Do Depressed Parents Have Depressed Children?

I think you can break the cycle by getting some help. I think depression is some what genetic. It seems to run in families. I do not think that you should not have kids because of this. They bring you such joy. You can control this disease with medication.

I would say so yes. Your environment plays a huge role in how you feel.

Yes I think depression is hereditary, both my parents weren't the healthiest [and my dad was a addict], mental-wise, and I suffer from depression/bi-polar disorder. I don't think it's completely genetic or completely dependant on the environment, but like a mix of both. xD

Nope! I have been diagnosed with clinical depression for over 20 years. I have 3 grown children and not a single one of them has it! I think it may be partly learned behaviour from seeing the parent, though? (Sometimes chemical and a child may get it, but much is learned.) I think being diagnosed young and being great about conforming to treatment helped THEM not to se me much with it and pick up the behaviours that go with the depression. If parents are treated effectilvely..many kids with depressed parents won't show/have it, I feel! GOOD NEWS!

My mother was depressed a lot when I was growing up.She always worked,but when she was home she would sit and twirl her hair for hours hardly saying a word.I would ask her all the time if she was in a good mood,I don't know why I asked but I did it a lot.After awhile she just started hollering at me for asking so I stopped. As a teenager and an adult I have suffered with this time and again.It has kept me from doing many things,I do not socialize other then with one best friend,we play cards.I do not often feel very happy,and I do think it has affected my daughter.She is now 16 and a wonderful girl for the most part.However she has angry out bursts to the point where she has lost friendships over it.She is always just on the edge of anger ,anything can set her off.Just these past two days I sent her to stay with my sister who lives about an hour from me.She has gotten so all she does is scream at me.A whole lot worse then any teenager I have seen.Sometimes I swear it is Linda Blair I am dealing with.I think with her she is depressed and expresses it with the anger,me I just get sad and stare at the wall and have a hard time talking. Jas

I think genetics has alot to do with it!!! Myself and my 4 siblings all have some form of depression and/or anxiety. My mom and 2 of her siblings also. Their father and his siblings had the same. I have 4 children...2 are very sensitive and 2 are not...does that mean they will be depressed or anxious, not really. But odds are that there will be probably something with at least one of them. I think that today's society has some effect but I truly think it is mostly your genetic makeup.

I think depression does go through the family. I have lived this experience and still am. My grandmother was very depressed had a breakdown, my mother is also very depressed, and myself am too. But the one question in it all is that my sister is not depressed and never has been so why if i am is she not?