Dear Sebastian and JC,
Re: mental illness in the family. I may be dead wrong, but I believe that many of us on the board here have a family history of mental illness of all sorts.
My father had severe OCD- hoarder/clutterer, my mother Paranoid Personality. My cousin, severely depressed and obese. Her son bi-polar and schizoaffective. The illness seems to run more on my mother's side of the family.
One doesn't have to get schizophrenia if a relative has it ... one might develop something else. I have a bit of OCD, I have anxiety, depression ... the brain expresses itself in only so many different ways, and there is a spectrum of illness.
You know I have a biological orientation re: this, yet I know for me my parents BEING mentally ill, made my life dysfunctional. It is ALWAYS a combo of Nature/Nurture and what percent of either is never really clear.
Also, I wouldn't recommend alcohol for any mental illness. It isn't a cure for any mental illness.
Best,
D
All of this IMHO
Re: mental illness in the family. I may be dead wrong, but I believe that many of us on the board here have a family history of mental illness of all sorts.
My father had severe OCD- hoarder/clutterer, my mother Paranoid Personality. My cousin, severely depressed and obese. Her son bi-polar and schizoaffective. The illness seems to run more on my mother's side of the family.
One doesn't have to get schizophrenia if a relative has it ... one might develop something else. I have a bit of OCD, I have anxiety, depression ... the brain expresses itself in only so many different ways, and there is a spectrum of illness.
You know I have a biological orientation re: this, yet I know for me my parents BEING mentally ill, made my life dysfunctional. It is ALWAYS a combo of Nature/Nurture and what percent of either is never really clear.
Also, I wouldn't recommend alcohol for any mental illness. It isn't a cure for any mental illness.
Best,
D
All of this IMHO
