My dad takes lexapro for anxiety. My sister takes an anti-depressant for anxiety. My aunt takes xanax for anxiety. My cousin has depression really badly. My deceased uncle had bi-polar. My 2nd Cousin on my fathers side had full blown really bad paranoid Schizophrenia. Two of my other cousins have depression and substance abuse.
Mental illness certainly runs in my family. Plus environmental and birth complications. I used to blame my parents for my mental illness, but now I realize I was destined to have it.
my mom got diagnosed with sz at around 34. we thought it was due to a lot of stress and hardship in her life. I got diagnosed with delusional disorder at 23, we realized the mental illness is hereditary and now recently my mom’s sister is doing some crazy stuff. The funny thing is her husband also is doing some crazy stuff and talking about cameras etc so it’s kind of bizarre to say if it’s in the family genes. Other than that, there isn’t any other illness in the family. And I have a really big family.
Got some depression and anxiety on mother’s side. HUGE amounts of Biploar and substance abuse on father’s side. As far as I know, I’m the only one with sz.
i’m the only one in my family that has sz. rumours of a great aunt that was mentally ill but the family doesn’t know much about it. the family back then hid that she was mentally ill is all I know.
My problem is that mental illness is heavily stigmatized in my family, so no one talks about it when it happens. I get hints though. My grandma struggles with something, depression or anxiety or who knows. She was on medication and in therapy until she got addicted to said medication (Xanax) because she abused it and had to go to rehab…which didn’t improve my family’s views on the mental health care system at all, let me tell you.
Also on my dad’s side (this was my dad’s mom I was talking about) I think his grandpa dealt with depression as well. I’ve never heard of any mental illness on my mom’s side, but depression and anxiety seem to be on my dad’s. If anyone was psychotic I’m sure that would be kept under even tighter wraps…meanwhile my brother is paranoid same as me but he won’t talk about it with me so I don’t know how far it goes…like if he’s delusional too or anything…sigh.
Stigma makes everything a million times harder. Seriously.
There were some pretty out there stories about my grandfather… I have a feeling in his day and age… he just suffered undiagnosed.
I have an Uncle with Sz… an Uncle with bipolar… my Dad has battled depression… My youngest brother is bipolar… middle brother has depression… slightly younger brother is going through something dark but refuses help.
I had a cousin who was suffering through something… used drugs to mask it… passed away when I was young.
MI is woven all over our family genetics… I used to also blame my life… the neighbors… my younger brothers… but as I’ve grown and seen that it’s all over the family… I accept it as genetics.
My biggest fear is that my kid sis… my niece and nephew will end up struggling with MI as well.
I’m the only one with schizophrenia in my family. Although I think my family has schizotypal traits, which is where I probably got it from. My aunt and grandma on my dad’s side believe in psychics and have strange views. My uncle on my mom’s side believes in conspiracy theories and my mom has crazy religious views. She believes in demons, Angels, and thinks Jesus is coming back in her lifetime. I have strange views too. I believe in quantum mysticism and probably biocentrism. I have libertarian views and used to be a diehard atheist; now I’m Christian but I’m not a zealot. I also used to believe in government conspiracies and was anti-government. I am also open minded and liberal on a lot of issues as opposed to my conservative family. I guess you can say I’ve never fit in. I have a great ability to think abstractly.
