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PROVO — A friend who loves and is consistently by your side can go a long way in comforting a depressed spirit, gay and transgender students at Brigham Young University say in a new video.
Understanding Same-Gender Attraction – an independent and unofficial group of students and faculty at BYU that encourages discussion about same-gender attraction at the school and in the community – has created a video of various students talking about their struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts or attempts.
“I started developing feelings of depression. But for a long time I kept them to myself because I was ashamed I felt depressed,” one participant in the video said. “I was ashamed that I was having a harder time dealing with life than other people seemed to.”
Each participant recounting their stories of harsh parents, social pressure and contradictions of their feelings with religious teachings contributing to their depression.
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A group of Brigham Young University students is working to improve the state of gay members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.“Everything that I did I never felt that I was good enough, that I was meeting everyone’s expectations and meeting God’s expectations,” another participant said.
Several said that as their depression deepened, they turned to self-harm or attempts of suicide. Nationally, LGBT individuals are twice as likely to attempt or have attempted suicide during grades 7 through 12 as straight peers, according to the Center for Disease Control. According to numbers obtained by the USGA, 74 percent of LGBT students at BYU have contemplated suicide and 24 percent have attempted suicide.
“I decided one night that if nobody cared, maybe they would care if I wasn’t there anymore,” another participant said.
While some said reading scriptures or turning to teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints helped, other said people pushing religion on them at the time didn’t help. But nearly everyone said that having someone love them and be there for them helped the most.
“You can’t just tell someone you love them, you have to show it to them,” one participant said. “Because, when you’re in a situation where you feel like you need to die and you want to do something about that, sometimes all we hear in our head is noise.”
