Psych 200 Week Oct 3rd Blog

The most interesting piece of information I found was the "Identity Dance" article. I found this to be closest to my own personal life. I have suffered with depression my entire life. My Mother was a diagnosed bi-polar sufferer, with manic episodes . Additionally I have three children. My two oldest have been depression sufferers, and my youngest has Down Syndrome. With my youngest, I can place the blame on a genetic defect. Trisonomy 21. This means she has an extra chromosome on gene number 21. With the depression, my family had always blamed this on my Mothers acting career. Interestingly enough, my Aunt, her sister, has an extensive Psychology background. All of that being very outdated! It is very refreshing to see that there is actual research telling us that these mental disorders have a specific gene type display. The nature vs nurture theory gets torn up because of this.

I found this to be seen when this was made very evident in the articles where each twin was so very different. Not only in their, attitudes and behavior towards circumstance,s and family, also in the way they copped, and problem solved. I think this further provides proof that although children living in the same environment, and having the same parents, the genetics trumped it all. For me, this is good news (insert happy dance here).

I think with more research and better defined medicine needs, for people with mental disorders, that we would be able to nearly eliminate the homeless disaster in the United States. Most of the people out on the streets have some sort of mental disability/disorder. If we knew more about these drugs, and their effects more accurately, on the human brain, we would be savings millions or more in so many different areas of our current health care system. I don't think enough has been done to really determine more about genetics in this area. I applaud science, and the research in genetics on cancer, and the like, however it would be nice to see more research in the area of the mentally disabled persons. If I had the money, and contacts to do this, this is what I would do!