Do Mormons have poor mental health?

[MikeWaters]

I don't know the answer. But I don't think it is because Mormons are so knowledgeable and accepting of mental health treatment.

I've been thinking about this for the past few days. Should one of the fruits of the gospel be happiness in our lives? We are constantly falling short, and being told that we are falling short. We are given a set of tasks that are virtually impossible to complete. We are told that there is no guarantee of heaven unless your calling and election is made sure, and that happens to almost no one. What a luxury to be in a religion where if you merely accept Christ as your savior, you are saved. The amount of stuff that is placed on the men in the church is truly extraordinary. Does this explain why men are leaving the church, if the Pew statistics are true? I don't know. GBH seemed to want to tell us to be sunny and optimistic, that we are doing a good job, maybe as a counter to the message "you are a failure" that is so often delivered. When people are happy they will perform better. When they are happy, they will sell their religion. When they are unhappy they will not do these things.

[BYU71]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I don't know the answer. But I don't think it is because Mormons are so knowledgeable and accepting of mental health treatment.

I've been thinking about this for the past few days. Should one of the fruits of the gospel be happiness in our lives? We are constantly falling short, and being told that we are falling short. We are given a set of tasks that are virtually impossible to complete. We are told that there is no guarantee of heaven unless your calling and election is made sure, and that happens to almost no one. What a luxury to be in a religion where if you merely accept Christ as your savior, you are saved. The amount of stuff that is placed on the men in the church is truly extraordinary. Does this explain why men are leaving the church, if the Pew statistics are true? I don't know. GBH seemed to want to tell us to be sunny and optimistic, that we are doing a good job, maybe as a counter to the message "you are a failure" that is so often delivered. When people are happy they will perform better. When they are happy, they will sell their religion. When they are unhappy they will not do these things.

As someone who has had 3 excellent phsychologists during the last 25 years, I actually look forward to chatting with them. 2 of them were extremly active in the church and 1 was not a member. All 3 were consistent in telling me not to get to guilt ridden over things I think I should be doing because of the culture I live in.

My guess would be all three of them would tell me if I want to have a beard, I should have one and not give a crap what a SP says.

[UtahDan]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I know that some of you will want to dismiss these findings as inconsequential and without merit. Rather than discussing and exploring them. What are you afraid of?

I would love to see those figures broken out along gender lines. My guess based on anecdotal evidence is that north of 75% of those reporting mental illness are female. I wonder how many of that 75% are women who know.

[exUte]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I don't know the answer. But I don't think it is because Mormons are so knowledgeable and accepting of mental health treatment.

We are told that there is no guarantee of heaven unless your calling and election is made sure, and that happens to almost no one. .

We are told that?

[myboynoah]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I don't know the answer. But I don't think it is because Mormons are so knowledgeable and accepting of mental health treatment.

I've been thinking about this for the past few days. Should one of the fruits of the gospel be happiness in our lives? We are constantly falling short, and being told that we are falling short. We are given a set of tasks that are virtually impossible to complete. We are told that there is no guarantee of heaven unless your calling and election is made sure, and that happens to almost no one. What a luxury to be in a religion where if you merely accept Christ as your savior, you are saved. The amount of stuff that is placed on the men in the church is truly extraordinary. Does this explain why men are leaving the church, if the Pew statistics are true? I don't know. GBH seemed to want to tell us to be sunny and optimistic, that we are doing a good job, maybe as a counter to the message "you are a failure" that is so often delivered. When people are happy they will perform better. When they are happy, they will sell their religion. When they are unhappy they will not do these things.

I guess I'm not getting that message. I remember Howard Hunter visiting my mission. We had a real gungho MP you was constantly putting on the pressure. It did have an effect on one's view of life (I dreaded those calls at the end of the month). Then Hunter comes and tells us all to do our best, work hard, and things will work out. I think it was at that point that I started viewing everything my MP said through the Hunter filter.

I'm going to keep doing my best and working hard. The rest will take care of itself. The Church is not my master.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by KiteRider

I had taken note of this 'men have it bad in the church' viewpoint that you have of the church, so I tried running this past my wife, to see if she would find it as appealing as I do. She laughed out loud, and pointed out that women get it just as bad as men. I went through the short list that you have outlined a few times now, and she said, "Women get just as much guilt dumped on them in the General Relief Society meeting as men get in the Priesthood session." So what if men get scolded about porn. You think that is the factor that drives men out of the church? As my wife was quick to point out, bringing me back down to earth (a task she relishes), women have guilt piled on them about marriage, children, working, education, and missionary service. Women, my wife said, are taught to second guess their own desire to serve as missionaries, and they are culturally driven to accept marriage proposals that aren't good for them (I hope she wasn't speaking from personal experience here).

The church is a social unit. I suspect that men, as is often true in the animal kingdom, don't feel the same need for social structure. Elephants males run beside the herd. That is just a guess, but maybe there is something to it. Men and women are fundamentally different at some level, and maybe there are fewer men in the church because of these basic differences.

What are women asked to do in the church? Visit teach? (phone call suffices for their statistics). Serve in the Relief Society? Deliver a meal or two every year? Serve on the activity committee? And for the very unlucky ones, serve in the YM presidency (where there is no pressure towards pushing snot-nosed kids to achievement and awards)?

I think if you compare that list to what men in the church are asked to do, it doesn't compare. She freaking feels guilty about the decision to serve a mission or not? Hello, think of the guilt placed on the MEN who don't serve. Plus it is harder to ACTUALLY serve than wonder if you should have been a sister missionary.

I'm not saying that there aren't pressures being a mother and a wife. It's just that men have the pressure of being fathers and husbands AND church leaders which women just plain don't have, or have in far fewer numbers.

[exUte]

Originally Posted by UtahDan

I would love to see those figures broken out along gender lines. My guess based on anecdotal evidence is that north of 75% of those reporting mental illness are female. I wonder how many of that 75% are women who know.

it may answer your inquiry. My guess is that 75% of them are ute grads. They don't know if they are coming or going and that would be very depressing.

[woot]

Originally Posted by myboynoah

Mike, I think you are correct that this is a topic that we don't seek to discuss publicly, for obvious reasons. You're the expert, so what are your thoughts? I know, as woot suggests below, that many point to The Church as a cause (too many expectations of perfection). I wonder if there isn't a genetic component, given that most of Mormondom came out of the UK and Scandanavia. Also, does adherence to the WofW play a role? Whatever the answers, it doesn't play as well as low cancer rates.



Honestly, I rarely experience these feelings of inadequacy. Did you while you were LDS? Maybe age has given me perspective. I don't see my wife feeling that way and don't remember my mother lamenting her imperfections. I do have an over-achieving daughter that I need to reign in occasionally, but that may be her age and personality.

That said, most of my family takes or has taken some kind of anti-depressant, so I wonder if there is a genetic component out there.

The lineage theory is an interesting one, and I knew lots of people in Utah that suffered from some degree of seasonal affective disorder (self-diagnosed, so who knows if they were right).

I don't remember having feelings of inadequacy, necessarily, but I do remember wondering why God would care so much about trivia. My mental health problems had to do with what I considered to be intellectual bondage -- fearing where the evidence might lead, and trying to figure out a way to make it fit into Mormon theology.

Were I still a Mormon, I would have a much healthier perspective on these issues. I was much too motivated by guilt and much too trusting in the leadership/bureaucracy. Even on my mission I emphasized grace much more than the church probably would have liked, but all those years of being told that I needed to work my way to heaven were hard to overcome, and I still felt the burden of imperfection.

I doubt this question has a clean answer, but I imagine that the lack of alcohol use and the church's emphasis on works/perfection account for some of it.

[MikeWaters]

The drive to achieve is often motivated by a feeling of deep unsatisfaction and hunger. So ironically, the people that work the hardest to achieve are often the least-satisfied people. There is no "top of the mountain" for these people. I think i fit in this category of people that will never be fully satisfied (we have discussed this before, Archaea is another). The question is whether the church pushes people torwards this, or rather, does nothing to discourage it.

[YOhio]

If you have poor mental health it's most likely the result of unresovled sins.