Thanks for your polite response. I've seen references debating general suicide levels in Utah, USA (one interesting, later debunked I think), but I think people tend to believe what they want, and I haven't researched it. My personal experience seeing a wide variety of situations in my own family and others, including many problem types that people experience in life, strongly bears out the quote (Tolstoy?) that happy families are all alike, and miserable ones are each miserable in their own way. Following certain principles leads to the predictable results. We all have hard problems; having the life tools available to deal with them and use them as building blocks instead of being crushed by them, makes me feel very fortunate.

I hope you don't mind if I add, to to try to somewhat dissuade others' anger: Some people respond harshly when one who is not atheist simply says what one knows personally from experience. It's usually good to hear a variety of viewpoints. I just know what I see, etc and how it all relates. So I just try to keep going forward with purpose and direction, because I know where it leads, and the things I can't control will be OK eventually.

ps: I certainly don't mean all sadness is one's own fault, or that medication is never warranted, nor do I wish to minimize the realities we can all face as individuals. But life decisions, perspective, forgiveness, knowledge of purpose and answers to the big questions, support systems, etc etc, seem to matter most of all.