Topic: Are people born with mental illness or they develop them when they get older?
April 26, 2019 / By Edgar Question:
For instance. Let's put two biological twin sisters together who were born only 10 minutes apart. The older sister is completely normal. Just about. Accept has some mild disability such as ADHD and insomnia. And the other one has severe mental illness. How would you go about answering that question?
Calvin | 2 days ago
Depends on the disorder. Schizophrenia (and likely Bipolar) are from changes that happen in the brain at the end of adolescence which it why in most cases, symptoms start around age 20 (give or take a few years). Researchers recently found a cluster of genes that are responsible for Schizophrenia, Bipolar, Major Depression, ADD, and Autism... which explains why these disorders tend to run in families. These are not the only genes responsible for mental illness though. But it's not all genetics or identical twins would always share Schizophrenia (or whatever disorder their genes carry), and it's just not so. If one twin has a mental disorder then there is a 50% chance the other twin will also.... This includes twins who were adopted separately so there is not likely any environmental influence....
Personality Disorders are thought to have some influence from genetics but trauma is what turns it on... Mothers with Borderline often pass it on to their own daughters simply because the daughter learned the dysfunctional behavior from their mother.... You can't compare children born to a Borderline mother because some children are loved and some are hated so even though they are in the same household they do not have the same environment...
Some disorders are purely trauma based - PTSD, CPTSD, Dissociative Disorders.
So it kind a depends on the disorder... If you think of it like you would physical disorders..... cancer may or may not have a cause.... a smoker with lung cancer has a disease that was caused.... Diabetes (type 1), and many autoimmune disorders have no known cause... they see a genetic link but exactly what is unknown. A broken bone is strictly trauma..... Mental illnesses are the same in that there are lots of them and there is no one cause.
It's thought to be both. Some are genetic or congenital, such as Schizophrenia, which is not a "mental illness" per se but rather the result of physical differences within the brain that begin in early adulthood when the brain begins (in this case excessively) pruning unused neurons and such.
Personality disorders are thought to be a case of both nature AND nurture, in that one is born with a predisposition but environmental factors contribute to the development of the disorder either via neglect, abuse, and other traumas, or simply the child's unwittingly warped perception of the world around them. The latter would explain why, for example, a fairly normal, well adjusted family can still nonetheless produce a child with a full blown personality disorder despite no history of neglect, abuse, trauma, or otherwise poor parenting. It's rare for this to happen, though, as most personality disorders are the result of mistreatment and/or neglect at the hands of caregivers, other role models, and/or peers.
Some are due to hormone imbalances, again often caused by medical issues that may or may not ever be identified.
ADHD & Insomnia are not disabilities.
They are life.
90% of people wouldn't have insomnia if they eliminated caffeine from their diet.
Ive had ADHD all my life. I didn't become a millionaire until I was 40.
And I didn't care enough to work my butt off to get good grades in school.
I could have, but I didn't.
Originally Answered: What causes someone to develop Lupus.?
Lupus is definitely NOT contagious.
Researchers believe that some people have a genetic predisposition to develop lupus. It is not exactly hereditary, just that there is a slightly higher chance that you will develop it if you have very close relatives with autoimmune disorders.
First a person has some genetic make up that means they COULD develop lupus.
Then there has to be a trigger. The most common triggers are certain viruses, high and prolonged levels of stress or trauma, sunlight, certain drugs (birth control pills and some blood pressure meds). Two people could be in indentical circumstances but only the one who is genetically predisposed would develop lupus.
There have been investigations into environmental factors. Nothing has been proven as far as I know. If you are exposed to a lot of chemicals, that could be problematic.
It is likely that your coworkers had lupus for a long time. Most lupus patients go years before they get a correct diagnosis. The difference now is that more doctors are becoming informed about the symptoms of lupus, how to diagnose and treat it.
Did you know that more than three times as many people have lupus than have multiple sclerosis, sickle cell, and cystic fibrosis COMBINED?
You can be a good friend to your coworkers by not letting lupus get in the way of your relationship. They will be frightened and isolated enough without you seeming to avoid them. Learn about lupus at the link below. Encourage them to learn about it to.
Write your senators and representative in Congress asking them to support the Lupus REACH amendments. The funding requested in that bill is equal to 8 minutes of the war in Iraq. There are 1.5 or more Americans with a form of lupus. There is a link on the website where you can write.