Can/will these specific disorders be passed directly to a son or daughter:? Generalized anxiety disorder (w/panic attacks,) depression, anorexia, bulimia. My friend’s greatest desire is to have a baby; however, her greatest fear is that one, if not all of these traits will be passed on to her child. Is this fear well-founded enough to completely give up on having her own child? I know that I would never forgive myself if one of my children turned up with anything directly caused (unintentionally) by me. If there are no factual answers, feel free to move this…but I hope that there are. Thanks!
IANAD - this is recalled information from biochemistry courses,life experience, and discussions with my father-in-law, who is a psychiatrist, about a cousin’s anorexia. And a touch of googling 
There are genetic relationships between parents and children with depression and anxiety disorders, but not all types of depression and anxiety disorders have a genetic link. There is some research to suggest that there are genetic predispositions to the range of eating disorders, of which anorexia nervosa and bulimia are the two most well known. Not everyone with the genetic links will develop an eating disorder.
For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to refer to the diseases in the OP as “A”. There is no 1:1 relationship in which a parent with A is guaranteed to have a child with A, largely because it takes two parents to make a child, and the likelihood of both parents having the exact same genes that cause A, and both passing them to the child, is pretty slim. There also may be many, many genes thought to be linked with any given A, but they’d all have to be functioning a certain way before a person would have the symptoms of A. There is also the very powerful fact that we are not completely a product of our genes. The Nature vs Nurture debate is a huge one when it comes to psychiatric disorders such as your list; environment is important, and the way people behave, emote and interact with a person (and the physical environment in which they grew up) throughout their lives has a huge influence on whether or not a person might develop/express a psychiatric illness.
I don’t think the risk of A is a reason not to have a child. At the least, the knowledge that there is a familial risk can be used to observe a child, evaluate their behaviour, and if ever signs of a psychiatric illness show up, they can be treated early. Or nothing will happen, and the kid will be happy, healthy, and never encounter any of the problems his parents worry about.
IANAD, either, but I understand the fear. Depression and bipolar disorder seem to run through the women in my family, through at least 3 generations. My sister and I both have depression issues. Neither of our husbands do. When comparing notes, we came to believe that our mother suffered from it, but in those days one did not admit to such things and so it was untreated except by self-medication with tobacco and alcohol. One of my two daughters is bipolar. The other, so far, knock on wood, does not seem to have either problem, although she does have IMHO anger control issues. My sister’s daughter and granddaughter seem to have inherited depressive tendencies as well. Yes, all of us with depression or bipolar are on meds. As far as I know, her son (now deceased) did not. My husband is one of the least depressed people I know, and his parents went through horrendous hardships, yet his mother claimed to her dying day that she was the luckiest person in the world. So my humble theory is that there is a strong genetic link.
I have often wondered if it would have been better for me not to have procreated, much as I love my daughters.
It’s difficult to separate the nature/nurture thing, though. Some ethnic groups seem to be more prone to depression. But is that cultural, or genetic?
I’ve watched a genetic predisposition for depression go through several generations in our family. At least we are fairly sympathetic to each other. And we no longer set outselves on fire or submit to the really harsh shock treatments. Medications and other therapies are improving all the time.
It’s not possible to give your friend a definitive answer to the question “Will any baby I have suffer from generalized anxiety disorder with panic attacks, depression, anorexia, or bulimia?” even if a specialist were to give her and her husband a complete DNA examination and doing research into their family history of mental disorders. Even knowing everything about her and her husband’s DNA and family histories and knowing the research done on such mental disorders wouldn’t allow a doctor to say more than what the probability of having a child with such disorders is. Even then, so what? Suppose that the doctor said, “If you and your husband have a child, the probability of having a child with these disorders is 1 in 200. For most people, the probability is 1 in 500.” Is that enough reason not to have a child? Everybody has some chance to have a child with these disorders (and every other possible mental and physical disorder). So what? Should everyone quit having children because there is always a chance of the child having some mental or physical disorder? The absolute most that a doctor can tell your friend is that her child will have such-and-such a probability of having a given genetic disorder, as opposed to such-and-such a probability for most people. It’s possible that the increased probability is enough that your friend might then decide not to have a child, but there are no absolute assurances in any case.
Every single person on my father’s side of the family, including my brother and me, suffers from chronic depression. The interesting thing is how it manifests itself differently in each person.
I too believe that chronic depression runs in our family.