My husband is also Schizoaffective + MAJOR depression + drug and alcohol addiction, I suffer from major depression, anxiety & ADD. We have a 1 year old son, I constantly worry that he will inherit his fathers disease. Both sides of our family have long history with mental illness, he's bound to catch one of them. But I am thankful for knowing the signs and knowing exactly how to help if we ever come to cross that bridge. I don't wish the illness on anyone and we didn't plan for a child but it happened. Even perfectly healthy parents have children with these diseases, Don't let the fear of passing it on stop you from doing the best thing you'll ever do in your life. The only thing I can say is make sure when the time comes that you have a partner who is 210% committed to you, the child and your illness,. You will need that strong person to take care of you and the kiddo on those days that you cannot handle it.
From the research i've seen it's a mix of nature and nurture, We both try to focus on giving him the best childhood we can possibly give him. We cannot change the fact that these illnesses run in our family, but we can give it our all to make sure he is a happy & healthy child.
Mental illness is genetic, on the whole, same lots of other illnesses. If all the people that had cancer in their family stopped having children incase they passed cancer on then the world population would plumit. Mental illness has a stigma that physical illness doesn't. It's plain prejudice. Think about if or how you would cope with children but other than that your the same as anyone else - everyone has something they could pass on genetically.
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I suffer from bipolar 1 mixed episodes, borderline personality disorder and high anxiety. I was worried about it effecting my kids 18 and 8. I have researched and researched both disorders for the purpose that if my kids happen to have either of these or both then I could help them through it. MY son 18 now I do believe he is bipolar. It doesn't mean I wouldn't want to have kids but I didn't know I had these disorders til my daughter who is 8 was 2 years old. Having children is a blessing and being a parent is all about teaching. Please don't base your decision on that cause having a child is the GREATEST LOVE you could ever feel. Have a groovy day!
The regretful truth is bi-polar is a genetic disorder and u have a better than average chance you will pass it to your children. I got it from my mother.
Both my mom and her mother were manic-depressive. My grandmother got better in time, but my mom just got worse and eventually ended up being institutionalized toward the end of her life. She was an extremely selfish, self-centered person who could often be quite mean and hurtful to others. I've had to learn from her to keep my anger under control and to not lash out whether I was mistreated (or at least felt so) by others or if I was the one not being tolerant. Either way, now I'm able to the appropriate choices and move on in a more positive direction. DBT techniques helped me dramatically, and didn't take me long to effectively put them into daily use.