My adopted son's home life in his bio family was horrible too. His sisters were adopted by another family. The older one will be 19 soon, and she's "psychotic." From her adoptive mom's point of view she inherited a mental illness from her bio family. But I can't help but wonder if her incredibly traumatic childhood isn't the problem.

While my bio son didn't experience the kind of horrific childhood that my adopted son did, he definitely feels it was stressful. His dad abandoned him. I was poor. We moved around a lot. He tells me those were painful for him. His dad was Nigerian, so he also experienced being raised as the only black in a white family. He was also the victim of bullies at every school he ever attended. I don't think it helped at all that he started drinking and taking drugs when he was in high school.

Would other people find that to be stressful enough to lead to psychosis? Well, lots of people have similar childhoods without becoming psychotic. Maybe it's a combination of personality and experience. Possibly thinking style and social isolation contribute too. I just don't accept that it's as simple as having a diseased brain.