To be worried about potential hereditary mental illness

[Sunshineonacloud]

My son is young. My brothers have clinical depression and borderline personality disorder and there is potential undiagnosed bipolar disorder down my male line as far back as grandparents. There is also some mental illness (eating disorders, self harm, depression) and substance abuse on my mother's side.

If your children are affected by metal health were there any early signs? Did you have a feeling it would happen from early on or not until adolescence.

I always thought bullying, isolation and an unstable home life were the main contributors to poor mental health however I feel genetics alone can create a predisposition and be a factor.

In the most sensitive way I'd be interested to hear from mums who children are affected by mental illness and likewise those who have mental illness in their family and their children are unaffected. What have your experiences been?

I read these things can run down male lines. Has this been anyone's experience?

Hugs to anyone who needs it. I know how hard this stuff can be 💐

I've worried about this too. I have a long term history of panic attacks, health anxiety, gad and ocd. My dh also has long term problems with complex ptsd, anxiety and depression. We have two children who are only 1 and 4. But the eldest is awaiting assessment for adhd and this is something we're now looking to ourselves for and I think we could both have adhd too as we tick all the boxes.

Both sides if the family also have mental health problems. Fir instance, my dad also has health anxiety and has had depression in the past.

I sometimes feel like we've passed on faulty genes to our dcs.

Thissucks12 sorry you are going through sadness and anxiety 😥
Do something nice, just for yourself, every single day 💕no matter what
xxx

There's a history of a few types of MH disorders in my family and interestingly both myself and my sibling have gone on to work in MH. I think it's important to remember that genetics aren't absolutely everything, the environment you're brought up in and the coping skills and resilience you build are really important. I used to really worry about inheriting my mums mh condition having grown up watching her struggle but now I feel very equipped to look after myself in a way I probably wouldn't have if I wasn't as aware of the importance of mental wellbeing as I am from watching her experience. I monitor myself probably more than others I know and I'm able to make changes or address things when I notice anything im not happy with. If you raise your DS to be emotionally intelligent, give him the language early on to articulate his feelings, to feel confident in sharing his thoughts and feelings and give him the experience of being respected and feeling safe and valued then that will go the longest way. I don't think you need to do anything other than that really. He's lucky to have such an informed and invested mummy who will have his back.

Rethink Mental Illness is a brilliant charity with lots of info for people with severe mental illness and concerned family members who may all be getting their heads round what all of it means, what psychosis is, what to expect in the future and what support is available.

They have a page with statistics around the likelihood of one family member having the same severe mental illness as another family member, depending on the relationship. It is encouraging:
www.rethink.org/advice-and-information/carers-hub/does-mental-illness-run-in-families/

As others have said, it’s often just luck of the draw. Yes, “genetics loads the gun and environment pulls the trigger” but that trigger isn’t necessarily relationships or home life. The potential “environmental trigger” referred to also includes viruses or other substances in food/soil. No one knows! For example, most cases of schizophrenia occur in people out of the blue, with zero family history of mental illness and without any kind of preceding trauma. But at the same time, having a family history of schizophrenia, depending on how closely related you are, increases a very small chance of developing it and turns it into a slightly less small (but still small!) chance of developing the illness.

Your son is fortunate to be growing up in an environment where he will be able to speak openly to you about these things, and should he ever start to feel chaotic in his mind or his behaviour, he will trust you and it will make getting help easier. The treatments for severe mental illnesses and community support teams are so much better than when we grew up. Many people with severe mental illness go on to live good lives. And not all the problems ascribed to “mental health problems” are due to organic mental illness, though of course they are evidence of severe mental distress. This may also be true of some of the things you mention in your family.

Enjoy your lovely son, OP! The odds are high that he won’t have any severe mental illness (see link above) but you are worried because you have witnessed what many others haven’t. We all worry about our children and it is based on our own experiences and difficulties. He will be fine and he has a great mum to help him either way!

@Sunshineonacloud my mother has paranoid schizophrenia she had it probably from
very early childhood not diagnosed until
she was 44 years old when she had her first serious psychotic episode/break down and was sectioned in a mental facility for a few weeks

I often worry and panic I will “develop” paranoid schizophrenia but it’s just an insecurity I have. I don’t have the illness but I do suffer with anxiety but I think that’s more because of the trauma and stress of my adolescent years, I was 18 when she was diagnosed it was a rough time. I can not tolerate any stress I don’t handle it well at all

For example, most cases of schizophrenia occur in people out of the blue, with zero family history of mental illness and without any kind of preceding trauma.

This isn’t reflective of the years and years of research into etiological factors of psychosis and schizophrenia, and why so much investment is put into early intervention services for psychosis. There are defined risk factors. Early intervention is correlated with lower advancement of First Episode of Psychosis (FEP) into development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Most meta analysis acknowledge the role of adversity, abuse, trauma, neglect, obstetric complications, inflammation, HPA activation etc in people at Ultra High Risk (UHR) of psychosis.

Yes @mysteryobtuse I’m sorry that I was wrong about preceding trauma. I stand corrected. There are of course also cases of schizophrenia that truly have not been related to preceding abuse or neglect, and I have seen the guilt and confusion that racks family members (parents and partners especially). I am sorry that I was wrong about the meta-analyses around preceding trauma, I was obviously misinformed.

However, it is true that the vast majority of people with psychosis and/or schizophrenia do not have a family history of severe mental illness. I also still stand by one of my points which is that there is this huge worry about heritability among people with family members who have experienced psychosis, but there are so so many other factors that cause SMI (as you outlined) and no single gene or risk factor has been identified. The worry of developing severe mental illness is like the sword Damocles for those who have grown up with parents who have experienced it. I am so sorry @tinx that sounds incredibly traumatic. You are so courageous, have been through such a lot and deserve stability and predictability in your life after all of that. I hope that you have love and support now. x

And yes I am aware of the importance of early intervention for psychosis. Which is why I was encouraging OP that a.) the odds are extremely high that her lovely son will never develop a severe mental illness and b.) if he does then he will be able to access good support, particularly in a supportive environment where he can talk about this stuff and his mum will be alert to it.

Despite meta-analyses and Cochrane reviews, the truth is that schizophrenia and psychosis are complex, presentations vary highly, and the low heritability risk is misunderstood by the general public and it causes undue stress and worry to family members who are already stressed and worried. Even answers to the AIBU poll suggest a lot of people think most mental illness is heritable when it is much more complex than just genes.

Sending you big hugs OP. Your son will do well with such a caring mum💐

There's definitely something from my father's line of the family. Every generation there's so many family members affected. Due to these issues my siblings and I have been aware from an early age of looking after our mental health and it has reduced the stigma. I guess we know we're high risk. I see it as being the same as heightened cancer risk etc.

I can relate to this, @IrishMamaMia. Having seen what untreated mental illness led to for my Dad (several suicide attempts, being sectioned), I’m very aware of the importance of seeking help before my anxiety spirals out of control. I’ve never got as ill as my Dad has and I’m determined not to.🤞

Same for my DS, having counseling early in life has already helped him develop coping strategies for anxiety.
He’s comfortable telling us that he’s getting anxious and seeking support.

@Dyawannafeelhowitfeels that study you posted earlier on the thread is so interesting. Amazing to see the importance of sitting down for dinner as a family in helping to prevent the development of some mental health conditions. Such a simple measure (though sadly not always easy to achieve for some)

Confused . Are you Dad? If you are Mum then your DS's Y chromosome will come from his father's side?

@Sunshineonacloud I took from that research that there are many, many steps that can be taken to prevent the onset of mental health conditions, which is really heartening. Also I think it's fair to say that there are many, many wonderful people in the world who live with/have had mental illness, and still live full and overall happy lives. (I count myself in that category )

I'd like to add to that there are many people with a neurological disorders without any of the things you listed in their background & no family history either. It's just luck of the draw. I don't think we should assume that if a person has mental illness, then they have experienced adverse childhood events.

Are there really many people though? Emotional neglect is utterly rife. I think we’re only just beginning to wake up to that and course-correct, and it’ll take a generation or two to start to really see the improvement.