Is the poster child for mental illness? He has that crazy staring off into the horizon eye position, wild jowelled, maybe crazy but his hair is slicked back to try to appear not insane look on his face. Or the web masters are showing that they looked all over SLC and this is the most mentally ill potentially fixable guy we got. Almost like it is a meme.

It made me laugh a little when I saw it. Will take a screen shot of it.

If Richard Nixon and Huckleberry Hound had a love child who was addicted to Percocet and lived in a shed out back, he'd resemble Brother Holland.

Okay this comment is hilarious. Richard Nixon and Huckleberry Hound's love child. Hahaha!

Come to think of it, the way Brother Holland says "we are not a cult" is exactly the way tricky Dick said "I am not a crook".

Very suspicious.

You think that's silly? If you can stomach it, try perusal of his recent facebook message regarding his "inspired thoughts on depression".

https://www.facebook.com/lds.jeffrey.r.holland/?fref=nf#

Unbelievably daft. The true crazy part is the 1k comments of adulation from the herd...I read about 4 of them, and had to shut it off.

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. - V Goethe

I read his first sentence and I had to checkout. Damn, I can't believe I converted and put myself through that crap for thirty years. I have, since leaving the "church," found peace and a much happier life.

Perhaps his thoughts on depression are a pre-emptive strike. My path out of Mormonism was paved with depression and google.

There is no end to the sickening irony in the fact that the greatest instigator of my mental health issues are all related either directly or indirectly to TSCC. So fuck you very much Holland, and you too TSCC. Once again, the morg screws the pooch and chooses the wildest-eyed, craziest-looking, looniest Apostle to deliver a talk on a sensitive issue. What should have been prescient, sensitive, and sincere, came off as bland, eurocentric, WAY too heavily focused on God as being the way out of mental health issues, as opposed to the real way out, which for most people (particularly ones with serious issues like bi-polar depression, schizophrenia, severe anxiety and very severe depression) is years and decades of intensive therapy, juggling various medications that often have side effects that create entirely new physical problems, endless appointments and meetings with psychiatrists, therapists, and physicians, and, and a last resort, hospitalization in the short-term and possibly in the long-term (although this is much less common as treatment options have become more diverse and medications have improved).

Hardly any of this was addressed; pretty much a focus on the 'real power of a priesthood blessing', with a small side order of some medical intervention, if needed. I am incredibly suspicious of people who claim they had serious mental health issues, but then were miraculously- and completely- cured of them once they found God. They either never had them, were misdiagnosed, their issues were temporary, seasonal, or induced by some specific person, place, or thing, or were so mild in the first place that all they needed was some validation to fill whatever minor void their was in their life.

Nope, sorry, the church has done nothing but exacerbate my mental health issues. Keeping my church visits down to a 3-4 a year is one of the 4 or 5 things that has finally kept some of my insanity in check. I'd be willing to bet good money their are others here who started to feel a lot better once they began to disengage from the church, and the more they disengaged, the better they got. This can be as simple as, instead of receiving messages like 'your problem isn't mental it's that you're a sinner and need to pray more/read scriptures/more church/more service/more repentance', and start realizing that this isn't the case, and the problem might actually require the intervention of a doctor. Funny how often that happens when your not constantly receiving that kind of negative reinforcement.

Ok, I'm done ranting about this, but I could seriously go on, we all know what the church has done for the LGBTQ communtiy in Utah and other places. their share in the responsibility for the suicides and attempted suicides of youth, just all sorts of shit. The fact that they have the audacity to present the church as a CURATIVE for mental health issues rather than the CAUSE is astounding, but such is the frame of mind of the truly delusional- or the exceedingly arrogant and narcissistic.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2016 02:38AM by midwestanon.

Great response.

Of course, the answer never includes, "Take a long break from your callings and take a bunch of Sundays off if you need to. Get out of the house, reconnect with your family, and enjoy life. We will be here for you if you need us but will not intrude otherwise."

Of course not! ;-)

With somewhat increasing frequency, my TBM wife wakes up on Sunday mornings effectively saying, "Screw it, we're not going to church today!"

On those mornings she bounces out of bed with an energy and enthusiasm not seen on the days we do go to church.

However, after a couple weeks she starts getting depressed and anxious that something bad is about to befall us because of our absence. So, we're off to church again with renewed determination. Not because something happened, but only because she's afraid that something is imminent.

That, right there, is fertile ground for mental illness (at the least, dependency) fostered by TSCC.

That loving heavenly father dude, is that the same guy who allowed a alligator to eat a two year old boy? Oh, I get it the more pain and suffering magic sky daddy inflects on us the more we are forced to turn to magic sky daddy for the relief from the pain and suffering. Magic sky daddy sounds like a ex-girl friend I had once. There is no room for religion in the treatment of depression, it's like pouring gas on a fire.

Religion depresses me. The thought that people would willingly believe nonsense is disturbing and sad.