Even mental-health professionals disagree about diagnoses and labels and treatment. "There are people in the psychiatric community who don't even think there should be psychotherapy," says Tomb about psychiatrists who think medication is the only answer. "And there are others who say, 'If Freud didn't say it, it isn't worth saying.' And there are others who feel that the bigger issues are more important than what you thought about your mother. And then there's the cognitive-behavioral group."

Clearly all this adds up to a tall order for the average pastor or lay bishop when a parishioner sits down some Sunday after church and confides that he's been feeling depressed or anxious or obsessed by feelings of guilt. And yet, more and more, clergy are faced with church members who need help with mental-health issues.

Rick Hawks, a psychologist who is on the board of the Mental Health Resource Foundation, extrapolates that if, as is estimated by President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, in any given year between 5 and 7 percent of adults and children have a serious mental illness, "in a normal LDS ward of 400 there would be 24 who suffer each year from serious mental illness."

There was a time, not too many years ago, says psychotherapist Dr. Jay Steineckert of ldscounseling.com, when bishops had "an unhidden agenda" that said to their flock "if you're living the gospel you should be happy, and if you're unhappy you must be doing something wrong." Such a simplistic view of happiness "couldn't be farther from the truth," he says.

Occasionally, Steineckert still hears about a bishop who tells a mentally ill church member to pray harder. But the message from church members such as Morrison and former LDS General Authority C. Max Caldwell is that, as Caldwell recently said at the 2004 Utah Mental Health Conference, "It could happen to any of us. . . . No occupation, amount of money, church service or any other behavior can guarantee any of us that our lives will be free from physical or mental illness."

In his book, Morrison lists several myths about mental illness, including "all mental illness is caused by sin" and "all that people with mental illness need is a priesthood blessing."

"Without in any way denigrating the unique role of priesthood blessings," writes Morrison in his book, "may I suggest that ecclesiastical leaders are spiritual leaders and should not be expected to take on the roles of mental-health professionals. Almost all of them lack the professional skills and training to deal effectively with deep-seated mental illnesses and are well-advised to seek competent professional assistance for those in their charge who are in need."