Latter-day Saint Life

10 Mental Health Resources to Help You and Your Loved Ones

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The fight for stable mental health is a difficult battle to take on alone. So, we've compiled a list of resources that give you and those you love a safe place to turn for help and advice.


Beginning with an open and frank exploration of her own experience with clinical depression, Jane Clayson Johnson goes on to share stories gathered from interviews with more than 150 men, women, and teens—all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—who have suffered from depression.

Within these stories is a plea to change the dialogue surrounding depression, particularly among Latter-day Saints, who face unique struggles as they try to fit a disease manifest through sorrow into a religion centered on a "plan of happiness."

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Addie loves nothing more than curling up on the couch with her dog, Duck, and watching The Great British Baking Show with her mom. It's one of the few things that can help her relax when her OCD kicks into overdrive. She counts everything. All the time. She can't stop. Rituals and rhythms. It's exhausting.

When Fitz was diagnosed with schizophrenia, he named the voices in his head after famous country singers. The adolescent psychiatric ward at Seattle Regional Hospital isn't exactly the ideal place to meet your soul mate, but when Addie meets Fitz, they immediately connect over their shared love of words, appreciate each other's quick wit, and wish they could both make more sense of their lives.

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Early and appropriate treatment of mental illness can reduce much suffering for both those who are afflicted and those who love them. Edited by three notable LDS clinical psychologists, this comprehensive resource will help LDS families have a more accurate understanding of mental illness. It includes chapters on anxiety disorders, mood disorders, depression, ADHD, eating disorders, cognitive disorders, and dozens of other mental illnesses. You'll learn how to strengthen spiritual, social, and emotional coping skills, and find out how mental illnesses can be treated and where to find competent help. Also great for Church leaders and others in counseling roles.

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In the October 2013 General Conference, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland addressed how to best respond when mental or emotional challenges confront you or those you love. He councils us, "Trust in God. Hold on in His love. Know that one day the dawn will break brightly and all shadows of mortality will flee. Though we may feel we are 'like a broken vessel,' as the Psalmist says, we must remember, that vessel is in the hands of the divine potter. " 

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a website dedicated to helping people deal with and understand mental health.

MentalHealth.ChurchofJesusChrist.org is filled with resources that may help you.

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After a very successful career in network news, broadcast journalist Jane Clayson Johnson was finally the wife and mother she had always dreamed of becoming when she found herself overcome with a darkness she didn’t recognize. On this episode of All In, Jane discusses the clinical depression that blindsided her and what she has learned from interviewing over 150 Latter-day Saints who are also facing this difficult challenge.

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In the October 2013 General Women's session, President Thomas S. Monson provided a powerful testimony that we never walk alone. "As our prayers ascend heavenward, let us not forget the words taught to us by the Savior. When He faced the excruciating agony of Gethsemane and the cross, He prayed to the Father, 'Not my will, but thine, be done.' Difficult as it may at times be, it is for us, as well, to trust our Heavenly Father to know best how and when and in what manner to provide the help we seek."

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Carol M. Stephens, in the October 2016 General Women's session shares how Christ is our Master Healer. "The Master Healer can comfort and sustain us as we experience painful 'realities of mortality,' such as disaster, mental illness, disease, chronic pain, and death. . . You don’t have to experience the painful realities of mortality—alone."

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Gospel Media released a series of videos about mental health issues. These videos provide understanding and light while featuring several members of the church who deal with mental health problems on a daily basis. 

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Mental health is a topic that has been increasingly thrust into the spotlight in recent years. But how do depression and other mental illnesses impact members of the Church in particular, and how can we help?

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