Bipolar Disorder Support Group

Bipolar disorder is not just a single disorder, but a category of mood disorders marked by periods of abnormally high energy and euphoria, often accompanied by bouts of clinical depression. This is the place to talk about your experience with bipolar disorder, learn from others' experiences, and find support.

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BP nature or nurture?

deleted_user
deleted_user
My question is....is BP in your genes or are you affected by the enviroment you are brought up and live in.

I ask as me my brother and my sister are all adopted (we all have different birth parents) My brother suffers from depression as does my sister nad i top the lot with BP my birth mother has depression but not BP is this all down to our adoptive parents way of bringing us up (it wasn't very healthy) or were we all just unfortunate to be born with the depression gene?

I think it's a combination of both but would my BP have come out so much if i had been adopted by different people?

What i'm getting to is were you born with BP or did you develop it because of life experiencces and enviroment?
deleted_user
deleted_user
I think the current scientific posture on most illnesses is that there is both a genetic predisposition and a precipitating factor in the environment, so that it is both.
2kidmom
2kidmom
I think it is both. You can be predispositioned to get it and can have a calm loving family and never get it. Then vice versa and get it. I had a calm loving family without any discipline and I did get it, it runs through our family thick! I look back and wonder would I have gotten it if I would have had some parental involvement in discipline. Hard to say, its like which came first the chicken or the egg.
deleted_user
deleted_user
combo of both
deleted_user
deleted_user
While I belive it's genetic, I think there is a bit of "he/she was dropped on their head as a child."

Also, if we were fortunate enough to not have a totally disfunctional household (as I was lucky that way, no abuse, loving parents, etc.) I think BP shows itself differently and maybe not as severe, or the person is able to control it better???

I dunno, maye that is just me. But this is a great website... http://brainplace.com/bp/
it shows scans of normal brains, and brains with BP and depression and drug addiction and ADD... pretty cool stuff if you ask me.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Medical science has proved that BiPolar and alot of other mental illness are all in our genes.
I do agree with you that the enviroment we are exposed to can add to the progression of the illness.
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