First of all, it sounds like you are not happy yourself with Mormonism at some level. I’m sorry about that. The other comment from “John” about not agreeing with Mormons being happy also suggests to me that you are not happy or have had negative experiences within the Church. I hope you are able to find some peace for yourself, whatever that may look like.

I’ll address something mentioned in the other comment on the post about Mormons being happy here as well. I do sometimes see people hiding emotions in our midst, but I also think this is often a human condition. If you have ever read materials from Brené Brown, for example, you would see that a lack of vulnerability is most certainly not a Mormon problem. It’s a human problem.

To your comment above:
Of course there are high-LDS populations in Utah. But stats are stats and if people want to study the LDS population, they can’t generalize Utah-centric data as being reflective of Mormons in general. It’s just not good stats practice.

““Mormons don’t use drugs. That’s why we are depressed.” Really? Really?! ”

That isn’t what I said, but I see that I probably could have explained what I meant more clearly. Depression is a mental illness and people the world over struggle with it. Sometimes people deal with mental illness by self-medicating through unhealthy substances or behaviors. Sometimes people use medication (and the researcher mentioned above noted that that approach may be used by a population with higher levels of education or income). The point relates to point #4 which is that correlation (antidepressant use in Utah) is not causation (Mormonism “causes depression” and is to be “blamed” for high antidepressant use).

Also, using antidepressant use as a negative measure could be measuring exactly the wrong things when it comes to reducing the stigma around mental illness.

And yes, sometimes people overuse antidepressants or can get addicted to those. But once again, that doesn’t mean that the LDS faith *causes* such addictions or depression. Again, statistics would require that you back up your claims with data.

So this claim –“If we take a step back and look at our LDS friends and family members, can we honestly say we don’t see a higher presence of depression than in our non-member friends?” cannot be made subjectively. It would require a randomized, large-enough sample to determine whether this could be backed up by data.

That is not to say that subjective experience isn’t valid. Again, I’m sorry that your experiences seem to fall more into the negative category.

Comments often wait in moderation because I don’t monitor this site all day. I check it once or twice a day.

And yes, we do monitor for content. We have comment policies and that is well within the realm of normal for blogs and online media.

One of the things we monitor for is posting multiple comments from the same IP address under different ‘names.’ I’m posting your comments anyway, but please respect this space. It’s ok to share your experience and perspective, and then we get to decide what to do about sharing it. There are plenty of other spaces where you can share your voice.

Another favorite – “Mormons don’t use drugs. That’s why we are depressed.” Really? Really?! If the rest of the world is happy because they use substances that we aren’t “allowed to have” while we pop addicting psychotropics and benzodiazepines, I’d most definitely say that the joke is on us!

If we take a step back and look at our LDS friends and family members, can we honestly say we don’t see a higher presence of depression than in our non-member friends?

…me neither. 🙁

Thank you for addressing the issue of depression in Mormon women that came up. You make some very important points about depression within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the whole. Utah is not the Church, nor could it possibly represent it on a global scale.

I believe the happiness that is often observed by those outside of the Mormons faith is something that members may not recognize in themselves– as they are comfortable with this state of being.

A perspective that gives LDS members an understanding of this life gives us the ability to walk through life with confidence that all things will work together for our good — come what may.

Even depression.