Nature vs. Nurture

[kinser 3]

It has always been a controversial topic regarding any mental disorder - is it caused by genes, enviornment, or a combination of the two?

What do you know or remember about your family's history with regard to what you suffer from? I know my mom experienced both depression and anxiety, but I don't know if she was formally diagnosed with either (she got presciption meds from a doctor she worked with, so I know she was on some tranquilizers and tri-cyclic anti-depressants -in the days before SSRIs-, but I'm not sure she ever saw a doctor appropriately for her symptoms). Both of my parents were heavy drinkers. So I do believe the cause is at least partially inherent.

[Gilly 1086]

I recently found out my nanna ( my mums mum) was hospitalised for mental issues, nervous breakdown is all I have been told. I was really shocked because I never knew my nanna to be anything but a strong likeable, sociable woman.

[JOYCICLE 654]

NURTURE with a sprinkle of NATURE !

It 's super difficult to say because your grandparents may have lived through the same dysfunction passed on to you , so who's to say if that is DNA or not. If a child sees drunkennness and abuse all their life, they are more prone to grow up to display that........ I don't think that's a DNA issue. I think it 's we do what we are taught.

[shaun 6]

I believe it is caused primarily by our environment and our experiences in life, in essence, it is how our genes interact with the environment. Most mental disorders develop in the brain due to experiences etc, but having 'bad' genes will make you more susceptible. Some people are naturally more anxious than others, but that doesn't mean they will develop an anxiety disorder.

[Emerald4eva 0]

I have seen that all my siblings have some sort of mental issue but I'm the one with the most severe problems. I'm the youngest sibling from my mom's side (four of us) and we all had a different childhood mainly because of our age gap. Me and my youngest brother were the ones who had to wake up at a neighbor's house every morning because my mom had to go to work. My yougest brother (the one I grew up with the longest) seems mentally healthy and I think that he had my mom's support plus he's the social type and I believe he got over his shyness or he wasnt ever as shy as me. He's the sensitive type but he's not as emotional as I am. I'm also self- concious and I don't feel good about myself or how I look.

I remember running to my bedroom and hiding under my bed whenever my father went to visit. That's how shy I was. Children are normally shy but they're suppose to get over that once they're teenagers or maybe younger than that. I'm still dealing with shyness. I avoid people at all cost; social places, talking to people, and even talking to relatives or hanging out with them. I get nervous around my relatives, its sad but thats how I am and its really hard to control it.

Social anxiety or generalized anxiety disorder can be caused by nature because when we're born we don't know how to behave properly and if you dont have the right people to show you how things are done and what good results you can get from it, you'll never learn how to behave. It is nurture the main cause BUT not everyone can rely on that so you cant ignore nature because that's where everything comes from.

[sphinx 0]

I think it has to be both. I know my mum had mental illnesses because she was open about them - and as a result I am more sensitive to both the normal changes that occur in mood etc and the abnormal changes that mean help is needed. When she looked back at her childhood she was positive that if her dad had been born as her own generation or later he would be diagnosed as bi polar (manic depression to my mum) because she remembered the same symptoms in him.

I think one area that is often missed in the nature versus nurture argument is the effect that nature has on nurture - where my mum was ill she was unable to care for us children as well as would be considered ideal, which created an environment that would be considered more likely to lead to problems for us children - the 2 are so tightly wound that separating them is impossible.

[JOYCICLE 654]

Sphrinx I think you hit the nail on the head , the 2 are so tightly wound that separating would be impossible. Also an ill parent cannot perform parental duties to the normal standard. That's interesting stuff. I was reading this week about mental illness and environment. One thing I thought interesting was that children in utero without adequate vitamin D and with higher than normal amounts of pollution higher rates of developing mental disease. So if you think of one family for generations living near say a factory that blows out black gasses all day every day and the whole family seems mentally ill when they go into the ' city' for a dr' evaluation, it might seem to that dr that it is hereditary. They are just now learning more and more every year about all of the causes. It's now a list, as opposed to one single source causes ie: dna, environment etc. Some dna is strong enough to withstand the pollution of lack of vit D better than even the dna in the sibling across the table !

[panicstricken 4]

Neither of my parents have been diagnosed with a panic or anxiety. I was wondering my panic might be triggered from my enviornment. It sometimes can start from traumatic events that happen in your life. If I'm in a stressful enviornment I usually panic more often. I know people who have a history of mental illnesses in their family, and they are more likely to have those things passed down to them. There have been studies related to genes playing a part in mental illness, but it's not certain if this is always true.

[sphinx 0]

A very very useful thing to consider when it comes to traumatic events and environments - panic is a natural response and in some situations is healthy.

At one point I was going through an unbelievably stressful time and ran into a mental health profession who did not believe in fibromyalgia and they told me they believed I had severe depression and needed at least high dose anti depressants if not sectioning and they would recommend this to my GP. This put me into a flat spin on top of my life situation and within 24 hours I was in my GPs office in floods of tears, screaming at points, pretty much in melt down (I dont think anyone else has seen me in that state - I held it in from friends and partner till I got to doctors). MY GP listened to me explain the whole situation and possible repurcussions and I was asking him if he thought I was depressed - considering my behaviour to someone who did not know me would have resulted in arrest or sectioning - He took some time to think and consider and then told me he thought my reactions were perfectly reasonable for the situation I was in - and that while I was undeniably suffering emotional distress when that was considered in the context of my current life it was not unhealthy.

I think there are too many doctors who are too fast to consider peoples behaviour or symptoms in isolation from their life and prescribe treatment when actually it would be appropriate to consider that they were natural healthy reactions to the situation happening. All this achieves is to make people even more frightened of normal mood changes and behaviours which is a bad thing

[Driven 0]

I think it's a combination of both. Nature can predispose you toward a disorder, but nurture might be required to trigger it. I think it's possible to recondition yourseld, at least to a certain extent, so I believe nurture is extremely important. You can nurture yourself at any age.

[Jen2012 1]

I think it is both because my famil has history it mental illness's. Also with nature because trama can trigger it also.

[Rose @ Walnut Acre 1]

I think both nature and nurture can play a role. And sometimes it's only one or the other. Humans are very complex and it's hard to make a "one size fits all" statement in this area.

[Quirky Jessi 2]

I'm a strong believer in it being a combination of both.

We're talking about predisposition here: It kind of ties into that. Yes, nature may make risks and chances higher, but at the same time, how you're raised to deal with these things, your experiences, events that take place, etc, all have a role to play, too. It's not an either/or.

[Esperahol 0]

I generally considered to be a meeting of waters as it were. Nature presents a ground that is perhaps fertile or very fertile or absolutely useless and then you must till or nuture that ground to see what will arise. A child who has a very fertile patch for depression or anxiety may well see some results even if no events or individuals step forward to nuture that aspect of him or her. On the flipside a child with who happens to be quite resistant to depression or anxiety may still show some results if enough effort is focused him or her.

[melissa 0]

I studied this extensivley in college and the only theory we are able to come up with is that its really dependant on the individual. If someone has a family member with a disorder then chances are the person has a higher chance of getting one. If someone does not have a family member diagnosed then they really are only subject to nuture.

[DonF 5]

I agree that this is a combination of both. My grandmother was a high-strung person, and didn't sleep a whole lot. She had such energy. I've always been like that as well, even though my mother wasn't. Genetics is a funny thing. But there are family issues that come into play as well, for sure. I often wish anxiety responded to the old axiom, "The truth shall set you free", but many mental disorders don't. I've done a lot of thinking about, and discussing with professionals, my past and my family...but it's far from a cure. It does help, however. It's certainly better than getting blindsided by it 20 years ago and not having a clue what was happening to me. I've learned much in those two decades.

Speaking of genetics, there was an interesting news item this week in the field. Apparently, even if you have the genes, there's no guarantee they will express themselves.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/12/06/166648187/perfection-is-skin-deep-everyone-has-flawed-genes