Under Construction - MHWA Retreat

Are mental health issues a DNA thing? Are they environmental? Is there some sort of combination? If so, what do you think the combination is? What percentage is nature?
What percentage is nurture?
Think about yourself specifically. Which do you think plays the biggest role in your own mental health issues?

There are a lot of mental health issues in my mum's side of the family so there could be a DNA thing going on.

For myself, I think it's more environmental. I didn't have much nurturing or real guidance from my parents growing up. They were both drinkers so I spent a lot of time cowering in the back seat of the car in bar room parking lots. I got verbal abuse if I complained of being hungry, having to pee, or being afraid when they finally came out of the bar. I missed school and fell behind in my homework when they were on a binge. So, I got bad grades and more verbal abuse.

I was sexually abused as a teen by a family member and physically abused by a local predator while (successfully) trying to escape him. His plan was to kill me with a tire iron and he stalked me for two years.

Depression set in during my teens and has been with me all my life. That was the beginning of it and I won't rant about my adult years. So, yes I think it's environmental - a total of how you've been treated, especially during the formative years.

River