat with her, and we eventually found her.

I was MAD. You just let kids walk out?!?

Of my parents' four children, three of us have left the church. Guess which sibling is the MOST miserable (while the rest of us are relatively happy, despite challenges, tragedies, etc)? Yep. The TBM.

SHE has four children -- only one has remained in the church. He -- a Bishop -- is MISERABLE. Ask him.

The worst case of "happiness" I've seen is amongst the young adults who are still single and getting past a certain age. My unmarried nieces are about to explode with happiness and upbeatness on Facebook - but sadly, I know that it's a facade.

Now I know that finding a mate can be frustrating regardless of your beliefs, but I feel like the LDS church is SO fanatical about marriage and having a family that it just makes it really hard for a single person to feel a part of that community.

But they sure SOUND happy

I am authentic. Being authentic brings me peace. Peace brings me moments of pure joy. All if this happened once I took off the shackles of fear and guilt placed on me by the church and dusted my feet of Mormonism. I am authentic, I am an Ex-mo, and I am happy.

Happiness results from satisfying your curiosity. I like learning the real truth about Mormonism because it satisfies my curiosity, and thus makes me happy. Mormons are discouraged from satisfying their curiosity in this respect and, in that sense, are not as happy as they could be.

I actually find happiness in reading about bad things. This includes wars, psychopaths, corruption, etc. Learning is good because it helps you understand how the world really works, and they more you understand, the less likely you will be to have problems.

It can depend on the person. Some people hate to learn unpleasant truth. Such people are more likely to be happy in Mormonism.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2014 05:02PM by behindcurtain.