Does mental illness run in your family?
 

Does your family have history of mental health problems? or emotional problems?

Did you grow up around either?

Do any of your family members still have problems?

Are the problems they have similair to yours in any way?

Or even do the friends you have have mental illness or emotional problems? Are they similair to yours? Did you pick or bond well with because of this?

Just some questions that got me wondering

Frankiex

I believe that with mental illness, there is a small genetic factor, but also there are lots of other reason a person develops a mental illness. The environment they are brought up in plays a part, as does any traumatic events etc.

My mum's biological parents were both diagnosed with schizophrenia, however my mum never met her parents and grew up away from them. She never developed schizophrenia, but has problems with mild anxiety/depression.

My dad has problems with depression as does his brother.

I grew up with my parents, and I am diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and anxiety.

My brother seems to be fine, though, he worries about things sometimes but not to the extent of having an anxiety illness or anything.

In school none of my friends had mental illnesses or self harmed. In college, every single person of my group of friends self harmed and had depression or something similar. We didn't know about each other at first and it came out a month or so later that we all had problems. We thought it was quite cool actually, we could all be outcasts together.

i don't know if it counts, but my uncle died of alcoholism at about 40. my younger sister was depressed for a bit but she's happier since leaving school so i think it was situational. she has her days but that's more of a girl thing i think.
i can't remember my uncle at all, though i was old enough to at the time, my memory's really bad.
i've had friends who had EDs but by the time i met them they were recovered. when i was 10 i had a schoolfriend who SHed but we weren't close and after a while we lost contact. once she left the school we were at she never mentioned the SH so no one else did.

no-one in my family has MH problems...just me :(

a few of my friends have/had depression but thats not why i made friends with them or why they made friends with me

x

a few people in my family have had depression, alcoholism and there have been a few suicides... none of these are people I've met though...
my aunt is basically a hypochondriac (and my step-brother is to a lesser extent), she has a thing I can't remember the name of... but it's basically that. she gets psycosinetic (can't spell) diseases, so she thinks she has something and will get all the symptoms and everything, often to the extent where a doctor will be fooled... something to do with gaining attention as when she was younger her brother (my uncle) had lukimenia and got loads of attention so she now associates illness with attention subconsciously.
my mum had a drinking problem for a while, but she's pritty much over that now... and she had depression for which she was given prozac, which sent her suicidal... but since she decided to go to college and uni and get a job she seems to have recovered, so maybe more of an environment thing than a chemical one.


then there's me... I'm not officially diagnosed with anything though, just suspected by doctors and my old councilor that I have an anxiety disorder... still awaiting an actual diagnosis

I have a big history of sevre depression in my family both sides. My gran, auntie, cousion and me still suffer. I have Bipolar Disorder and BPD. I grew up with my mums depression (she OD once) me and my sister both had serious mental health problems including we both SH and lots of sections and addmissions.

None of school friends did, well 1 not so close 1 did. After about 10 long hospitals admissions I've made friends (that I still have) and a wonderful gf( who i still have ). I think our illness did bring us togother.

I'm just very interested in the gentic and enviromental factors

Frankiex

well from my understanding (did a module 2 years ago on abnormal psychology and genetics) mental disorders are not strictly genetic. if 2 people have one and have a child it will not be garenteed to have one too. however, it will have a greater likelihood of developing one. very few mental disorders are developed within the womb, or even before the age of 2 (when the brain is fully developed, bar white matter)

one of the only mental disorders to show any real strong genetic link is scizophenia, and even that can develop in different ways...


with things like depression though there are the chemical forms and the environmental forms, both of these can have a genetic link and your genes can make you more suseptable to changes or negative effects in/of your environment.

i'm pretty sure various personality disorders have been passed down through my family, from generation to generation.

Yea my family certainly does have a history of mental illness but non of which i was grew up around, well not a lot anyway.

My dad in his younger days was a self harmer and is now a recovering alcoholic,
His brother has a MH disorder (not sure what tho) but it led him to kill his best friend and is now in a forensic unit and has been for the guts of 20 years.
My dads dad was also an alcohlic and died because of this,

None of this I grew up knowing because I'm only getting to no my dad now as he wasnt about when I was growing up so its strange how it all worked out.

However my granny has had depression most of her life due to having post natal depression which sorta multiplied as she had 13 babys, My mum was always on anti-depressants to help her cope but I wouldnt say she was depressed , not that I had known of as she was on them shortly after I was born, and then a few of my mums cousins had been in hospitals and stuff due to mental illness I think one of them had schziphrenia not sure about the rest.

I think thats about it lol... cant think of anyone else, so I suppose in ways I got the genes even tho most of it I didnt grow up around mental illness really...

got me thinking now =/

Well, as far as I know I'm the only one who's been diagnosed and has treatment...
Bear in mind too that I'm an only child. [mum didn't want to go through tests before she could have another child, and also with my father being as unstable as he was...one child was enough to cope with...]
But...
There's the mysterious 'mad great great great you get the idea uncle or whatever'.
Then...
My mum's mum had some anxiety-insecurity-somatisation going on. The circumstances of the heart attack that she died from, when my mum was in her early 20s, are a little 'suspect' too.

Neither of my parents have ever been diagnosed..
But...this is what my therapist and I have pretty much deduced...
Mum - post natal depression and PTSD from traumatic birth of me and everything that surrounded that, as well as depression from her mum and brother dying fairly close - her mum from heart attack brought on by critical neighbours, and her brother from drowning at sea, as well as domestic violence in her marriage with my dad for the first 17 or so years.
Dad - Depression, with irritability and paranoia, reclusiveness/social anxiety. Some borderline stuff most likely. Mostly caused by his own very restrictive and repressive mother.

Me, well, I'm diagnosed with longstanding treatment resistant depression, and am on the trauma-dissociation continuum, due to cumulative traumas and abuse throughout a lot of my life.

Does your family have history of mental health problems? or emotional problems?

Mental illness seems to be quite prevalent in my maternal family. I am not sure my mothers condition although I suspect it to have been bipolar because she was on lithium and her symptoms match the bipolar symptoms. My biological and adoptive grandmothers both suffer/suffered from diagnosed Depression as did two of my cousins. Alcoholism runs on my Dad's side of the family.

Did you grow up around either?
My mother was very ill at certain points of when I was growing up and was in and out of hospital. I knew about one of my cousins too, but not about my grandparents. My mother was the main one because she relied so heavily on being cared for during bad phases. I also knew and saw my Dad drink too much, every day.

Do any of your family members still have problems?
My Grandma's Depression is back again and has been for the last year or so but my mother's illness seems more under control now that it used to be. She still does things which make me concerned she is ill again but they are not as extreme as her passed behaviours.


Are the problems they have similair to yours in any way?
Possibly. I haven't been formally diagnosed but the emotions they exhibit, especially the depression seem quite similar. Also some of my mother's unhealthy coping mechanisms are very similar/the same to mine.

Or even do the friends you have have mental illness or emotional problems? Are they similair to yours? Did you pick or bond well with because of this?
One of my closest friends has been diagnosed with BPD and is currently doing DBT. She self harms as well but I didn't know any of these things about her until quite a while into our friendship and I had been self harming for about 4/5 years by then. Another one of my friends also has a few emotional problems and is prone to getting depressed but again, I didn't know this until about a year into our friendship. The rest of my friends don't have any mental illness or emotional problems that I know of or even suspect. I think I have become closer with my friends who do have 'problems' but those problems are not the basis for our friendship by any stretch of the imagination. It is nice to have someone to talk to who I know won't judge and who will understand.

Dad's side:
Nana and grandpa are/were alcoholics.
Nana had depression.
2 Aunts were alcoholics.
Uncle was an alcoholic.
Cousin had a drugs problem and alcohol problems.
Uncle is mentally disabled.

Mother's side:
N/A

Friends etc:
1 friend at school that sh'ed.
A few friends at school tried sh for a bit but stopped.
A few friends at college that did.
Knew of a few people at school that had ED's.
Friends from here.. Obviously :p
Knew of a few random people that sh'ed outside of school but nto that many.
One friend from first school is schitzophrenic.

Does your family have history of mental health problems? or emotional problems?
Yes. Mum, Dad (i think), and i think my maternal grandmother, and my paternal grandfather probably has PTSD (because of the war, though, so its very unlikely to be genetic).

Did you grow up around either?
When growing up I spent most of th etime around my mum (dad seemed to wrok 24/7) and she was depressed and bulimic, and an alcholoic.

Do any of your family members still have problems?
Mum still has all three problems, dad has some issues going on which i'm pickin gup on but mum is in denial about.

Are the problems they have similair to yours in any way?
Exactly the same. Bulimia was almost a lernt behviour for me, I caught my mum puring when i was about 6/7 years old, and i know i had purged at least twice before i was 9. She also has quite serve depression, which i seem to have inherited. I am 17 years old and I have never been drunk, or drank more than a sip of alcohol, because i'm scared it would turn into anothe rcopeing mechanisim liek ti did with my mum.

Or even do the friends you have have mental illness or emotional problems? Are they similair to yours? Did you pick or bond well with because of this?
A lot of my friends over the years have had mental health problems. though we usually discovered this long after we became friends, but there was the rare occasion i had pciked up on it and deliberatly sought to befreind them, so they wouldnt feel alone and owuld have someone to talk to if they wanted. I wouldnt say both haveing mental health issues made this friends close to me, but maybe the experiances/more mature attidude to life we developed because of them may have ment we got on better.

Does your family have history of mental health problems? or emotional problems?
My father was a gambling addict, and my mum suffered from depression and had a nervous breakdown. My brother also suffers from depression, and my auntie and my mum suffer from SAD.

Did you grow up around either?
My father left when I was two, so I never saw that side of him. I live with my mum and saw her depression and her breakdown and it was horrible. I lived with my brother until I was about 17 and always thought he was depressed.

Do any of your family members still have problems?
My mum does take antidepressants but they're for her M.E. symptoms and she swears she's not depressed - not sure I believe her though. My brother is still depressed, and I'm not sure about my father. My auntie and mum suffer SAD every year.

Are the problems they have similair to yours in any way?
I have an addictive personality like my father did/does. I suffer from apparently severe depression (I don't agree though) like my mum did and I suffer anxiety like she did when she had her nervous breakdown. My brother and I seem very similar from what we've told each other.

Or even do the friends you have have mental illness or emotional problems? Are they similair to yours? Did you pick or bond well with because of this?
I became closer to one of my good friends through finding each other on here - that was weird! But a few of my friends have had issues with self harm/eating disorders and one of my friends has just been diagnosed with depression. So yeah, they're similar. It doesn't really make me bond more with them, it's just a fact about them and I'll help if I can. Most of my friends don't know about my issues, so we don't really bond over them. The only person that's an exception to is the friend I mentioned first.

Yes to all but my precise dxs aren't hereditary.

My maternal grandmother has had depression all her life and has recently been back on meds, for a long time when i was little she was in hospital because of not eating and stuff.
My paternal grandmother was on valium a long time but i'm not sure what for.
My mum has gets depressed i think but has never seen a doctor about it, i remember it being quite hard when we were growing up.
I used to have friends who sh at college and it was good to be able to talk about it and support each other to try and stop, because a lot of our other friends didn't understand. Now i have one good friend who sh and one who has depression and they are the ones who will tell me when i'm getting unwell because they can see it more than others would. probably because i'm more honest with them because they understand.

I'm bipolar, my brother's bipolar, my opa was bipolar, and possibly my lil cousin... My older cousins suffer from depression. My mom has a cousin who's schizo and great aunts have alizhermiers (not sure about the spelling) Then there's several in the family who have some social disorder... lol Couple people in the family don't want to have kids just because of our gene pool..lol And alot of my friends suffer from depression or have some social issues.. I still love 'em, though <3

Its funny because when i was younger i thought i was so "mad" compared to my family but as i've gotten older and analysed the behaviour of my family i realise that they probably do have issues too.

Mam- i'm pretty sure she has OCD. she is very clean concious and seems to be constantly tidying up, she also has some very funny food habits (a lot of which i now have) from spending time in a hospital to recouperate from TB she can be sick from looking at certain foods. i spent a lot of time with my mam when i was growing up and i think i have picked up a lot of my "habits" from her.

Dad- he'll openly admits to having some sort of seasonal thing, like SAD or something because he gets terrible in the winter, sometimes he looks really down. i dont think there is much else wrong with him though.

I also have a sister and brother who are both fine.

I do have one uncle with depression and is on medication and i suspect there are a few other family members with issues, one aunty was/is an alcoholic. Also i had one uncle who did unspeakable things to his children and then commited suicide consequently his children are severly disabled (although ive never met them).

So yes, i think it can run in families not only in a genetic way but also just from spending time with them over the years.

Does your family have history of mental health problems? or emotional problems?
Yes!!!! :blink:
Sister - anorexia (diagnosed after me).
Mum - it's recently been suggested by her T that she may have OCD.
Auntie (Mum's side) - bipolar, attempted suicide, in psych hospital for ages.
2nd cousin (Mum's side) - anorexia for about 30 years.
Grandpa (Mum's side) - suspected bipolar disorder but he died many years ago, he was in psych hospital but no one knows if/what he was diagnosed.
Cousin - admitted to psych unit for depression.
Cousin - been sectioned many times for something but not sure what, it was a long time ago.

Did you grow up around either?
I quite affected by my Auntie's problems. It was very difficult for us all, especially when she'd OD and then phone my Mum to tell her and then hang up and disappear.

Do any of your family members still have problems?
Yes, in particular, my sister.

Are the problems they have similair to yours in any way?
Yes but in varying degrees. I have OCD, bipolar and an ED.

Or even do the friends you have have mental illness or emotional problems? Are they similair to yours? Did you pick or bond well with because of this?
None of my friends from school do but I have friends with similar problems who've I met in treatment or from online support boards.

My parents have no mental health problems, but my dad's sister is a paranoid schizophrenic.
Actually, I think my dad has OCD but he hides it very very well, so i didn't grow up amongst any abnormalities.
One of my friends pretended to have mental health problems, and none of them are 'normal' - they have a lot of the same beliefs and attitudes as me, but aren't mentally ill in the slightest.
I used to think that my BPD could be related to my aunties schizophrenia.

I watched a DVD about BPD yesterday, and the psychiatrist said there's no genetic element in BPD. It's almost exclusively down to early childhood trauma or invalidation.

Childhood trauma doesnt always mean abuse though. I was never abused and I have BPD. We think it's my traumatic birth and other things.

My (biological) Mum has BPD. My Father has Schizo-affective disorder. My Aunt (maternal side) was anorexic years back. Depression is quite rife in family but then they had an awful (abusive) upbringing.

I grew up looking after my (bio) Mum. Mopping up, first aiding and talking out of suicide most weeks from age 11.

My father is more managing of his illness. He had it when I was growing up but I never knew of it. I knew he had something but it was well controled and I saw/knew of much. It is more now I know about it and he can talk to me.

(bio) Mums' illness wiped off on me somewhat. I learnt the art of SI from a pro. I resent her for it tbh. I resent her for putting me through what she did.

I have a fair few friends with MH problems but then I go to a drop in place and have met a few good friends.

I guess I am surroundied by it.

I don't think there's such thing as there being non valid causes for people developing mental illnesses.

There's probably a million and one different reasons a person can develop a mental illness.

My dad's mum was an alcoholic and had depression which I think led to a suicide attempt too. She's recovered now and has been for as long as I can remember.

My mum's mum has manic depression but has been on medication controlling it so I have no memory of how it affected her.

My mum has had depression.

I have depression, anxiety and BPD.

One of my best friends from school has depression (I suspect) and self-harms.
My two other best friends I met in hospital and they have a range of mental illnesses including depression, anorexia, bulimia, CPTSD etc.

Both my parents are on various antidepressants and have been for pretty much as long as i can remember. I think there is a genetic factor as well as an environmental factor eg. stress caused by worrying about/ caring for mentally ill parents could trigger mental illness.
A few of my friends suffer from mental health problems. I met some of them at therapy so i wouldn't have met them if it wasn't for being mentally ill. With other friends i think i felt a connection towards them before i even knew they SIed etc.

My paternal grandma has a history of depression, for which she was on meds, but claims to be over now.

My uncle (dad's brother) is currently in a phase of severe mental ill health. He was on section over the summer, but is now refusing to deal with the MH services or any medical staff since it was lifted, so he has no concrete diagnosis. He's also got a history of attempted suicide.

My aunt (dad's sister) was anorexic when she was at uni, but that was well before I was born.

My mum's side are all fine.

As for my friends, I've lost a lot of people to addictions, and I do know other SIers, but we kind of don't really chat about it. At school, I think I sought out people with "issues" as a way of kind of validating my own, but as I've got older I've moved away from that.

My mother used to struggle a lot with anxiety when I was a young child, but she's better now. She apparently had Anorexia as a teenager as well as depression. Other than that, my mothers side of the family is free from mental health problems as far as I know.
My dads side of the family however is different. There are a few young people with conduct disorders or anti social personalities and one is in prison because of it. My dad either has Asperger Syndrome (which I've been diagnosed with) or Schizoid personality disorder but refuses to seek help.

To be honest, the people with mental health issues on my dads side of the family are more like cousins, so I doubt me having problems has anything to do with genes. I suppose I could have gotten 'something' from either my mum or dad but I don't really know. Maybe I'm just a fluke.

I know alcohol problams run on my mums side of the family, she too has one. She also has OCD and did have bad anxiety when I was younger, she now has depression aswell its only affected her for the last few years though. When she was a teenager she was an anorexic too. Thats it as far as I know. I hardly know anything about my dads familiy, but when he was younger he was really shy, not sure if that counts...

I woudn't say I grew up around it though, just because my mum tried to hide it all from me, I only noticed it a bit, I noticed her anxiety most. Im similar to my mums problams slightly since I have OCD and have anxiety problams, but my anxiety is mostly around people, and shes doesn't have problems talking to people...my only friends who suffer from a mental illness are online.

My mother is an alcoholic, and she is on anti depressants.

My sister could have ADHD or some other mental health disorder. She also shows classic signs of OCD. She has in the past made herself sick and stopped eating and she lost A LOT of weight... she does eat quite good now though.

My father, IMHO, is a narccisist, and I suspect he has something wrong with him.

I sometimes think my mother has ADHD but I think the alcohol has killed her brain cells.

I go to a special needs school, so everyone has some sort of mental health illness/emotional problems.

My mother was adopted so as far as grandparents go on her side and blood related family, I'm at a loss.

My fathers side ... not sure, I don't see them or him anymore. I see my grandparents and they seem okay though.

I've received in-patient DBT treatment for BPD for 10 months. They said most was enviromental i.e invalidating experiances e.g trauma. However according to them a small part of it was genetic. They called it 'sensitiity to emotional stimuli' Basically that mean 'very emotional' traits can be passed down.

Personally I think I agree but I'm not sure

Frankiex

I'm not sure about my dad's side because I hardly know anything about him/his side of the family but I know there's a history of mental illness in my mum's side. I'm not sure what though.

A couple of my friends have been diagnosed with depression and eating disorders too but this was years after we met so it wasn't the reason we made friends. It gives us another thing in common now though.

Thx for the repleys there very interesting. I understand how hard it is 2 share basically I'm saying thank you! Keep em coming

Frankiex

Does your family have history of mental health problems? or emotional problems?
I believe so yes. Most of my family seem to have problems with depression but my mother has a severe form of schizophrenia, an ED, possibly PTSD and some other problems too.

Did you grow up around either?
Well, I was taken away from Mum at the age of 6 and was raised by Nanna and Granddad. Granddad had depression, but I was already affected by mental health issues by then.

Do any of your family members still have problems?
My mum especially does...

Are the problems they have similair to yours in any way?
There are some... I sometimes hallucinate, have severe anxiety, depression, and ED-NOS. I have a light form of OCD too.

Or even do the friends you have have mental illness or emotional problems? Are they similair to yours? Did you pick or bond well with because of this?
I know for a fact that one of my college friends has struggles with depressive phrases... but one of my online friends has problems, and although we didn't know about them when we became friends, we have become a little closer when we finally told each other.

my brother has depression etc (im not supposed to know hence i dont know the etc bit). My maternal aunt has had problems in the past. My dads brother chose last month to tell me he tried to commit suicide a few times in the past and my my aunt (not a blood relation) has suffered with depression and anorexia. she still has problems although not half as bad as they were.

and yes, quite a lot of my very good friends (i dont have that many) have issues of one sort or another. i guess with a few of them we feel more confortable together. the others i got to know before we got to trust each other and so trusted each other with what was happening in our lives.

take care x

my dads whole family seems to have had mentle problems of some sort or the other. my grandma (who i never met) was possibly bipolar, she was also an alcoholic and pyschic wich i think sent her a bit crazy (those who doubt she knew about all the grandkids - she never met any of us she died when my dad was 18) she then killed herself on morphine she had for lung cancer. i'm not sure about family before her. but her kids, my dad and my auntie have had problems, dad suffers serious depression, my auntie was pyschotic. then all of their kids we suffer from stuff, one cousin serious depression, another depression, another god knows what, she was very weird, and now i think its just depression, i'm bipolar.
i think that nurture has something to do with it, my dad and his sister and one of my cousins (she was adopted) had a really bad upbringing. however my sister and my brother escaped having any problems. and all of us who do have problems had totally different upbringings, all ****ed up to a point but all very different!
i would also say that my mom has some problems but have no idea what they are, shes awful at times.
so i think that mentle illness is biological, and some to do with nurture, i think you can have the mentle illness gene and depending on your surroundings and how you learn to cope it will either show its ugly head or you will never hear from it.
as for friends, i do get on easier with people who have some sort of problem, as you tend to be coming from the same place? if that makes sense, tho i do have friends who are incredibly normal!
xxx

My Mum was an alcoholic and she died because of it, I think she also might have been depressed.

Yes, that's exactly what they said on the DVD. That some babies are born emotionally sensitive, and that combined with trauma/invalidation can set off BPD.

My mum had anorexia- although I only found this out a couple of years ago- and my brothers and sisters don't know this even now. On my dad's side there's no mental illness. I grew up with both my parents and would not have been able to guess about my mum's past struggle with an eating disorder. However, she has always had very low self-esteem and it has always been very obvious to me and my siblings.
My mum still has low self esteem and, since my problems with depression grew out of control (resulting in a long hospitalisation), my mum has struggled with mild depression. She takes St John's Wort for it, though was offered citalopram by her GP (weirdly enough, as at the time I was also taking citalopram, so I think that's why she declined it).
I think the similarity annoys me sometimes to be honest, though I know that of course it's not my mum's fault, because her low mood sometimes affects mine.
My friends I met in hospital are now who I would consider my best friends as we have been through so so much together. Therefore we all have, or have had, severe mental illness, though are trying to recover. I think we really support each other through the hardest times without loading our problems on to each other. I find them such a great support, even thinking at my lowest that I couldn't act on my suicidal thoughts because of how badly that could affect them. My friends from school, on the other hand, don't really have mental illness, however I know of one who used to self-harm and struggled with bulimia. One has some anxiety problems and sees a therapist but I don't think she has a diagnosis.
So around my friends from school I find myself feeling somewhat different because of everything I've experienced, witnessed, and felt. But sometimes I see it as a good thing, because I know that, because of my hospital experiences due to my mental health problems, I think I have gained so much more insight, and it has made me much more mature.

I hope this helps a bit :)
xxxx

No, as far as I can tell I am the only person in my family with a history of mental illness. Well, my dad's mom's dad (my great grandpa) had some problems but a grenade went off near his head in WWI, and he died when my dad was like 6 so I have no idea what his specific issues were.

I didn't grow up around any mental health issues except my own. There were certainly emotional issues (I was verbally and sometimes physically abused by my dad, and I was emotionally and physically abusive to my little brother).

My dad no longer has the problem of being abusive, he is actually a much stronger and better man than he was a few years ago. My brother has grown up to be very verbally abusive, though, because I was abusive to him when we were young.

They don't have issues with mental health though. None of my family self-injures, nor do they deal with depression or paranoia/anxiety.

A couple of my friends have mental illness too. My best friend was sexually and verbally abused when she was young, and she deals with a great deal of depression. A couple of my high school friends also dealt with depression. One of my good college friends battles depression and suicidal tendencies.

I don't think we pick each other because of our mental illnesses, because when I became friends with these people, none of us knew the others were ill. But we do share a certain bond, having been through many of the same things together.

my dad had depression, substance abuse, anger issues, and my oldest sister had depression and several other issues too

so i suppose mental health does run in my family

my stuff comes from abuse trauma from babyhood up to 18yrs old. not sure it was the same for my dad but certainly was for my sister

legs run in my family too. always have