We've always been (age appropriately) open with our three sons about our health, physical and mental. We did our best not to spend too much time focused on those issues though, and just kept our family life as normal and supportive and upbeat as possible. We are very close-knit. Our sons are all grown (or just about) now. They are responsible, generally content, adults. They each have had relatively mild issues with depression or anxiety along the way, but nothing that has become a major issue for them -- all fairly short-term problems that were worked through quickly.

I think the fact that we had treated our own health problems - physical and mental -- as treatable, as just something that had to be dealt with, as something we could talk calmly and openly about, they felt very comfortable coming to us when they encountered their own issues with their own health, knowing we would help them find the right support and treatment.