Utah and Depression

“As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” -Proverbs 23:7

The heart of repentance is correcting thinking, which then corrects feelings/intent & behavior.

I’ve always been interested in psychology, “the study of the soul”, & believe it to be inseparably connected to spirituality.

When I was very depressed, I went to see a councilor, who gave me a list of common cognitive (thinking) distortions, like this:

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2009/15-com … stortions/

Studies show that religion can either help or harm us mentally & even physically – based on interpretation of doctrine.

With the goal of optimum mental health and getting the most out of the gospel, I’ve taken a close look at cognitive distortions in relation to teachings I’ve learned in the church…

1. Filtering: filtering out positive aspects of a situation while magnifying negative…In church, I’ve gotten the message that I am not good enough, no matter how much I serve & give & that even if I do a lot & don’t pay tithing to the church but instead to the poor, I am unworthy.

2. Polarized thinking: black- or white (when often it is a mix) – BI-POLAR thinking: “The church is either true or not.” “You are either on the Lord’s side or you aren’t.”

3. Overgeneralization – something happens once, but general conclusions are based on that one happening – (Prejudice – racial & of “non members”)

4. Jumping to conclusions – concluding with out knowing or considering all of the facts -(spiritual feeling interpreted to mean church is completely true, when it may be just a particular personally inspiring aspect… I was taught that if something did not fit neatly into dictated beliefs (ie articles of faith or GA statements) then, it should be discounted automatically..Also, many members assume that people who go “inactive” have done something wrong or are somehow misguided for leaving the church & such people are thus shunned & treated badly.)

5. Catastrophizing – magnifying or minimizing, expecting disaster – “LAST DAYS!!!” Fear of God and Satan.

6. Personalization – taking things personally, comparing – Many take celebrities & political figures as if they represent them personally, because they are Mormon.

7. Control Fallacies – Viewing ourselves victim to external controls, or internalizing others pain (to feel control) – ie story of Joseph Smith being victimized, when he also hurt others.

8. Blaming – holding others responsible for our pain, or blaming ourselves for others pain – (I’ve never read that Jesus ex-communicated nor disfellowshipped even “the least of these.”)

9. Shoulds – making rules about everything – & inducing shame when rules aren’t kept (Too many “shoulds” to name. One incorrect shaming is about sex, so many Mormons even struggle sexually after marriage)

10. Emotional Reasoning – thinking feelings are facts (when they aren’t) – (I’ve been taught that Mormonism has a monopoly on the companionship of spirit.)

11. Fallacy of Change – Thinking we can change others & then we’ll be happy (both aren’t true) … (There is the teaching that “non-members” are lacking and must change to our ways, as if our way is the only way and that if we convince someone to go our way, we will be happy.)

12. Global Labeling – Generalizing – I was taught that anything outside the beliefs of the church is wrong, but everything said by church leaders is God’s word and should not be questioned.

13. Always being right – Continually on trial to prove our opinions & actions are correct – (This goes along with Personalization – where members perceive any praise or criticism of the church as praise or criticism of them, obvious on forums – not just between members and non-members but even within members.

14. Heaven’s Reward Fallacy – Belief that if you suffer enough, the pay-off will be worth it after-life. More energy & money is given to try to help those who have died, than those who are alive.

(Referring to the other thread “on being offended”…)

Ray, BeLikeChrist is right.

I don’t think that using anti-depressants is evil.

There are definitely times when psychotropic drugs can save lives or make lives more bearable.

But IMO, they are way over-used and cause more harm than good.

Usually pain serves a purpose… to tell us something’s wrong.

If we ignore the pain & just try to medicate over it, we aren’t addressing the source of pain.

And as my 7th Grade teacher used to say, “There is NO free lunch!”

There is a price, or consequence to every action… like harmful side-effects of psychotropic drugs.

Thank you for moving this to a new thread, Featherina, and for your comments.

Just four things, to highlight why I’m concerned about HOW the stats are used:

Out of all 50 states (including some with 20 times the population of Utah)… Utah is #1 for anti-depressant prescriptions.

1) The size of the population has nothing to do with these rates. They are percentages, so 20 times the population doesn’t have any effect. It is completely irrelevant.

I don’t mean to be picky about it, but that’s the sort of thing that gets said and misinterpreted all the time. The rate is higher, but the number of prescriptions written isn’t the highest. California has more prescriptions written than Utah – as do Texas and New York and Florida and others.

2) I didn’t see county-by-county stats – and that is about the only way to say with any surety that Mormons are more depressed than non-Mormons in Utah. If the rates are uniformly higher in the counties with the highest Mormon percentage, then, yes, there is a correlation. If the highest rates are in the general SLC counties, then there is a negative correlation – meaning Mormons are LESS likely to use anti-depressants. If there is no obvious correlation, there are no conclusions that can be made relative to religion.

3) There are plenty of reasons that might contriubte, even among those that are “religious” in nature – and some of those reasons are ones I see as positive reasons. Simple acceptance of modern medicine is one of those positive reasons, and I think there is a wide-spread acceptance of medicine in our Mormon culture. Yes, perhaps we tend to over-rely on medicine as opposed to therapy approaches – but that’s a modern society problem, not a Mormon problem.

4) Ultimately, if the choice is a chemical one, I would MUCH rather it be prescribed than self-administered.

I’m not trying to deny this is an issue, and I’m not trying to say our culture has nothing to do with it. I do believe there are cultural and religous factors to population percentages and depression. I’m just saying I’m not ready to say it’s completely or even primarily a bad thing that is due to bad influences of Mormon culture.

Featherina, I like what you said in your post & agree with most of it. You said:

Studies show that religion can either help or harm us mentally & even physically – based on interpretation of doctrine.

Is there a chance that religion may have no impact on depression?

Instead of help or harm?

Just asking.

Mike from Milton.

One more thing:

I can’t find it right now, but I’ve also seen statements that the highest percentages tend to be clustered in the same geographic region as Utah. That can’t be coincidental, and it can’t be attributed to the LDS Church – since many of those states have a very low Mormon population.

I’d be curious, if you found a study supporting that.

I remember there was an article I read many years ago on Mormon women and depression. I could really relate to it at the time. Here is a link that referrs to it: http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/113-14-21.pdf

Here is the quote about it:

T HE MARCH/APRIL 1979 ISSUE OF SUNSTONE

featured the transcript of Louise Degnk groundbrealng

KSL-TV documentary, “Mormon Women and Depression,”

which legitimated a widespread but closeted darkside of Mormon

culture. LDS counselors Carlfred Broderick and R. Jan Stout were

two of the tallang heads:

BRODERICK-We do have a lot of depression in the Church

around the issue of not being able to be the perfect Relief

Society woman: not grinding your own wheat and making

your own bread and having your own garden and taking

casseroles over to all the sick and not also being a perfect

mother and an ideal housewife and well-groomed and reading

the scriptures every day And being something less than that

makes a lot of people depressed who, if their standards weren’t

quite so high, might be more self-accepting.

STOUT-I think in Mormonism the women themselves

tend to apply a great deal of pressure on each other. I don’t see

it coming so high from Church pronouncements of leaders.

Some of it is there, but it is largely the women themselves who

carry around with them excessive expectations of what they

should or should not be as Mormons.

Some of them feel they have to reach this kind of idealized,

crystallized, beautiful Mormon woman, which 1 term the

Mother-of-Zion syndrome. This is a woman who is really a

myth, a mystique. She doesn’t exist at all, in fact. But all

Mormon women in almost any ward you wanted to go into

would tell you they know a woman who is like that: She’s got

it all together; her children are well-groomed; she bakes bread

every day; she has wonderfully clean things in the house; her

husband is happy and whistles off to work; she never complains

at any of the Church meetings he goes to; she’s supportive

and loyal; and not only that: she gets up and reads her

scriptures at six in the morning. She’s got it all together. And

that’s a very intimidating thing for the average Mormon

woman.

Now, in fact, this woman exists only in the minds of other

women. They may try to approximate it. But I’ve seen too

many cases of these super-Mormon women who themselves

are depressed or who have private faces, private lives that are

quite different from what their ward members see out on the

street.

Mormons here in Utah don’t get a day of rest, are forced to live on less than 90% of what they make (While discouraging dual incomes), and they can’t go have a drink to take the edge off. There is also a very huge culture of “keeping up with the Joneses” and always appearing to be perfect.