For some reason that nobody will figure out (ever), a reason that is so mysterious that nobody has been able to decypher, Utah is from the top-ranked states with depression and suicides.
Can anybody tell me why? This mystery looks like it will never get solved OMG

I raised this with my bishop some years ago. He quoted the church spokesman (official mouthpiece of the lard), who had stated that the church did not know why, but it was not the church's fault. Glad that's settled.

*dusts hands* Done and done!

All the non Mormons and inactives are desperate because of their disbelief.

The only happy people are the active, temple recommend holders.

It's all our fault.

Wow, that's true. People who fall in forbidden paths are the saddest ones. They behave like Satan prompts them to

Heresy Wrote:
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> All the non Mormons and inactives are desperate
> because of their disbelief.
>
> The only happy people are the active, temple
> recommend holders.
>
> It's all our fault.

So the TBMs are taking the Prosac by proxy for all the non Mormons and inactives who are desperate because of their disbelief.

Yea, that must be why the active, temple recommend holders take anti-depressants

I think that according to the statistics, in Utah people take the most anti-depressants :P

A lot of interesting posts with references to articles that were written.

Utah? I've been there. It's awful.

Yeah, it takes effort to not be depressed.

"Utah's not exactly a cure for boredom." — Fletch

It makes perfect sense if you believe that there is such a thing as an effect WITHOUT a cause. Otherwise you might have to consider that "by their fruits ye shall know them."

The sad truth form that second possibility is that dead fruits are falling from a dead tree.

Maybe it's because Utah women have 5+ kids before they're 30. Their husbands have to support the brood, mortgage & give 10% of their income away.And still never live up the church standards. That would depress the @#$%& out of me.

I also read Utah was ranked # 1 for people who had strong religious faith, but # 3 in depression and suicdes.

Utah mormons have too much guilt and fear to deny the LDS Church. Their life with Utah mormons, and in mormonism makes them prefer death.

It's damn hard work pretending to be happy when you can't tap-dance fast enough to satisfy the demands.

And not just TBMs are depressed. Everyone is affected by that confusing, dysfunctional culture of perfectionism, deceit, denial, and bigotry.

I went to a presentation in Orem about Mormon women and depression. Most Sunday afternoons the ER at Provo Hospital would see one case after another of anxiety, depression, and panic attacks by married Mormon women who say they can't handle the pressure anymore of trying to catch up to be these perfect people with perfect families in a perfect religion.

They tentatively concluded that the inhumane and mysterious drive for Mormon perfection drove people into depression. They suffocated on these constant feelings of inadequacy.

Utah is number one in depression because people are killing themselves to be P.E.R.F.E.C.T.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2012 03:50PM by happyexmormon.

Self aversion due to feelings of inadequacy are a common human malaise. Look at Freud.

Immediately after one of his (many) mindboggling insights into the human psyche, he announced that his creativity was dried up. In his final years he described himself as an "island of pain in a sea of indifference."

I instantly thought of how I felt when I lived in Utah.

The Mormon religion exacerbates a tendency toward low self esteem because of the high expectations and the shared maintenance of the illusion that everyone else is doing better than they are at meeting the demands of the insatiable Mormom church.

You are saved after all you can do--and you can never do enough.

The antidote to this is the Tara Brach series "Radical Acceptance." It helped me, my daughter and several posters here have emailed me regarding how helpful this approach is.

Best

Anagrammy

Thanks Ana for mentioning Radical Acceptance. I checked it out and will be spending some time with it.

When I was divorced and living in Orem, UT, I used to attend a singles ward. I was making a sincere effort to "live the gospel" completely. I was active in the ward, and attending the temple, and doing everything else I knew was expected of a faithful member. I wasn't unhappy, except when I went to church. Within 5 minutes of entering the building, depression would set in, and I couldn't shake it, until I left the building. I thought it strange, but looking back, I'm glad for it, because it caused me to stop going to church, and was likely helpful in my being able to transition out later.

This is what happened to me as an older single female in Utah. My 'friends' from high school, college, etc., were always talking down to me. One sent me a Christmas card that said, "Haven't you found a man yet?" Stuff like that--all the time. I purposely avoided them at all costs. Even when I was playing softball with a singles ward team--the married teams would yell things at us about our "situation" in life and what was wrong with us--yes, at BALL GAMES on the field while playing.

Two things happened--when I got married, then the truth came out. After I had kids, my SIL even said to me, 'We just wanted you to be as miserable as we were.'

And a friend at work said to me about the girls at the ball games--so what kind of cars did these women drive up in? What kind of cars did you and your friends drive up in? What kind of shoes did you have on? What kind did they have on?

I had an old lifetime friend tell my little sister how envious she was of me when I was single--with my new car, my apartment, my traveling, my nice clothes--and she had 5 kids.

These mormons are envious of you--otherwise, they'd just leave you alone.

excuse they have is "they aren't righteous enough"--which was thrown at me many times about my situation. Hey, change someone from gay to straight. Give the members impossible tasks and then blame them.

BUT--the 2 most depressed people in the ward I live in--one is a very good friend of mine. Nicest lady you'd ever meet. She does things for EVERYONE. She had 11 children--one has cerebral palsy and she still takes care of her. (She has to be close to 80 years old now.) She has been on and off antidepressants all the years I've known her. She even stopped me one day when I was out walking and said to me, "I read that JS and his father drank alcohol a lot--boy, that would change my life if I could drink."

The other funniest guy in the ward--he committed suicide a little over a year ago. I would have NEVER believed he was depressed for a long time. Then one Sunday I was sitting on the sofa in the foyer (I did this now and then after I went inactive--because nobody would bother me if I arrived late)--and he gave a talk about his depression.

Two of the nicest people I've ever met in my life.

**This was supposed to be down below.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2012 10:10AM by cl2.

1. The doctrines which state that if you violate a single commandment you belong to Satan.
2. The fact that no-one is perfect and even taking that into account, no-one can possibly do "everything they can" with Christ making up the difference. Who, I ask, does everything they can? Result: there is always a gap and we're lost.
3. As for the chemistry of depression, it turns out that it relates to blood sugar and mormons, without the use of other stimulants, are left with sugar - making the problem of depression and diabetes worse as well.
4. Coffee helps reduce depression as well as reducing diabetes. Yet. all (or almost all) TBMs stick to the WOW.
5. Eating red meat (but not hot dogs or other prepared meats) also reduces depression but TBMs eat meat sparsely.
6. The total result is a lot of depression and a high rate of suicide. Is this not a sign that TSCC is untrue?

My TBM mom is convinced of two things: That Satan works harder on the "elect" and that enough Mormons in Utah are inactive and they feel guilty about turning their back on God, so they are depressed. She reminds me about the sentence in the temple film that says "If you don't live up to every covenant made at this alter in this temple this day, you will be in MY power." - Satan.

This doesn't explain how my persistent, low-grade depression lifted just by taking off my garments. Nor does it explain how some things have been more emotionally difficult since I left Mormonism but I've been able to work through those things because I faced them and looked for the answers, rather than trying to pray them away and keep up a squeeky clean image. It also doesn't explain why I'm so less frightened now that Satan isn't dogging my footsteps. I never literally worried about Satan but I did worry about the dreaded "making a mistake". Now I figure if I make a mistake, I'll just pick myself up and dust myself off and move on. Everything is better without the church. It's still life so it's still challenging but Mormonism makes it all so much worse.

Here's a link. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-11-28-depression-suicide-numbers_N.htm States are based on depression and suicide levels per 100,000 people.

Utah is 51st in depression, which in this list actually means it is the most depressed, they included Washington DC as a state. They are seventh from being the state with the highest level of suicide.

Of the five states that have high suicide rates, number one, Alaska is going to be high both because of people living alone, far from help, when things go bad, and because it has been proven that going long periods without sunlight makes one suicidal.

Interesting enough, the five other states, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico, and Montana all have strong Mormon presence, and all are in a near statistical tie with Utah. Nevada has the second highest number of suicides, but a high number of these are thought to be related to people who lost it all in the slots.

The Church operates on the principle of emotional blackmail. At every corner they push an agenda filled with fear, obligation, and guilt to manipulate and control the members’ right down to dictating the approved type of underwear a worthy member should wear on a daily basis. The Church has defined unobtainable roles of perfection for both male and female as means to restrict any type of authentic personality. The Church constantly reminds them at every step how they are falling short and shames them for failing in their obligations. No matter how fast the members run on that hamster wheel of Mormonism they will never fulfill the expectations the Church demands of them. The only relief comes from quitting, dying or medicating yourself into numbness.

So many people plagued with depression and so lost in their own delusions. It's heart-breaking really.

We just know it's our fault. OMG.

Several factors are at play here.
Temple Recommend interviews, worthiness interviews, and even Hometeaching/Visiting Teaching monthly interviews are probably a leading cause. Always on the alert that you not be seen doing or not doing something that could be brought up in your interview or reported for a higher-up interview. Plus, when you sit there it is to be assumed that it is as if you are answering the Lord himself.

Mormons are seen as righteous or not by how happy their families appear. Always on guard lest the little one slip up and say something small that becomes an embarrassment. Mormon families are great pretenders, and they have to put on the perfect June Cleaver mask and the Andy Griffith smile or someone might think they aren't living up to their potential.

People judge themselves by how they measure up to the better families, who in turn hope that nobody finds out that their kids aren't perfect. Meanwhile, besides running a family, you have jobs and callings, reminders that no success can compensate for failure in the home as well as constantly hearing counsel about tithing your time to support the church.

What fruit this tree bears is resentment. And with resentment comes self-loathing and dispair over not being good enough, or being overly judged from all sides...and then there is the fact that you really doubt that you'll be good enough to make it to the CK and if you don't, you'll lose your eternal family.

I have known several good and loving generous people in the church (usually sisters) who do not think that they will ever measure up. They just don't have the time to check off everything on the checklist and the clock is ticking.

Is it shown in any stats that depression, for instance, runs in families? That might account for the high depression rate in UT. It's a generational thing?

It's probably A Good Thing that they are #1 in depression prescriptions as they are being treated in large numbers, probably because they don't self medicate with alcohol and drugs?

Growing up, and living in OR and then in UT I never heard of depression. I have only been aware of a large number of LDS folks taking anti-depressants in the last 20 years ... approx.

I think there are probably several reasons that account for the depression rate and it's treatment.

...none of which involve Mormonism--of course...

Davo Wrote:
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> ...none of which involve Mormonism--of course...


What a ridiculous thing to say. Of course, it involves Mormons and Mormonism. It's UTah, for gosh sake.

the mystery was solved many years ago. It's caused by mormon church driven "perfection" and guilt.