Re: depression/abuse in childhood linked

[Guest guest]

I actually thought that was great news.

I know it might sound strange. But I know that there is a greater risk of

offspring having mental health problems if there is a family history of

problems. I have depression. Its easily and well controlled by meds, but it

does require meds for the rest of my life. My husband has a mild case of

bipolar- it runs in his family. His is controlled by meds, but his

depression/anxiety isn't as well controlled. And then there is the BPD and

the whatevers/unknowns of my grandparents. So that gives one pause.

But then I read that little blurb. And I looked up a little bit more info.

There is also a strong correlation between childbirth leadning to mental

illness and I suspect that could lead to abusive situations- maybe that

potential is there. It makes things more stressfull perhaps for mothers,

being mothers that is. Having small (or big) children can be very

stressfull I guess especially if one has other issues.

Growing up I always sort of felt like maybe the depression was one of the

reasons I got abused. Being able to state " I was abused " is still something

I struggle with. I was only mildly abused I think. Of course I'm not sure

how one determines that sort of thing, but nada only drew blood a couple of

times over all the years. So what with it just being mild abuse, but still

abuse for years and all that I am now sort of struggling on some level I

think with being able to say " and it wasn't at all my fault " . I wasn't

abused because I was depressed or because I had learning disability or

health problems. I was abused because nada couldn't handle those situations

or her feelings or whatever. It wasn't because of me, it was because of

her.

So when I think about having kids I feel a little better about the odds of

the offspring maybe not developing multiple mental illnesses and having to

regularily be hospitalized or something. Because we aren't going to be

doing things like abusing our kids and I probably would only hope for a

" normal " child rather than expect one and so forth and plan like crazy for

various different possible outcomes and how to handle those in order to

minimize potential future scaring for life of offspring (I would like to

limit it to things I feel I would probably just end up doing anway like

calling the kid honeybuns in front of the prom date and offering to talk to

them about condoms or something else silly even if I had promised not to but

just couldn't resist that one time). Rather than the " how dare you not know

what I am thinking, you are trying to manipulate me again... " rages. Like

maybe it would be something that might be doomed.

I dunno. Grad school first.

-Ata

>

> Since there are several discussions going about the long term affects

> of having a bpd parent, I thought this article might be of interest

>

> http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/01/01/abuse.depression.reut/index.html

>

> They have found a link between childhood abuse and/or neglect and adult

> depression. Probably not a surprise to any of us, but I found it

> interesting that they are doing this kind of research.

>

> Fresabird

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