Depression may be more widespread in The Deseret State
- posted: 25 Mar. 2008
- scrolllifestyle@byui.edu
More than 18 million Americans over the age of 18 suffer from major depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, and a recent study suggests that residents of Utah may suffer more from depression than people living in other parts of the country.
Researchers at Mental Health America found Utah to be the most depressed state, and the drug distribution company Express Scripts discovered that Utah residents were prescribed more antidepressant drugs than any other state, according to www.abcnews.com
Some experts feel this phenomenon is due to the large population of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a religion that can be demanding for men and especially for women, according to Utah psychologist Dr. Curtis Canning.
“[LDS women] are supposed to accept a calling. They are to be constantly smiling over their family of five. They are supposed to take supper across the street to an ill neighbor and then put up with their husband when he comes home from work and smile about it the whole time,” Canning said in the ABCnews article. “There is this sense that Mrs. Jones down the street is doing the same thing, and there is this undercurrent of competition.”
Reed Stoddard, director of the BYU-Idaho Counseling Center, said a correlation between Utah residents and members of the Church being more depressed has not been proved. However, he said that there might also be some truth to that theory.
“There is a perfectionism issue sometimes that creates stress for people, and Mormons are as likely to struggle with that as anybody. We have high standards, and sometimes we don’t keep that in right perspective. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” Stoddard said.
The most common problem seen at the counseling center is depression, Stoddard said, and religion is probably not a big factor in that depression, although it probably has an effect on mental health. He encouraged students to improve diet, exercise, sleep habits and other factors to feel better, and to come to the counseling center for help.
“Some people feel like if they just had more faith and worked harder at religious things, they’d feel better. [They think] ‘If I do the right things, I’ll feel better.’ Sometimes, that’s just not the case,” Stoddard said.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell also counseled Church members to not put too much pressure on themselves to be perfect.
“The Church is ‘for the perfecting of the saints’; it is not a well-provisioned rest home for the already perfected,” Elder Maxwell said in his 1982 talk, “A Brother Offended.” 
