Absolutely and it is serious. The mental anguish that comes from saying one thing and believing something completely different is certainly cause to self-medicate.
HAL 9000 became mentally ill because he was forced to live a lie despite his unwavering commitment to honesty and accuracy. Just as a good person sees the emblems on their garments, he would have been constantly reminded of exactness and honor, and an undeviating course all while being forced to lie to protect the secrets of his masters.
You'd think in a state where most people have The Gift of the Holy Ghost (™), and blessed olive oil and Priesthood Blessings are a dime a dozen, Utah would be a picture of contentment and stability.
Not so much. Good thing they've had so much practice at denying evidence!
Brother Of Jerry Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You'd think in a state where most people have The > Gift of the Holy Ghost (™), and blessed olive > oil and Priesthood Blessings are a dime a dozen, > Utah would be a picture of contentment and > stability. > > Not so much. Good thing they've had so much > practice at denying evidence!
If I had a dime for ever TBM that I have known that has tried to treat mental illness with fasting, prayer, and olive oil. One ward had a culture that accused those with mental illness of sin. "Despair comes because of iniquity" was trotted out on a regular basis.
I have had a collection of bishops, HPGLs, EQPs, etc that have used every religious, and some non-religious, forms of voodoo/magic/horse$#!t known to humankind in there position as "counselors." Several suicides and others with years of needlessly suffering with untreated or improperly treated maladies.
Things improved for a few years but with the mass exodus of the educated and critical thinkers, the situation has taken a turn for the worse over the last 10 years. It has always been a good idea to run fast and hard away from Mormonism but it seems to be more imperative with every passing day.
I was diagnosed with depression while I was active, I'd have periods of time where I had to take medication until I felt like I could get out of bed again. I haven't had a single occurrence of depression since I left the church.
Utah Mormons are likely to use anti-depressants etc. rather than a glass of wine at night, for instance, or self-medicate with alcohol. The illegal drug use is high also. Reading the chart, it's hart to know how the criteria was calculated. The categories are very general. I'd be interested in a break down in area -- which areas are high LDS population and which are not.
I read this: "As of 2007, 60.7% of Utahns are counted as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, although only 41.6% of them are active members. Mormons now make up about 34%–41% of Salt Lake City, while rural areas tend to be overwhelmingly Mormon."
I would guess that those stats have changed by 2015 with the number of members leaving the LDS Church having increased greatly.
Yeah, it would be interesting to know what they are basing it on. If it's only the number of persons who seek mental health treatment, a lot of that is just mormon women with depression-anxiety-coping problems. And it doesn't have to be just those who are active, or even those who are still members. But a good deal of that is directly related to mormonism.
I will speak for myself when I say there are plenty of we exmos who have had to seek mental health treatment for these reasons simply because of having been raised in that system. By the time we realize we were scammed, we may be in bad marriages because we didn't take the time to figure out what we were getting into and whether we had anything in common outside cult membership. Or we have too many kids, financial problems from having kids way too young, not to mention all the stress and depression that goes along with it. I depended on Lexapro for a long time after I was exmo. I finally graduated to a the kick your shoes off and have a nice glass of wine after work method. Amazing what mental health benefits that has.
I think having to wear a white nurse's dress and white support stockings over ankle length garments for one's temple sealing would place a person at high risk for depression. ;)
Strangely I was once talking to my former best friend (he was a convert and I converted him) and had a moment of discovery of diametric views during that discussion.
He is a very well known Psychiatrist in Utah, and I was talking with him about my abhorrence for anti-depressants and they way they are dished out these days like a candy cure-all.
Well, he was of course, very aware that Utah was a major consumer of this product and even that Utah County tops the list of consumers in Utah (i.e. MORMONS have this problem and bad).
He was happy that such pills were available and thought they were underprescribed. Yikes!! Somehow I think the size of his mansion and sending his daughter to one of the premier colleges in the country ways heavy on his opinion of this wonder drug(s).
Not only is he dyed in the wool TBM but his whole philosophy of life is so skewed that we can't really even relate -- needless to say we've hardly talked to each other in 10 years and I don't think I'm missing very much with that separation.
One might conclude that Mormonism exacerbates mental illness. Not so fast; after all, I'm a Mormon and I'm perfectly OH NO NOT THE BLUE SPIDERS!! HERE THEY COME!! sane. Oh, sure, I get a little down in the dumps sometimes, and I've been known to wake up on the wrong side I HATE THE BLUE SPIDERS!! THOUSANDS OF THEM CRAWLING DOWN THE WALLS RIGHT TOWARD ME!! of the bed. But crazy? I think HEEEELLLLLLPPP!!!! not.
...is that the church has bragged for decades about the superior health status of Utahns vs. other states in the areas of heart disease, lung cancer, longevity, etc., as evidence that the Word of Wisdom is behind it.
The fact is, mental illnesses can be just as debilitating as physical illnesses, and there must be certain reasons why Utah leads the nation. The most obvious reason being Mormon culture, with its constant pressures to perform, exceed, and "be therefore perfect."
I'll repeat an old experience of mine for newbies: In my former ward, several of the "leading ladies" were on anti-depressants, usually Prozac. I'm talking about the RS presidency, stake YW president, and other leaders. Prozac use was so prevalent that one of the women joked about going home from church meetings so she could take her "vitamin P."