I come from a long, long line of depressives. My mother's side of the family is chock full of recluses, eccentrics, suicides...anyone who's borderline normal is very apparently not "normal" due to their brittle nature and condescending aloofness. There's a lot of bad parenting thrown into the mix, but the big question is, Which came first, the mental illness or the dysfunction? I'm pretty sure it's a combination of both. I've learned a lot of CBT-type tricks over the years, and the most they've ever done for me is keep me from going over the precipice. All the therapy and behavior modification in the world isn't going to make this broken plane fly right. It keeps it from crashing, sure, but nothing ever gets fixed.

And like some others here, there were signs way back in childhood that I wasn't going to grow up to be a happy, well-adjusted, fully functioning member of society. I threatened to kill myself at the age of nine. My grades were spiraling downwards and I was repeatedly feigning illness to miss school by junior high. Guidance counselors mandated weekly sessions from junior high through high school. My mother told them, She's fine, she's just a little shy. My parents refused to seek professional help for me - I know my paranoid mother was terrified CYS would take me away - so the school counselors tried, unsuccessfully, to fill that role. I never opened up to them.

Anywho, I would have to say that it's definitely a combination of nature/nurture.