Genetic Influence In Mental Illness

[Flower]

There seems to be a lot said about people struggling with mental health issues, and I feel as though it is often seen by spiritual or developed people as a sign of not being developed enough, or not having 'conquered the mind'. However, research shows us that there is a strong genetic association in mental health and so, if is only to do with conquering the mind and managing your emotions, how can this be understood in light of the fact that depression is medically, a disease just like any other- just wanted some perspectives on this

 

views? 

 

 

Edited May 19, 2016 by Flower
Spelling mistake

[abrakamowse]

Ok, this is my take but I really don't know. It is something I am still trying to understand.

My idea is that everything is created by the one consciousness. The environment, the world, everything is consciousness.

Because genetics is a lot influenced by environment we can say that consciousness creates the necessary genetics for the soul to be enlightened. Maybe a person who has mental illness needs it to wake up at some point, we need different type of challenges to overcome to understand who we really are.

But of course, all this we have no control in the sense that we are identified with our egos and all that is let's say , controlled by that consciousness, you can call it our  "collective unconscious" like it is called in psychology.

But this is just my opinion, I have to study more about the subject. But basically I think that our higher self creates everything that happens to us (genetics, sickness, etc) whatever we need to become enlightened and to help the big consciousness grow up. But that's my opinion so far, it can change.

We need a big open mind to talk about this topics.

Edited May 20, 2016 by abrakamowse

[abrakamowse]

I found an article about that, interesting.

 

http://fractalenlightenment.com/14294/enlightening-video/alter-your-genes-and-cure-any-disease

[Chocker]

This is an interesting and complex topic.
It´s a little bit like the dilemma of which came first, the chicken or the egg,
as our mind affects our biology and our biology affects our mind.

There may be a genetic component to mental illness,
but having a certain gene or set of genes does not determine by itself wether or not you will develop mental illness (or any other kind of illness).
It is the environment what controls the expression of the genes. (check Bruce Lipton´s video: The Biology of Belief).
You can see this on twin siblings, they share the exact same DNA, and yet one develops certain illness that is thought to be genetically caused while the other does not.

What´s the environment then?
It may be the place where you live, what you eat, your exercise habits, your personal social connections as well as the whole society you live in, the information you consume, etc. 

Some of this things you can control, for instance you can change  what you eat, your exercise habits, where you live, etc
and some you cannot control, like for instance you cannot change your family, or the society where we live in BUT
you can control your PERCEPTION of this things.

Perception is the link between your environment and your biology,
and this is where the "conquering the mind" part comes in.
You cannot change some of the events in your life, but you can change what you think about them,
the meaning you give to them, and this will in turn affect your biology.

How this relate to Mental Illness/Health?
Let´s say for instance, a person loses his wife/husband to divorce,
this is a fact and by itself it does not mean anything.
This person may choose to:
A)  Think he/she will not be able to find love again and that she is going to be miserable.
B) Think that he/she now will be able to pursue some of her interests, meet new people, travel, etc.

Having the same genes (as we are talking about the same person)
in which case is the person more likely to develop Depression?

Now, let´s say she is depressed.

A doctor may prescribe some Antidepressants that will alter the brain chemistry and the person may feel better for a while,
but if the mental patterns remain, he/she will most likely relapse as soon as the medication is stopped.(or illicit drug, alcohol, food or whatever is being used to stimulate the brain to have more dopamine and serotonin, which are the feel good chemicals in the brain).
On the other hand if the person learns to think different and to manage her emotions,
he/she will be creating the right chemistry in her brain without the need of an external stimulant and remain mentally healthy.

The case could be the opposite as well, a person may be optimistic and have healthy mental patterns,
but may have an organic issue, let´s say some allergy or undiagnosed food intolerance, he/she may get depressed anyways.
She may meditate, exercise, practice Yoga and do all she can to balance her emotions without success until the organic cause is addressed.

So, my view is that it is a balance between "hardware" and "software",
It is a matter of the Body as it is of the Mind.
 

 

 

 

[Saarah]

@Flower My mum has had diagnosed depression for more than a decade, every day I notice in her certain dysfunctional attitudes and mindsets, victim mentality and lack of responsibility, focusing on external solutions to internal problems, she has been through many different drugs to help, and these have an effect in calming her, but, they have not made her any happier, she still struggles with negative emotions, feeling lonely, anger, addiction, dependency on people, ineffectiveness in relationships. I laugh inside when my dad tells her all she needs to do is pray, and my mum says she's been praying loads and eating her tablets but still feels this way.... i can't express myself with the "there's no god" part and when it comes to talking about the deeper psychology, I don't think my mum is willing to receive it, plus it would take a tremendous effort.

When it comes to biology and genes, long story short I don't believe they're the cause, and the medicalisation of depression is largely flawed imo. 

I'm not in the slightest bit worried about 'contracting' depression from my mum. I notice very very very strong environmental influences, I see the pervasiveness of the issues that lead to strong mental states such as depression in her whole family, my aunts and uncles. I also notice how she passed on certain dysfunctional beliefs to me, a subconscious process, which I've consciously weeded out throughout the past 2 years especially with the help of Actualized.org. 

We live in the paradigm of science and medicalisation. Psychology has to work within this paradigm to be taken seriously and to work on a bigger scale. As long as it does so, it will not be helping anyone. People like my mum, are failed all the while.

[philosogi]

@Flower The idea that depression is a "medical disease" comes from the DSM, a human construct which creates artificial delineations and categories. In western medicine, there has traditionally been a separation between physical and mental. Physical things like "broken leg" were more easy to understand as they fall into the category of "leg" and "broken" much easier. But because depression is such a complex, systematic, and largely invisible issue, people did not understand it and then pathologized it instead. So doesn't matter what we call it, but its name is not going to change the fact that it's a systematic issue. Also, depression is a spectrum, just like everything else. 

I think some people are genetically predisposed to depression (someone in their family had it, or chance in the DNA combining process at conception), but that the environment they grow up is also a big influence. Neural pathways can always be trained, but they are easiest to imprint when a young child.

So if the young child is raised by a depressive family who are unable to put their own depression aside to provide an emotionally nurturing life for the child, that child is going to grow up and be depressed, or if they react in an opposite way to it (which I think is less common, and a result of chance in DNA combination), maybe they will vilify depression and fight really hard against it.

If the child is raised by a family that has overcome its depressive roots, and have emotionally mature habits, are nurturing and provide tools to deal with the child's issues, the child will train different neural pathways and be less likely to fall into depressive tendencies. 

Bottom line is, the only tool that we have at our disposal, is to "conquer the mind," that is, to challenge any beliefs that we have that are enabling depressive thoughts, and to train ourselves some new and shinier neural pathways! Our feelings follow our thoughts, not vice versa, and that is the flaw of antidepressant chemicals.

[FindingPeace]

I don't doubt that genetics can affect our 'brain wiring', which can consequently affect the way someone thinks, their level of awareness and their psychological biases and dependencies. These things can manifest as 'mental illness'. Examples I have seen are things like obsessive-compulsive or narcissistic behaviours which tend to run in families. I'm not such an advocte for the term 'metal illness' as it implies a 'norm' or base-line. I don't believe that there is such a thing.

In any case, the mind is flexible and re-programmable. Even if the mind is biased towards certain thought or behavoural patterns through genetic influences it can, with suffient inner work, have neuroses or dysfunctions worked out of its system.

But, although there are genetic influences as to someone's inherent brain patterns, social conditional has the massive influence. I would say that the majority of dysfunctional or neurotic behaviours are conditioned through innapropriate environments and treatment throughout early life.