[PauG]

My mom had dpdr from 17yo to 26yo. My only brother still suffers from it since he was 16yo and I'm almost 100% recovered but I have been struggling with it for the last 3 years since I was 19yo.
My brother and I dont want to have biological children. We strongly believe it has to do with our genes, so this nonsense ends with us. I won't be responsable for passing this on.

 

[Al_pk]

Everyone has in them the dpdr mechanism but some people are more susceptible to activation. Environmental activation is far more important IMHO. Seems a bit drastic to make a no kids pact cos of dpdr. Everyone has genetic susceptibility to something

 

[Al_pk]

I have no dpdr in my family history but things like ptsd are there

 

[forestx5]

Finished reading "Genome, Autobiography of a Species" by Matt Ridley. Yes, it's genetic. Everything is either genetic, or strongly influenced by genetics.

Some illness is Mendellan. Some is autosomal dominant. Some illness is the result of a single defective gene. Some illness can be caused by the

interaction of several marginal genes. I've formed the opinion that we have waisted a lot of financial resources funding major illness institutes.

Cancer Institute, Kidney Institute, etc, etc. But, those institutes are not providing the solutions.. The answers are coming from genetic research.

It is hard to change the flow of money, but funding genetic research will allow medical science to move forward on a broad front, and the discoveries

will take place in a natural order. That's the way all scientific breakthroughs have occurred. Rarely has science found the particular answer it was

looking for, when it happened accidently upon something meaningful.

 

[James_80]

Others in my family have had it but I've only ever met one other person outside of my family who has experienced it. I feel like genetics are a strong predictor of whether you will develop this condition or not. Although I think any person can develop dp if they experience a traumatic enough event. If several people in your family have had it though, I think this can increase the chance of whether you might experience it in your life and if it will become chronic. It is chronic for me even though I don't feel I have experienced a traumatic event and haven't developed it through taking drugs either. Anxiety and depression bring it on.

 

[zouzoux]

As Forrest almost everything is genetic but the environment also plays a big role.

If genes load the gun, the environment pulls the trigger.

 

[ReiTheySay]

The thing about DPDR is that it's very hard to explain or understand. So I wouldn't be surprised at all if a lot of DPDR suffers' parents had it but mistook it for depression or something else.

My mom had episodes of DP when she was around my age when I first experienced it. She said the "looking down from a balloon at myself" thing happened to her once or twice.

For me however it went from episodes to permanent everlasting state with a colorful salad of symptoms.

As others said, I do think a lot of the cases are genetic and the environment triggers it. I think it would be easier to "unlearn" DPDR if it was purely environmental, or is it ever really?

Maybe chronic DPDR where nothing seems to work to "get rid" of it is stubborn because of genetic predisposition, while the episodic type caused by trauma is more environmental.

 

[Phantasm]

It's the old debate. People will say that a history of mental illness in the family is proof of a genetic link, but then people with close family with mental health problems, particularly parents, will typically grow up in a more chaotic and therefore more stressful environment. Personally I think everyone has the potential for mental illness. I heard a special forces soldier saying the other day that everyone has a breaking point.

There's a brilliant documentary called "Three Identical Strangers," which is about triplets who grew up separately. I won't give any spoilers for those who want to watch it, but it's really compelling.