Were childhood/family issues part of your depression/anxiety

[dar7726]

I'm wondering of those who have had issues with depression and anxiety can contribute any of it to family/childhood issues.

As you may are may not remember I was on antibiotics for 8 years off and on and think that it may be a component in my depression.. Yeast overgrowth etc...

However, I do believe my childhood or lack there of, played a significant role in my depression and was wondering if others felt the same.


Example: by the time I was in 8th grade... I've witnessed these things....
Age 5 or 6 - we went through a bankruptcy where back in those days people come in and take your possessions back... Strange people coming in to the house and taking the furniture etc away.

Mother almost dying from a ruptured appendix... scary...

Fourth grade, someone broke into our house and stole many possessions and tore the house apart...Tried to burn it down...


I could go on, but you get my drift. Very unstable and unsafe.

Curious,
Darlene

[Maddy]

Hi Dar I can definately attribute my depression and anxiety problems from events in childhood. I grew up in an extremely abusive family...both physically and sexually. At 23 I ended up in the psychiatric ward for a week, suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome, which then led to my 14 year stint on antidepressants. Xanax and sleeping pills too. I spent ten years in therapy, and worked through a lot of stuff. It was very hard work, but I know I am so much better from it. Keeping things hidden inside is very hard on your body and mind. I learned that what didn't kill me when it actually happened, can't kill me when I remember it either.

[MizzT]

*waving a hand in the air*
mee toooo! me TOOOO! yep, family issues.
and ex husband issues. but the bad Ex was definitely a result of bad family stuff.

i think i never got the skills to stand up for myself and have any self esteem. I was always the "bad little girl" no matter what had happened. never good enough.
i think that is where much of my anxiety came from.

[genevieve]

Childhood is ALWAYS there when it comes to mental problems.
I had a "normal" childhood (no abuse, no poverty, etc.) but both my parents are SUPER nervous. They have given me the fear of... everything!!!!
We can not change our childhood but we can try to forgive our parents for what they have done wrong, understand our wounds and found new ways of reacting. It is hard because your brain actually changes the most when you are young. But therapy shows us that even if a total change is not possible a confortable one is!

[elisa]

Yeh, me too. Lots of trauma's and bad events. Emotional neglect, no affection, no kisses, no embraces, nothing from mom. She tried her best under the circumstances. My father died when I was 2 1/2 years in WWII during the bombing of the city and my brother died 6 months later.

My mother was left with 5 children to raise. We were very much left on our own and I knew at a very early age that I could not go to my mother and talk about things. There was physical abuse and cruelty, by my eldest sister as well.

Our older brother escaped most of it, because as my mother said so often, poor boy, he doesn't have a father anymore. She gave him a lot of attention and goodies. She also used to say very often, "I won't live for very much longer", and "I wished we all had died when your father died".

I thought that all of this was normal. I was very very shy as a young girl and was afraid of rejection. There was hardly any normal conversation in my mother's home. We couldn't talk to each other and I didn't feel "free" to talk. Over all my mother wanted peace in the house, no sibling conflict was ever resolved. ANGER in the family, that's what I discovered only very much later.

Then, I married my mother (ex-spouse). We were married for 34 1/2 years. He did get paranoid schizophrenia after being married for 12 years.

Now I am content and have peace and get more affection from my cat than I ever had in my whole life

[dar7726]

I know what you mean Elisa...

I love both my parents very much but I didn't realize for a long time how what did or did not happen in our house effected me. I was alone alot.

My mom for one does not talk much at all. My father talks all the time but it's generally about him.

I remember things being said like, stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about and whats the matter with you now, and you think you've got problems.


Darlene

[elisa]

Darlene, I know also what you mean and how words can affect a child while growing up. There are phrases or words we never seem to be able to forget. And then much later in life........BANG, we feel the hurt of them.

But then, we are here now and now that we know, we can change things around us. The power we have and how our knowledge can be used to do things differently. Just like you are doing here by sharing your experience and knowledge and passing it on to all of us.

BTW I purchased a book today on Omega 3 and made an appointment to see my daughter's naturopathic doctor next week Thurs.

[silence4now]

Issues of parental alcoholism and abandonment here.... As the oldest of 5, I had to fend for myself and help my siblings as much as I could.

Everything that happened to me during childhood shaped me as an individual, but it does not define who I am today! I can't attirubte my anxiety and depression to my past. I'm continually learning, growing and changing and hopefully coping better as I get older.

[Scott]

probably.. my childhood shyness is probably related to my biological father leaving me and my mother for his secretary at or before age 2. I never made the connection.
Funny how i have to pay for his sin.
I was always the kid with the sweaty hands who didn't like to be in front of people. Just when things were looking up I had my first panic attack at age 19 and the rest is history.. painful history.