Hi silverlining23,

Having a family member with a mental health issue does not mean that you're going to have it too. It does however mean that you're at a higher risk of developing something, not necessarily the same problem. Example your mother is Bipolar, but you could be schizoaffective, OCD, BPD or any number of other things. I think the average chance of someone with no family history of mental health issues is 5% versus a 10% with one family member with mental health issues and 15% chance with two. Genetics do play a part along with many other things including the environment you were raised in to just your own individual experiences with life. Example my father was diagnosed as being Schizoaffective Bipolar type while my diagnoses has varied between Bipolar 2 and Cyclothymia. I hope I answered you question to some extent.

Cyclowolf