The good old nature vs nurture debate. My mother was most definitely depressed. My father was an alcoholic. So did I become a depressed alcholic due to heredity or is it a learned behaviour?

I do know that my depression responds well to medical treatment ie drugs, so I do think there's a genetic component to it. In the case of alcoholism I know there have been brain imaging studies showing the differences in response to different stimuli between alcoholics and non-alcoholics. I also know that I've repeated just about every behavioural pattern I saw in my father and so my treatment for alcholism has required both medical and psycho/social intervention. I take medication to help control the cravings but I'm also in therapy to learn new and better coping mechanisms.

I think in the case of mental illness it's impossible to clearly delineate what is genetic vs what is learned maladaptive coping.

---spltiimage