Having Depression Doesn’t Mean We Have to Suffer Alone
“I was scared that if the Bishop found out I was depressed, I would be excommunicated.”
It was stories like these that prompted me and my friend Betsy Chatlin, a therapist, to collaborate on Reaching for Hope: An LDS Perspective on Recovering from Depression. I was shocked at the number of women I knew who quietly admitted to me that they had been struggling for years, each isolated in shame and feeling she was the only one with this terrible burden. In their stories, I recognized my own. I had believed my depression was the result of a character weakness, a fatal flaw that made me a burden to those around me and ultimately unfit for exaltation. This was all wrong, but my distorted thinking couldn’t see the error. Happiness became a dim memory. I felt isolated and immersed in darkness and despair.
