Are Depression and Anxiety Hereditary? It Sure Looks That Way

It is not a rare case to find that a person who experienced depression, anxiety or both also have other family members experiencing the same thing. Most people rarely admit to being depressed and when someone opens up to a member of either the extended or nuclear family, they would be surprised to learn that their cousin is experiencing the same thing.

In fact, there are some families where every member experiences anxiety and depression and is very weak in experiencing happiness. These cases lead some people to think that depression and anxiety are both hereditary, because after all, it seems to be that way because every member of one's family seems to have the same experience. This idea will be brought to light by this article.

It is not rare that people who have diabetes, a hereditary medical problem, have other members who have the same medical problem, this kind of logic is what leads some of us to think that since some families have all of its members experiencing anxiety or depression, then those two might be hereditary. However, this is not supported by scientific findings because there are no genes found to be causing anxiety or depression - at least, not as of now. This means that just because it is not rare to find a family that has every member experiencing depression or anxiety could mean that depression or anxiety is hereditary. While it is concluded that depression and anxiety are not genetically inherited and thus, are only learned behaviors, it is only true for most forms of depression and anxiety. The exception to this conclusion is manic depression or the bipolar disorder, which will be one of the focal points in this article.

The bipolar disorder, which is also referred to sometimes as manic depression, is a case where a person experiences swinging of moods from depression to mania. This one is more hereditary than learned thus a person who has manic depression has very little control over this problem. A person who has bipolar disorders may at one point experience mania or the loss of control, exhibited through overspending, too much taking of risks, rage, sudden increase in sexual appetite, and other forms of losing self-control. After a few moments of being in a normal state, and in some cases, just right after the manic episode, the person may then feel depressed where he lacks motivation along with stress and insomnia.

Since bipolar disorder is a genetic defect that leads to such problems, natural solutions to anxiety and depression have almost futile potency in treating it. Treating manic depression or bipolar disorder, unlike other forms of learned depression and anxiety, requires very long period of treatment along with faithful dosages of medications. In order to achieve at least good results in treating manic depression, those who seek help either for their friends or for themselves must seek a professional who has had a very wide experience and has enough facility and personnel to assist in treating this type of disorder.