So, one of my parents is bipolar, and the other is clinically depressed and has paranoid personality disorder. One of their psychiatrists has remarked that my brother and I are “remarkably stable” considering this…neither of us exibits any signs of mental illness, and we’re now 33 and 27. We don’t worry about ourselves or each other too much because our parents were both much younger than we are (teens for one, early 20s for the other) when it became necessary for them to get treatment.
While I’m obviously most interested in knowing because of my own family, is there any time when the adult children of the mentally ill can feel reasonably assured that they won’t inherit their parents’ conditions, like once they’ve past the window when the diseases usually show up? Or is it something that they need to be mindful of their whole lives?
If you want a rule of thumb, serious mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, major depression, and the various types of schizophrenia generally show up by the early 20’s. There are exceptions to that of course. Some people get more minor forms of depression later on and you can always get something like trauma induced mental disorders later or a neurological disease later in life. However, you can take what you have experienced as a very good sign and start to breath a little easier now. You probably didn’t inherit the same thing they did especially if parents already had symptoms younger than you or your brother. I am not a doctor BTW but I did go to grad school in behavioral neuroscience and I have a family history of the same things.
Schizophrenia runs in my family. My father was schizophrenic, as was my aunt (his sister), and my first cousin (son of his other, non-schizophrenic sister).
They were all diagnosed in their 20s (my father a little late than typical, not until his late 20s). My siblings, their children, and my other first cousins and their children haven’t had any problems.
I think that once you are into your thirties you can be reasonably secure that you are past the time of development of most major hereditary mental illnesses.
Additionally, pre-Schizophrenia has signs and symptoms that any psychologist will look for if there is a family history. One of my buddies was terrified that he would become schizophrenic like his father was. The guy was about 30, and his psychologist told him that he was presenting no signs of pre-Schizophrenia, and that he was probably too old to ever become schizophrenic.