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Hello all, I've been lurking the forum for quite a while searching for stories about suicide within the LDS faith.
I am a survivor of an LDS suicide, my exwife is a seminary teacher and our soon took his own life.

In the process of attending grief groups it came to my attention that the area around Utah is referred to as "the suicide belt" by the CDC and APA.

I am writing a collection of stories about RM suicide, teen suicide, active mission suicides. I am not in any way suggesting the LDS faith is the causation of suicide (that would be simply impossible to demonstrate), but I am looking for suicides that have LDS relevance.

Do any of you have relevant stories you'd be willing to anonymously share via either email interview or phone interview? Or, relevant stories you might have heard from family members?

You have my condolences, CheezenRice. I'm truly sorry your family had to go through that.

You might consider posting this in the terrestrial kingdom, since that forum gets more traffic than this one. I'm sure you'll get many responses, there.

while i am sorry for your suffering, i do not think the "suicide belt" is anything more than a myth....statistically speaking.
http://www.statemaster.com/state/UT-utah/hea-health
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/hea_su ... per-capita

I believe that there are many suicides by Mormon children because they are taught incorrect doctrine which is way different than D&C 10 states. I wish that that was not the case but faith hope charity and love with and eye single to the glory of GOD seems to have escaped many who have been called to the work. Do not harden your heart and you can have peace.

Charity1 wrote:I believe that there are many suicides by Mormon children because they are taught incorrect doctrine which is way different than D&C 10 states. I wish that that was not the case but faith hope charity and love with and eye single to the glory of GOD seems to have escaped many who have been called to the work. Do not harden your heart and you can have peace.

My condolences, OP. I have three kids whom I love more than anything in this world. My heart sincerely goes out to you.

I think about it every day, though it's compounded by other issues - (And I doubt I would have been stronger as a child). That bit about incorrect doctrine is just not true. It is very real to me, now, that there must be at least some people who end up committing suicide when they come to realize that the only true church is anything but.

Not sure this was the young man's issues. However, I remember feeling an overwhelming depression from not being perfect enough, when I joined in my youth. The church seems to be a great place for people who are outgoing and extrovert to flourish. That personality types seem to thrive. We introverts, however, seem to have a tougher time. Just my small experience.

This whole "everyone a missionary" and constant push to socialize with "ward family" and "magnify your calling (more socializing)" just drove me insane. Not everyone in this world is a sales person. Some of us like to hide in our garages and work on machines and solve problems. People are a drag. I think that is a major problem with the church, without attacking any of its doctrine or history.

My heart aches for anyone who's lost someone through suicide, like my aunt and uncle & grandparents did (they aren't LDS). Even with all of the wars, it is said that suicide kills more than war. It's something that really needs to be studied, understood and prevented.

In an lds-authored book, I read that up to 80% of mental illness (depression, anxiety etc) may be rooted in misunderstandings of Jusaic or Christian doctrine.

Utah leads the nation in anti-depressants, but I'd guess it has as much to do with culture as distorted thinking.

Ultimately it comes down to how we think and interpret. LDS are not the only ones to incorporate cognitive distortions into their thinking patterns, resulting in depression or other negative mental states, but such distortions seem apparent in my experience with the LDS church.

Cognitive Distortions
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_distortion

CheezenRice wrote:Hello all, I've been lurking the forum for quite a while searching for stories about suicide within the LDS faith.
I am a survivor of an LDS suicide, my exwife is a seminary teacher and our soon took his own life.

In the process of attending grief groups it came to my attention that the area around Utah is referred to as "the suicide belt" by the CDC and APA.

I am writing a collection of stories about RM suicide, teen suicide, active mission suicides. I am not in any way suggesting the LDS faith is the causation of suicide (that would be simply impossible to demonstrate), but I am looking for suicides that have LDS relevance.

Do any of you have relevant stories you'd be willing to anonymously share via either email interview or phone interview? Or, relevant stories you might have heard from family members?

Hi CheezenRice,

I have seen it up close and personal within the LDS Faith and am sorry you have had this experience. My daughter began dating an 18 year old when she was 15. He was very dynamic and his MO was to tell people organized religion was stifling. He was a big thinker, wanting less orthodoxy and and inclined to sex, drugs and rock and roll.

When he died, counselors flocked into the school he had attended (Lone Peak high school near Alpine/Highland) to try and nip any copycat responses. I always thought it was a weird response, but it turns out teens tend to internalize trauma grief by glorifying it somewhat. Plus they do this weird emotional/mental spinout.

Of the 7 of the inner circle of the group, five subsequently committed suicide. My daughter attempted a week after the boy died (after we spent the most freakish week known to mankind, she was insane with loss and trauma and insisted on wearing black lace and buying a wedding ring to put on his finger while he was in the casket).

Suicide is a scourge. Three in the inner circle hung themselves, two shot themselves. My daughter and the other female were the only survivors of the group. My daughter is only alive because she took the same amount of uppers as she did downers and it stabilized her system. (even though she was in ICU for three days for liver cocktails to flush all the ibuprofen).

95% of Lone Peak are Mormons. Drugs were a factor. I'd be happy to give you more detail in an email.

Big green hugs,

Froggie

Froggie wrote:

CheezenRice wrote:Hello all, I've been lurking the forum for quite a while searching for stories about suicide within the LDS faith.
I am a survivor of an LDS suicide, my exwife is a seminary teacher and our soon took his own life.

In the process of attending grief groups it came to my attention that the area around Utah is referred to as "the suicide belt" by the CDC and APA.

I am writing a collection of stories about RM suicide, teen suicide, active mission suicides. I am not in any way suggesting the LDS faith is the causation of suicide (that would be simply impossible to demonstrate), but I am looking for suicides that have LDS relevance.

Do any of you have relevant stories you'd be willing to anonymously share via either email interview or phone interview? Or, relevant stories you might have heard from family members?

Hi CheezenRice,

I have seen it up close and personal within the LDS Faith and am sorry you have had this experience. My daughter began dating an 18 year old when she was 15. He was very dynamic and his MO was to tell people organized religion was stifling. He was a big thinker, wanting less orthodoxy and and inclined to sex, drugs and rock and roll.

When he died, counselors flocked into the school he had attended (Lone Peak high school near Alpine/Highland) to try and nip any copycat responses. I always thought it was a weird response, but it turns out teens tend to internalize trauma grief by glorifying it somewhat. Plus they do this weird emotional/mental spinout.

Of the 7 of the inner circle of the group, five subsequently committed suicide. My daughter attempted a week after the boy died (after we spent the most freakish week known to mankind, she was insane with loss and trauma and insisted on wearing black lace and buying a wedding ring to put on his finger while he was in the casket).

Suicide is a scourge. Three in the inner circle hung themselves, two shot themselves. My daughter and the other female were the only survivors of the group. My daughter is only alive because she took the same amount of uppers as she did downers and it stabilized her system. (even though she was in ICU for three days for liver cocktails to flush all the ibuprofen).

95% of Lone Peak are Mormons. Drugs were a factor. I'd be happy to give you more detail in an email.

Big green hugs,

Froggie

HOLY CRAP! That's a sad story. I'm sorry to hear that. Glad your daughter survived. Hope she doing well, today.

Timeline of Mormon Thinking About Homosexuality,
http://www.nomorestrangers.org/timeline-of-mormon-thinking-about-homosexuality/

1946- Church leadership discovers that the Patriarch of the Church, Joseph F. Smith had had intimate relations with younger men. President George Albert Smith wrote in his journal that the First Presidency and Twelve Apostles met in his office where they discussed the issue. George Albert Smith wrote in his journal 10 July 1946, “Jos Patriarch case considered. Bad situation. Am heartsick.” Joseph F. Smith was quietly released from his calling and sent to Hawaii. David O. McKay instructed the stake president in Hawaii to “rehabilitate” Smith.

1965- 5 BYU students commit suicide. All had been interviewed “by the counselor to homosexual problems at that time Spencer W. Kimball…”

1975- “The Purge of ’75.” BYU administrators sent security officers to squash a “homosexual ring” on campus. Security officers pulled male dance and ballet students from class in the Harris Fine Arts Center and interrogated them in the hallways in front of other students.

6 March 1975- A joint effort between Utah County Sheriff office and BYU security results in the arrest of 14 men on charges of “lewdness and sodomy.” The men were arrested at two freeway rest stops near Pleasant Grove, UT. One of the men arrested was Carlyle D. Marsden of Kaysville, UT. Marsden was 54 years old, a BYU music professor, a returned missionary, a World War II vet, and father of five children. Two days after his arrest, Marsden drove a few blocks from his home where he shot himself in the heart. The Ogden Standard Examiner is the only paper to publish an obituary.

August 1976- Max Ford McBride completes his dissertation at BYU. He experimented on 14 gay BYU students to determine if using photographs of nude men and women from pornographic magazines helped during electroshock therapy. Two of the 14 men committed suicide after the torturous study.

1985- Clair Harward, a 24-year old man from Ogden dying from AIDS went to his bishop, Bruce Don Bowen, to find “peace of mind” but was excommunicated. Church spokesman Jerry Cahill told the press that people with AIDS should consider the consequences of spreading the disease if they were to attend church meetings.

1992- Utah lawmakers pass into law a hate crimes bill based on a person’s religion or race. Absent from the law is any mention of sexual orientation.

HOLY CRAP! That's a sad story. I'm sorry to hear that. Glad your daughter survived. Hope she doing well, today.

They've had a recent spate of suicides [again] at this same school. http://fox13now.com/2014/11/17/recent-s ... officials/

My daughter survived and is most, how do I describe this, wise for her years 26 year of life on this earth.

Big green hugs,

Froggie