Posted by Christina on December 8, 2000, at 0:53:37
In reply to Fear of passing mental illness gene to kids, posted by PhoenixGirl on December 7, 2000, at 13:23:44
I'm in my late 30s and the severity of my mental illness increased after the birth of my only child.
I began reading all I could about mental illness and learned how it was truly rampant in my family, and I became very concerned about passing this on to my child.
Since I suffer from BP-II, I decided that I would not have any more children for two reasons:
1. I did feel confident about my abililty to be a responsible parent to another child given my increasing problems with BP.
2. I began to see a true genetic pre-disposition for BP in my family.However, I do agree with the previous poster who said that one needs to look at envirommental factors as well to determine whether mental illnesses are nature vs. nurture.
In my case.. .it's definetely a bum gene.You may find, that your problems are alleviated by short-term meds and therapy which would be a good indicator that your problem is not so much genetic, but environmental.
Good luck.
poster:Christina
thread:3494
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20001117/msgs/3528.html