The question of the effect of low oxygen levels is being followed very closely in one particular group: children with cyanotic congenital heart defects.

For those who may not know the terms, cyanosis is skin blueness and is an indication of low oxygen levels in the blood. Hypoxia means a shortage of oxygen in the blood.

There are several cyanotic conditions including transpostition of the great arteries, tetralogy of Fallot, and the single ventricle conditions (HLHS, HRHS, etc.). Surgery is available for most of these conditions but some of these heart children spend years of their early development with oxygen levels ranging from 70 percent saturation to the mid 80s. Normal range is 95-98 percent.

Now that more of these children are living into adulthood, some long term effects are being tracked. Depression does not seem to be one of them. ADHD, certain motor skill problems, and slightly lower IQ do tend to show up. If you’re interested in studies, you can google “wernovsky long term behavioral CHD” as a starting point.

Because of these studies, I would tend to dismiss a connection between slightly lower oxygen levels and slightly higher reported levels of depression. I wouldn’t dismiss it altogether, though.

As modern medical science allows us to see what is going on in the brain, it becomes clearer that problems of mental function are problems with the function of a physical organ and body chemistry, no different fundamentally or morally than the problems that cause Diabetes. Freud’s psychotherapy gave rise to the belief that mental illness is often due to something that someone else had done to you, and the notion of blaming depression on a church is no different than blaming your parents. The scientific truth is that it is part of mankind’s fallen and imperfect nature, like myopia. Generating guilt in anyone does nothing to mitigate the problem, which is unavoidable in its genesis.

The kind of “Molly Mormon” concept that the article tries to sell as a hypothetical cause of depression is actually, in my view, a symptom rather than a cause. People who are predisposed toward OCD will display that underlying condition through their behavior in the settings of family, church, school and work. The observation that we can usually think of someone like that tells us more that someone is displaying their symptoms through their life, not that our shared lifestyle causes the symptoms. I certainly do not see a correlation between simple activity in the Church and depression. In fact, my own observation is that those who are more depressed tend to be less involved in Church activity. Are the presidents of the Relief Society, Young Women and Primary programs the most depressed of all LDS women? Your stake and ward leaders in those programs?

The one function of the “Molly Mormon the Depressive” myth is that it gives LDS women who happen to be among the depressed an excuse for avoiding aspects of Church involvement, claiming it will make them worse. Furthermore, it seems to me that anyone who is actually caught up in compulsive bahavior to try to appear better than one is would militate against admitting even to oneself that one has a mental health condition needing treatment. Having insight to recognize one’s own mental illness seems to me to be inconsistent with feeling driven to perfection in practice. Yet the point of the story is to report high levels of people asking for treatment, evidence which seems to point to a LOWER incidence of a perfectionist obsession.

On the other hand, the hypothesis of behavior therapy is that such myths are self-defeating, and that the best thing we can do when our mental health tends to be debilitating is to fight back and get involved in positive activities that reject the power of the illness over our lives. That seems to be especially true for OCD, where brain studies seem to support the idea that fighting back against OCD compulsions actually changes the way our brains work. From that standpoint, stories like this article that propose blaming the Church for your depression do a real disservice to people who would be helped by participating in positive interactions with others to the extent of their ability.

Anyone who is actually a church member knows that the Church does not emphasize in general being successful in professional achievement and civic involvement for women. Nor is their emphasis on material wealth, displayed by expensive clothing and other costly adornments for one’s children. Rather, the emphasis placed by the Church is on prioritizing what is most important in one’s emotional health and for the church and society, by making sacrifices to spend as much time as possible with one’s children in a nurturing role. The heroes held up in Church talks and magazine articles are people like Jane Clayson who left a career in national TV behind to become a full time mother. There are certainly professional women of prominence in the Church, like Shari Dew, a very impressive person. But even sister Dew in her own books does not emphasize worldly career standards as an ideal for LDS women. Our relationship with God, with family, and other members of the Church are her emphasis. Most of the literature written for the LDS women’s market reflects an appreciation for the limits on what we can accomplish and hence the need for priorities AND sense of humor (I would think Shari Dew’s influence may be manifest here). Thus, “Murdering your husband is not an option” is a title of one recent LDS women’s book.

Additionally, the notion that men can “have it all” has been debunked from the days of David O. McKay, with his watchword about making home and family a priority over other kinds of success. The adoption of the Sunday block meeting schedule was an explicit reaction to the need to reduce the time demands of the Church on the lives of fathers and mothers so they could place their families first. So I find the criticism of the Mormon ideals taught to women to really come more from assumptions that what Mormon women need to do is chuck the kids and hang out down at the day spa, or go to law school and become a corporate attorney. And of course, we know that businesses would NEVER tell employees that they should give all their time and talents to their work, to the exclusion of families and churches. It is still more the exception than the rule when a business does not effectively consider itself the first priority in the lives of its employees. By contrast, the Church has institutionalized a prioritization that makes families first, church second, and material achievement third, a program that supports saying “No” to excessive burdens with low returns. Those who attack the Church’s priorities usually claim to be advocating placement of the woman herself at the top of the list, but in practical terms that is often an invitation to selfishness or an invitation to make one’s business career one’s god.

I am interested in the notion that altitude and lower oxygen pressure may have a general effect on incidence of depression in the Mountain States. Again, brain activity is an electro-chemical process, which depends on the combustion of carbohydrates by nerve cells, which is obviously an oxygen-intensive process. Neurons cannot metabolize proteins or fats. Studies have found that a small amount of carbohydrates supplied by chewing gum can improve test scores. I have sleep apnea, and need supplemental oxygen at low pressure when I sleep to maintain my blood-oxygen levels. I live around 5000 feet altitude. During a stay at a mountain cabin a couple of years ago, around 8000 feet altitude in the Rampart Range near Pike’s Peak, I found it almost impossible to sleep. Extreme altitude changes, such as riding the train to the top of Pike’s Peak (14,000 feet) can make one physically ill, and cause panic attacks and other emotional symptoms. It seems plausible that living in a region with lower effective oxygen levels could increase the number of people experiencing the mental effects of less than optimal brain function. Like most phenomena, such effects seem likely to be on a curve, with slightly low oxygen affecting a small part of the population.

Some studies I am aware of have argued for a correspondence between blood sugar levels and depression and anxiety. Again, blood sugar levels directly affect mental function, and things like Diabetes and the medications used for diabetes can have very pronounced acute effects on mental function, emotions and behavior. The prevalence of green jello and tater tot casseroles and their carbohydrates may actually have a transient role in mental and emotional states.

Finally, as one commenter noted, the statistics used to classify Utah as “worst” on some measures are variations over a small range throughout the 50 states. The survey asked for self-reporting of “episodes” of depression, as opposed to collecting data on actual clinical diagnosis. Some state was going to be put at the bottom of the average number derived, but it this is nothing but raw data as opposed to anything that really tells us anything about the cause or treatment of mental illness. The primary function of the survey was not a scientific study, but as a means to whip up funding support for mental health services nationwide. There is no evidence that the study really produced any meaningful conclusion. The study was an effort to “sell depression” and mental health services. It was guaranteed to make half the states feel bad about their mental health services. There is no evidence in the study that any level among the range of states was actually less than one ought to expect, or pathological per se. We may in fact be ALL very healthy mentally. But the study was reported as if, with enough money spent on mental health services, we could eliminate all depression, and it was an obligation of states to fund it.

Who on this board said that scientists should not look into whether the “mormonism” was a factor?

The complaints here are against those that seem to want us to mindlessly assume that LDS church teachings are the cause and “do something about it.”

It’s called advocacy. It means “public support for a particular cause or policy”, and it comes from an old word meaning to “summon or call to aid.” Sometimes it merges with a personal ministry to help those who are suffering.

Here are a few examples of advocacy for mental health.

1. Gordon Smith, senator from Oregon. After his family was touched in a tragic way by mental illness, he wrote a book about the experience and sponsored a bill to help fund suicide prevention at colleges.

2. Mary Jo Codey, former first lady of New Jersey. During her husband’s unexpected term as governor, she used the limelight to focus attention on the problem of postpartum depression and encourage positive legislation addressing the issue.

3. Barb and Jack and others who are willing to talk about the subject and provide information and personal experiences when the issue is discussed.

Advocacy or a personal ministry can be a vital part of healing from the effects of a life-changing experience. I discovered this by accident when I started to realize the positive side-effects of being a resource for other mothers whose babies were diagnosed with the same major health problem as mine.

As far as antidepressants and suicide, I don’t know all the information. I know for some ages that certain anti-depressants can increase suicidal thoughts and put people at risk for behavior. However, anti-depressants when properly prescribed have helped many people. I read a study about a woman in the early years of Prozac who had become stable and broke up with a bad man when taking Prozac. She was always the type even before that to take care of everybody. She never had energy until taking Prozac. I have another friend who was able to deal with his painful and nightmare past when he took an anti-depressant that gave him enough energy. Of course, there are many with a chemical need for an anti-depressant(or some other alternative therapy such as a special light or exercise regiment) who do not have such a traumatic past as those mentioned.

Why is it that I seem to make comments and come out of lurking when people discuss mental health? I really want to be associated with more than mental illness.