Philippine Mental Health Association – CORDILLERA CHAPTER INC.

One of my parents is suffering from mental illness, does it mean that I will also become mentally ill?

Not really. Whether the inherited potential for the illness will actually be expressed in the person’s life will depend on the delicate balance between the contributing factors and the protective factors in the person’s situation. While it is true that parents pass their genes to their children it does not necessarily mean that the mental illness is also passed to them. Being born from parents with mental illness makes the child predisposed or with a greater tendency to develop the symptoms of the illness as compared to children whose parents are not ill.