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I do not have expertise in this area but it seem that (since mental illness is a disease), it can be inherited like any other disease. The key word being CAN be. It can also be situational. If you grew up with a depressed parent you might learn the same coping mechanisms from them. Just my opinion

Schizophrenia is genetic in nature; perhaps the only exception is when it is brought on my extreme drug or alcohol abuse. Bi polar is proving to have a genetic link as is clinical depression and many personality disorders seem to run in families. As to my qualifications, I am a social worker and I have worked with many people with mental illness. It is highly misunderstood and many famous people have had mental illness. To name a few....Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Virginia Wolfe, Robin Williams, Vincent Van Gogh and many more..just google and you will find out. Hitler was a very abused child and he was beaten unconscious by his step dad. Not all evil people are mentally ill at all, however. They are just evil. Many mentally ill people not only live very productive lives, they end up giving much to the society they live in. Mental illness carries a huge stigma and most of it is based on ignorance and the lack of knowledge on the subject.

First i want to say that everyone needs to understand that just because there is a genetic marker for an ailment does not mean everyone or even half the people in each generation of a family will develop it. When i was working on my BA in Psych we were told that the childhood environment of someone with the marker for schizophrenia can make a huge difference in whether or not they will develop, even tho schizophrenia is a physiological malfunction of the brain. My 3 sisters spent several critical developmental years in an orphanage in the early 40's. They were all profoundly effected by it. The oldest seems to have done the best at overcoming it.

Some mental illnesses are physiological diseases, not all. Too much of either neglect or abuse can cause various mental disorders (neuroses and psychoses) as well disassociative disorders.

Schizophrenia is one of the physicological ones and i believe bipolar (manic/depressive) is as well. the efficacy of certain drugs for these illnesses is one of the indications that they ARE actual chemical imbalances or malfunctions of the brain.

Disassociative Disorders are almost always a reaction to environment. PTSD is an experiencially and environmentally mitagated problem--but it is possible that there may be something physical that makes some people more susceptible. (i don't think enough info has been gathered on this because it wasn't till years after Nam that people were even talking honestly about it.)

Contrary to popular opinion not everyone with a DD has full mental blocks and fully developed 'alter personalities'. Sometimes, like a black out drunk, it is only certain of their own behaviors they do not remember, they disconnect from their usual/host selves while engaging in those behaviors. Others are full on '3 faces of Eve', but even they usually have one alter who is more 'stable', aware of the more vulnerable alters, and tries to watch out for them. If interested in DD's i suggest reading Dr. Colin Ross, a canadian expert on them. i've heard him speak and was very impressed with him.

Depression is a doozy because for there are several factors that make you more prone to it: Physical problem (such as bipolar disorder), sunlight affective disorder (for some reason some people need MORE natural light than others), parents moods (they can model depressive attitudes, pessimism) and environmental/situational factors. This is the one i have the most issue with doctors prescribing drugs for--Dang it, if you've suffered some horrendous loss--you have a right to grieve over it, a professional should be helping you DEAL with it constructively, not putting you on meds that have side effects sometimes as bad or worse than the depression (and some of which actually increase suicidal thoughts in some people!!!)

i am NOT saying ALL psych meds are bad, i'm saying we have to be proactive patients and relatives of patients and make sure we understand what the doctor expects the drug to do, why he/she thinks it is appropriate in the case in question, and what the family and friends should look for once the person is on the med as indicators that perhaps it needs to be adjusted, switched or stopped--which often involves weaning off the drug to preclude the bad effects of a sudden stop. That could be needed because of negative side effects or because the person is building up a tolerance. It's not hard to recognise signs of medication issues...my niece was doing it when 6 yrs old. One of the biggest heartbreaks of my life was having that little girl tell me: 'Mama can't talk to you today, she's needs med change'. She is pushing 40 now and lives with my sister, keeping an eye on her, dealing with the VA.

If you have a relationship with someone with mental health issues or mental health issues yourself, it is important to at least talk to a MH professional, remembering that unless the individual is a clear and present danger to themself or others they can't just whisk the patient away. And also remembering that even MH patients have certain rights. The trick is balancing their rights with the rights of everyone else.

My daughter's father had schizophrenia. At age 18 she was diagnosed with the disease, and it has been battle for survival to rival the epic odysseys for her since.
Both of my parents were bi-polar and manic-depressive. It eventually lead to my mother's suicide in 1993. It has been a daily battle my whole life to fight the demons of depression. I use the word "battle" for a reason. As one battles cancer, MS, diabetes, alcoholism, or any other heritage based disease, we battle. What we battle may be hidden deep within ourselves. We can become experts at hiding it all inside, learn to show the proper face at the proper, and required, time. Only in private do we allow ourselves to slowly peel back the bandages covering our scars, try to soothe the wounds, and find the courage to face another days battles.
Creativity and genius have been linked to mental illness. This is actually no surprise as those who suffer actually live in a different world. Our vision is not that of someone not afflicted. Our emotions stem from an alternate universe few have seen, except in their nightmares. Logic has little value in such a world. As Pamela says, the stigma of non-acceptance drives those with mental disease further within themselves, further away from others, further from any help that might be available.
The only hope is earlier diagnosis and care. As some diseases such as schizophrenia generally do not become full bloom until the teens, and seem to appear so rapidly (many times in a matter of months) they can be mistaken for normal teenage rebellion or drug use.
Genetic studies hold the key to many diseases, both physical and mental.

There is a strong arguement for the genetic predisposition to mental illness; however, as has been pointed out, not all who are predisposed will manifest symptoms. There can also be a learned behavior effect to mental illness, which counseling is especially helpful for.

Clinical depression and grief are two distinctly different conditions.
Clinical depression, the way it was explained to me by a doctor, is a chemical imbalance in the brain, and some people DO require medications for it.

Depression, clinical depression can be. Ernest Hemingway, suicide. His daughter, Muriel, suicide. There are chemical imbalances than can lead to psychotic conditions that appear to be genetic.. I know of one family where mother and all five children are bi polar --manic depressive-- and have to be medicated.

When I left the USA in 1968 I was depressed (it's in the family) so I went from NYC to the Caribbean a good choice. I have lived in sunshine ever since and have not had any depression even when my husband died. Yes, he died he didn't pass anything.

I do not believe the nonsense about moving to a sunny climate supposedly "curing" depression disorders unless they were weren't real to begin with. If that sort of thing were true, then moving from Michigan to South Florida when I was 9 would have made a difference in the fact that I tried to commit suicide when I was 11. And, yes, I was serious about it. If my so-called mother ever heard about it, it was from the psychiatrist who I finally told about it when I was 16. He was the first person who heard about it, and he told me that he was amazed the method hadn't worked. (Just so you know it wasn't a game.)

And Feywon's idea of running around and taking meds away from people is just wrong, too. Just because a person is not doing as well as was hoped for on one medication doesn't mean that all medication is wrong. That's why there are many meds, not everyone can take all meds. Look at the disaster Paxil turned out to be! I was luck that all it did to me was make my "shakes" worse. But then I have "shakes" without any meds, and that was since I was a kid. A reaction that I developed, along with stuttering, to abuse from a couple fronts.

I'd been in therapies since I was 7. They started introducing meds into things when I was 16 or 17. The meds were on and off. When I was 25 or 26, they said that I would need meds the rest of my life. I didn't like the sounds of that. And I rebelled against it for about 20 or so years. There were times I would admit I needed meds but when things were good, I'd drop them. And things would go down hill again. It took a couple trips to the funny farm about five years ago to accept that I had to make meds part of my daily routine. Maybe if I'd accepted it sooner I wouldn't need some of the other meds that I'm on.

@JerryMerry -- I certainly hope you've been weathering the weather where you are, & everything is ok.

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It's the nature vs. nurture question again, but more & more research seems to be showing that various mental conditions are being implicated as physiological problems, some genetically inherited. Recent studies are starting to point to this with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (*not* obsessive-compulsive disorder).

Substance abuse of all kinds I believe is also a metabolic disorder in many - but not all - cases. Some people are much more prone to it than others under the same stressors. We all know families where it seems to run rampant thru the generations. With the nature vs. nurture questions, identical twin studies are an excellent reference for this.

Clinical depression can be a heritable disease. It can also manifest without apparent mitigating outside factors, or it can be situational, or a combination of both. Grief *can* lead to clinical depression.

Depression over a period of time causes a cascade of physical metabolic responses throughout the endocrine system. This chemical imbalance in turn continues to feed it, causing even worse symptoms & making you spiral even further down. Once past a certain point, it becomes clinical & professional treatment is needed. Along with managed therapy, it will usually also involve medication to help the body regain a more normal hormonal balance.

I don't have any sheepskins on my wall. My education came from the School of Hard Knocks, observation thru my job at the VA, & years of personal research that remains ongoing. I think I'll be studying this until the day I die (I won't be 'passing' anything, either :-)