WSJ Reports-Cluster suicides in Herriman, Utah!

[_kairos]

Sad reading in this past weekend's print WSJ (sorry i cannot digitally link-someone help if you can). From a front page column to two more pages, spread with pictures, the summary is: A teenboy committed suicide followed by six more in a 12 month period ending in May 2018 in Herriman, UT southwest of SLC , a Mormon dominated community of 30-35000; one teen left notes(not made public) others did not so reasons for the suicides are largely unknown; school officials hunkered down and reported that "we lost another Mustang" in reporting the deaths over the schoo lPA system- officials claimed talking about it could cause even more suicides- that has changed with counselors being brought in to listen/talk with students; apparently the Mormon community is divided by those who participate and those who don't, eg church attendance, seminary, mission calls, programs and events-the "don'ts" teens apparently often shunned by the "do's"; Mormon perfectionism claimed by some to be a cause- competititon to who can be the best Peter priesthood and super Molly Mormon; drug use after falling from Mormon grace and dropping school grades cited as a contributing factor; LBGT teens feeling guilty about their sexuality and the lds church's position/non-position on the subject; church trying to remove the "stigma" of suicides ( until lately church indicated suicide was a serious sin); parents with heads in the sand on admitting mental health issues in their teens and not wanting to "talk about" the suicides.
Cluster suicides are uncommon in the US, about 5 communities a year, but where they occur and the causes are largely unknown.
Could it be that members leaving the church and those staying have caused teens to ask the questions "what the hell is going on" and "where do I fit" in what is an important area ,like school , to them and "what do I or should I believe" given that the Mormon church is literally breaking down in front of their eyes- hard questions for teens to grapple with imho!

Comments?
k

[_Mormonicious]

Supported by https://www.totalbeauty.com/content/blo ... ery-140502

"Julie de Azevedo Hanks, licensed psychotherapist and founder and executive director of Wasatch Family Therapy, is a Mormon with more than 20 years of experience counseling women in Utah. She says that it's the grouping of like-minded people that may contribute to Utah's high plastic surgery rate.

"There are things about Utah that are unique, and I think those things happen when you get a large, homogenous group together, living together for a long time."

Nineteen-year-old Utah resident and ex-Mormon Elizabeth Folsom*, who left the church about two years ago, agrees, linking the high instance of plastic surgery among Utah residents to a culture that she says is driven by perfectionism.

"The Mormons in Utah are surrounded by other Mormons. They aren't automatically 'better' than their neighbors, because their neighbors are Latter Day Saints (LDS), too," says Folsom. Her stepfather, a bishopric (translation for non-Mormons: "head honcho") of his ward, bought her mother two breast augmentations over the course of their 13-year marriage. He also gifted his new wife, whom he married a few years after their divorce, with breast implants. She says that Mormons in Utah turn to external methods (e.g. plastic surgery) to feel that they are fulfilling their potential for perfection, a goal that de Azevedo Hanks says may be derived from scripture but is misconstrued socially.

"There are some Mormon doctrine issues that come into play that I think are misunderstood," says de Azevedo Hanks. She's referring to an oft-cited passage from the Bible's New Testament, Matthew 5:48, which reads, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.""

It's a sentiment echoed by 33-year-old Mormon mother-of-two Amy Smith*, who had a breast augmentation at 18 and liposuction a few years later.

""There is this weird thing in Utah," says Smith, who lives in Utah but formerly resided in Los Angeles. "In Los Angeles, people accept you for who you are and being different is valued, but here it's very 'keeping up with the Joneses.' You have to try to be perfect, everyone is kind of cookie-cutter and everyone looks the same. I think that the [popularity of] plastic surgery has to do with the image of being perfect. That's very big in Mormon culture. If you're different, you're kind of ostracized."

Smith, who says her mother and brother have also had plastic surgery, admits that it seems odd that her whole family has had it. "We're not weird, we're not crazy," she rushes to explain. "When I say it like that it sounds crazy, but it's just the normal thing to do here. Is that weird?""

[_kairos]

Excellent insight into Cluster boob jobs!

[_Mormonicious]

Excellent insight into Cluster boob jobs!

The bigger (pun intended) point of the Article is that the need to differentiate and stand out by enhancing physical looks make you "good" different in the collective, whereas as pointed out in the WSJ Article being different than the "norm" is a "bad" thing in the collective.

In other words Big Titties good, Free thought and expressions bad.

[_Gadianton]

Ouch, Mormonicious, when you put it that way.

What I find fascination is that contrary to the Mopologists insisting otherwise, Mormonism seems very compatible with transhumanism.