Re-Considering The Environment, Not That One Though

The Other Environment

The Environment I'm referring to is the environment a child grows up in. There are some strange beliefs in the world. Some remarkably strange ones with regards to genetic factors and genetic contribution. I am rather entertained by these thoughts. That is, until I realize they have a driving force of their own and they are actually believed.

Of note: Schizophrenia, suicide, depression. Some Mental Health Fruit Salad, otherwise known as comorbidity but that is another topic entirely. Each one of these has an area of study entirely dedicated to learning the genetic contributions to/of ____ (fill in the blank).

If a person's parents have schizophrenia it does not necessarily follow that that person would have schizophrenia. Otherwise, we would know who would and who wouldn't have schizophrenia. Same goes for suicide: I knew a guy who went to Adler School of Professional Psychology in Vancouver, now, I am uncertain if this was his belief, the school's belief, or the person who relayed the message to me was mistaken, but I was told that people are genetically predisposed to suicide, just at they are genetically predisposed for schizophrenia.

Oddly, nobody considered the environment in making a statement like this. If you are growing up in a house where life is particularly sucky and then one day your father commits suicide, then you probably are more likely to commit suicide as an adult, if you make it that far. But suicide is typically a result of sucky life circumstances, nobody commits suicide because they are just too fucking happy to be alive. The sucky life the suicidal father provided is likely sucky enough that the child would consider suicide an acceptable solution. Is that genetic? No.

Depressed people shouldn't be parents. Children deserve unconditional love and a healthy enough environment to thrive. Depressed people cannot provide that. So if a depressed person provides a life for their children it is likely to be a sucky a life. A common cause of depression is, oddly enough, sucky stuff happening in life. The problem in these situations is depression and suicide, those are the solutions to much greater problems...sometimes related to sucky life circumstances. I don't need to go to Adler to figure this out. This is introductory logic. This is jaded cynical perspective. I certainly don't have a PhD in that, do they offer one though?

Schizophrenia is a bit trickier to understand but I would not put too much weight into the genetic factors. Considering there really is no evidence. It is mostly hocus pocus. So remember: What type of world did the child grow up in? This seems like a more important question, if you are going to ask one.