931: Depression, Mormonism, and Faith Transitions Pt. 2
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2018
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In light of a statement on LDS.org declaring, “An inability to feel the spirit … is often a symptom of poor mental health,” Natasha Helfer Parker, MFT CST and John Dehlin, Ph.D. are joined by our guest Matt to speak about his experiences with Mormon faith crises, depression, and suicidality—issues he has dealt with for 20 years.
According to Matt, it makes him angry to read that his struggles were a trial, test, or blessing from God, or that he could have been healed if he had more faith, prayed, or hadn’t “sinned.” Matt believes that religious observance is not a cure for mental health illness, and in these episodes, Natasha and John discuss how Mormonism, and in particular a faith transition in the context of Mormonism, can exacerbate the symptoms of depression.
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Part 1: Natasha and John discuss depression and then introduce our guest, Matt
Part 2: Matt shares his faith transition and how it affected his mental health
Part 3: Natasha, John, and Matt discuss the LDS Church’s statement regarding mental health and the ability to feel the “Spirit”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Well I won't set on mother too. She said the things like mothers do. But mothers can be wrong sometimes. |
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| 0:59.3 | Okay so how does your journey continue? Yeah so I went away for one semester to Colorado State |
| 1:27.7 | University which is up in Fort Collins and so I moved out of the house and so by this point I |
| 1:34.4 | told my parents like yeah I don't believe in the church and they had said well if you live at |
| 1:41.2 | home you have to go to church so I moved away. Stopped going to church was you know just doing |
| 1:51.3 | you know my studies up there. I felt kind of alone I didn't know a ton of people and |
| 1:57.4 | I'm a little bit of an introvert so it's kind of hard to make friends and so I was feeling a little |
| 2:03.6 | isolated and while I was up there like halfway through the semester I got a call from my dad one |
| 2:11.4 | night and my mom was in the hospital she had leukemia and so she had gone in it was really advanced |
| 2:21.6 | so she had gone in just to the doctor because she was feeling really you know lethargic and they |
| 2:28.4 | admitted her to the hospital you know ran some blood work and she had leukemia and she started chemo |
| 2:34.8 | you know like right away and so that was kind of a powerful experience for me. I felt a lot of guilt |
| 2:48.4 | like well maybe it was because I stopped going to church and because I stopped believing |
| 2:56.9 | you know like maybe it was my fault and so I internalized a lot of that guilt and |
| 3:04.4 | after the semester I moved back home to help out with my little sister and just kind of help out |
| 3:09.8 | around the house. My dad was a pilot and so he was he'd be gone sometimes and so I took two years |
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