Utah most depressed state in U.S. ...

[_ubermarie]

I think that a lot of you are right. It's multi factorial. And whereas I believe that Mormonism plays a factor, it is just one of many. Personally, having been a depressed Mormon housewife myself, I think that a lot of it has to do with the lack of adequate health care in Utah. You can go to your local doctor (who you probably know from your ward) and snap your fingers a few times for a prescription for prozac, but try and find a nearby psychiatrist that your health insurance covers and you're out of luck. After several years of just using the pills as a crutch, your depression becomes chronic and multi-generational. (Your kids will be likely to develop it later in their lives as well.) The depression in Utah is symptomatic of the culture's refusal to openly confront problems and dysfunction.

[_charity]

Drop the condescending feminist junk.

I was simply trying to be charitable, darlin'. You need to relax a little more.

If I knew who you were, I would charge you with sexual harrassment. Were you always a chavinist pig, or did that happen after you became an apostate?

[_Zoidberg]

It's all the less-active members and non-members who are depressed and doing themselves in. Everyone knows the favorite anti suicide myth has been debunked by statisticians at BYU. :)

Don't you guys read peer-reviewed epidemiological journals?

[_Doctor Steuss]

One of the few times I agree with Charity -- at least about those of us who have studied it. Mental disease is so subjective. And some of the most wacked out people I know are PhD psychologists! I dated this borderline doc for a minute...nothing worse than being analyzed while you're making the moves on a borderline shrink!

I dated a girl a few moons back who was finishing her Masters in Psych. She said that the majority of the people who initially enter psychology are doing so in order to figure out what is wrong with themselves.

[Reflexzero]

The real reason for any high suicide rate in Utah is that it is full of white people. They have over twice the suicide rate of racial minorities.

Just a slight correction. Non-hispanic whites have over twice the suicide rate than most racial minorities. The suicide rate for Native Americans is close to that of non-hispanic whites.

[_Rollo Tomasi]

If I knew who you were, I would charge you with sexual harrassment.

You really need a thicker skin, cupcake.

Were you always a chavinist pig ....

Never been one.

or did that happen after you became an apostate?

Never been an apostate either.

[_charity]

If I knew who you were, I would charge you with sexual harrassment.

You really need a thicker skin, cupcake.

Were you always a chavinist pig ....

Never been one.

or did that happen after you became an apostate?

Never been an apostate either.

Apostate/chauvisit pig as apostate/chauvinsit pig does.

[_Pokatator]

Charity...

Try a suppository,

Puh-lease!

[_Trevor]

My theory is that Mormons are suspicious of psychology. Or maybe it is just those of us who have studied it who are suspicious.

I agree that not a few Mormons are suspicious of therapists and certain kinds of therapy, but you can't tell me that all of that Prozac has nothing to do with embracing certain faddish concepts of psychological illness.

[_Trevor]

I think that a lot of you are right. It's multi factorial. And whereas I believe that Mormonism plays a factor, it is just one of many. Personally, having been a depressed Mormon housewife myself, I think that a lot of it has to do with the lack of adequate health care in Utah. You can go to your local doctor (who you probably know from your ward) and snap your fingers a few times for a prescription for prozac, but try and find a nearby psychiatrist that your health insurance covers and you're out of luck. After several years of just using the pills as a crutch, your depression becomes chronic and multi-generational. (Your kids will be likely to develop it later in their lives as well.) The depression in Utah is symptomatic of the culture's refusal to openly confront problems and dysfunction.

Excellent point, ubermarie. I think you are right on target on several points (multi-factorial problem and GP's dispensing Prozac really standing out in my mind).