I believe mental health issues (and trauma for that matter) are in our bloodlines, so many of us are more predisposed than others, but of course, life can also thrown things at us which cause us to struggle and throw ourselves and mental health into crisis.
A PP mentioned Ruby Wax's appearance on Who Do You Think You Are.
Wax's experiences echo my own families - my mother's mother was in and out of asylums, had electric shock therapy and was so strung out on medications, often couldn't even recognise her own family. My mother suffered severely with manic depression was prone to fits of pure rage. She was on valium and a myriad of other pills to get her 'through the day'. I do think many women like my mother were highly medicated as a way of helping them cope with the boredom and unfulfilled potential of their lives - my mother was highly intelligent and well-educated yet was expected to be a housewife, as so many others like her were at that time.
I think it is often overlooked that at one time, huge swathes of women were medicated to keep them docile, not that it was presented like that. My mother was a drug addict, although a socially acceptable one as her drugs were prescribed by a doctor.
I too had bouts of mental health issues - much of my problems echo my mother's, and after a horrible spell on SSRIs where I felt nothing and wanted to do even less, I refused to take any further medication and have learnt to manage myself, and recognise the triggers. Therapy (straightforward counselling), helped, but my mood properly levelled and stabilised once I went on HRT. (Thank you premature menopause for being a magic bullet in so many respects).
I am so thankful that I have managed to find peace in ways my mother and grandmother did not.