Can you develop a mental illness at any time, or do you have to be born with it?

Can you develop a mental illness at any time, or do you have to be born with it?

Neither. People aren't born with them nor do they spontaneously develop them. Mental disorders are thought to result from a combination of pre-existing vulnerabilities (e.g., genetic component, brain abnormalities, personality variables) and environmental factors (e.g. Major life stressor such as death of a loved one, divorce, bankruptcy). Even for something like PTSD--one is more likely to develop it if they had premorbid elevated neuroticism (i.e. high neuroticism personality trait before the traumatic event). This does not imply it is their fault though.

They say it may be hereditary, and that i feel in some circumstances that may play a role. But most likely it can be all the experiences in your lifestyles. How you were raised via your mum and dad, any emotional traumas that passed off, and so forth...I mean, there are such a lot of distinctive things that might reason a character to increase a mental illness. I mean, simply the littlest thing like a parent being to authoritarian. Or a man or woman would lose anyone they love. A person would be raped. A individual might simply get scared by using some thing that quite messes with their mind. Maybe a person just on no account had any individual there to talk to about matters. Really, all of it depends upon the individual's life experiences. There might be many causes that play a position, or just one. Repeatedly it can be handy to find out what the motive is, and typically the motive is certainly not decided. The intellect is an extraordinarily tricky thing.

Most mental illnesses have a genetic link but that doesn't mean you are born with that illness or even acquire it in your lifetime. However your chances are greatly increased of developing the mental illness. They usually start of with little signs and get progressively worse. Some are followed by trauma some aren't. Most people are full blown by the time they get diagnosed because most of us think that its all in our heads at first or are to scared to seek help, until it seriously starts affecting our lives.

But the answer is yes you can develop it at any time.

I'd add to this discussion that virtually all diseases have both environmental and genetic components. Here are a few examples to illustrate my point. These are intentionally extreme examples -- in most diseases the combination of environmental and genetic influences is more obvious/apparent (at least if you know what you're looking for -- and if you bother to look).

HIV/AIDS: An infectious disease caused by environmental exposure to a virus, right? Not so fast! About 10% of Caucasians (the exact percentage varies widely depending are where you are located) are essentially immune to this disease due to a genetic quirk. This genetic resistance to HIV/AIDS is thought to have been caused by environmental natural selection that occurred during the time of The Black Death -- people with this specific mutation were probably less likely to die from bubonic plague than people who didn't have the mutation, thus they were more likely to live and to spread the mutation to their offspring.

DOWN SYNDROME: Usually caused by having three copies of chromosome 21 instead of the normal two copies -- a completely genetic disease, right? Not so fast! There are definite environmental risk factors for developing Down Syndrome, with advanced maternal age being one of the more potent ones! The age that your mother decided to become pregnant with her baby is an environmental factor, and an environmental factor that you have undoubtedly heard a lot about from your physician if you happen to be a person of advanced maternal age.

It's a shame that this relatively simple concept isn't more widely known because sometimes the false categorization of a disease as purely environmental or purely "genetic" can be very damaging. Mothers of schizophrenics were emotionally berated by the medical establishment in the not very distant past because poor mothering was thought to be the causative factor. I personally experienced something very similar. I was an abused child (off of the charts child abuse -- torture is a more appropriate term) and I have PTSD as a result of this. I was told by more than one person that I was "genetically defective" as a child, something that wasn't very pleasant to hear!

Dr. Leonardo Noto

Physician, Author, and Owner of "The Health and Medical Blog with a Personality," www.leonardonoto.com.

Disclaimer: Always discuss all health concerns with your personal physician (I don't count!) before making any medical decisions. The internet and self-education are great, but they don't replace your doc!

That is highly dependent on the mental illness in question. Many are very genetic, many are very environmental. All tend to be some combination of those two things. Recurring anxiety or depression are more likely to be genetic, one time anxiety (such as PTSD after a trauma) or depression due to a difficult circumstance are more environmental. Schizophrenia tends to be more genetic, but is only 40% or so, and if it hits, will hit in late teens or early 20s, typically. Many personality disorders are caused early in life, environmentally, (often due to abuse or very rare circumstances) but tend to stick for a very long time.

Mental illness usually develops after adolescents predominately in males and after forty in women, but these people are genetically predisposed to have it. Sometimes the gender situations are reversed too.

You be born with it or it can just develop due to a circumstance usually something very dramatic it also can be brought on by the use of illegal drugs.

Yes. Things like PTSD. A lot of times you are born with something, but it just doesn't show up until later.

I believe medical research and its hypothesis changes with further research. so nothing is definite finding. its been said I assume some deficiencies in your food intake may trigger some neurological/mental problem.

If we watch behaviour pattern, each individual is different. hence I suppose some person born with different mindset/mental behaviour. you may call it born with mental disorder.

Yes it is posable to develop it , for example me , i got a mental ilness called paranoir when i was about 7 years old,