Is there a genetic predisposition to mental disorders?

       With the continuous development and progress of society, people pay more and more attention to health. In fact, health not only refers to physical health without disease, but also includes psychological health. Psychological health refers to the integrity of personality, normal intelligence, emotional stability and happiness, harmonious behavior and good interpersonal relationship and good adaptability. The level of mental health can have a direct impact on physical diseases. For example, hypertension and some cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, gastrointestinal ulcer disease, etc. are typical psychosomatic diseases, that is, closely related to psychological factors, there are long-term psychological problems, that is, psychological disorders caused by. So what is a psychological disorder? Is it hereditary? Can psychological disorders be overcome? These are the questions that readers are most concerned about, and we will discuss them separately below.  What is a psychological disorder?  In clinical practice, the concept of pathological psychology is usually adopted, and a wide range of psychological abnormalities or behavioral abnormalities are collectively called “psychological disorders”. In fact, human mental activity is expressed through external behavior. The mind is known by what it says and does. Psychological abnormalities are structural or functional disorders of the brain or disorders and distortions of the human reflection of objective reality, which reflect both abnormalities of the individual’s self-concept and certain abilities, as well as social interpersonal relationships and personal life adaptation disorders. It is difficult for scholars to specify a clear watershed between normal and abnormal psychology. The difference between normal and abnormal psychological activity is often relative. However, in some cases there are substantial changes that cannot be generalized. At the same time, the manifestation of abnormal psychological activity is influenced by a variety of factors, such as the objective environment (somatic condition, etc.), subjective experience and psychological state, and interpersonal and social environment. In addition, the judgment of whether a person has a psychological abnormality is also related to the judge’s perception of the role of these factors.  The term “psychological disorder” generally refers to the inability to act in a socially acceptable and appropriate manner, so that the consequences of one’s behavior do not harmonize well with the surrounding social environment. This psychological disorder may be the result of organic or functional impairment or both. Research has shown that the formation of psychological disorders is related to the personality, genetic qualities and environmental factors. Psychological disorders mostly have a certain personality basis. Bad personality or pathological personality is the susceptible group of psychological disorders.  Major changes in the internal and external environment such as disease, disasters, man-made disasters and loss, as well as substance abuse such as alcohol abuse can lead to psychological disorders. The social causes of psychological disorders include major setbacks, persistent frustration, interpersonal tension, loss of love, body image disturbance, ridicule, poor family relationships, and poor family economic status. Studies have shown that the occurrence of psychological disorders in only children is related to factors such as parental separation, upbringing, change in life environment and their own qualities. The psychological causes are obvious personality defects.  The specific manifestations of psychological disorders can be: anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, frustration, fear, compulsion, emotional instability, inattention, memory loss, interpersonal tension, and denial, trance, sleep cycle disorders, drug use, self-injury, suicide, etc.  What is personality?  The word personality comes from the Latin word “persona”, which originally meant mask. Personality is a facet of oneself that people filter out from themselves and make public. This means that everyone has some privacy that they do not want to disclose for other reasons. Another type of definition sees personality as a complex set of reactions. According to this view, personality is “how an individual actually acts depending on his or her actions.” These definitions emphasize the visible (observable) behavior of the individual while downplaying the invisible elements of personality. Others see personality as an internal mechanism that controls behavior, and it is the qualities of this internal mechanism that determine a person’s personality. The Encyclopedia of China (education volume) defines personality as “the mental outlook or psychological pattern of an individual, that is, the sum of some of the individual’s conscious tendencies and various stable and unique psychological traits.” Psychology believes that every individual has certain psychological characteristics of personality, which is a unique combination of multiple psychological characteristics of a person. It concentrates on reflecting the stable type differences of a person’s mental outlook, mainly in several aspects of personality, temperament and ability. Personality (character) is the individual’s stable attitude toward reality and habitual behavior, more social; temperament is the individual is born with the dynamic characteristics of mental activity, such as some people quiet and calm, some people lively and agile, some people withdrawn and sensitive, etc.. Ability marks the characteristics of the person in the completion of certain activities are potential possibilities. Therefore, from this psychosexual characteristic, some people often regard personality as a synonym of character.  Personality affects life Personality has an important role and influence on a person’s growth and development. A variety of research studies have proved that the biggest difference between successful and unsuccessful people is not the difference in intelligence, but the difference in non-intellectual aspects, in which personality factors play an important role. Although we cannot say that personality determines life, it does have a huge impact on life. Anyone who has read my classical masterpieces can easily see that the ancient Cao Cao was suspicious by nature, Xiang Yu was arrogant and conceited, and Lin Daiyu was depressed and narcissistic. It is because they have these character traits that they have their respective sad histories.  When Cao Cao’s plot to assassinate Dong Zhuo was exposed, he absconded from the crime and got the help of Chen Gong to stay overnight at Lu Bo Xie’s house. When Cao Cao heard the sound of sharpening his knife, he thought that Lu Bo Xie wanted to kill him, so he indiscriminately killed eight members of Lu’s family. He knew that Yang Xiu was a rare talent and could take on a heavy responsibility, so he took great pains to enlist him, even marrying his daughter to show his sincerity in seeking wisdom. However, he was extremely conceited and suspicious at heart, and was afraid that Yang Xiu would see the flaw in his heart and throw him to the sword. Cao Cao threw Hua Tuo into prison to die because he was suspicious that Hua Tuo would harm him. In his later years, Cao Cao was seriously ill and dreamed of three horses eating at the same trough at night, so he was suspicious and worried about Sima Yi and his father and three sons. It is easy to see that Cao Cao was victimized by his own suspicion.  Because of Xiang Yu’s self-conceited “force up mountains and the gas is over the world”, headstrong, no self-awareness, moreover, no knowledge of others, after the Hongmen Banquet, Xiang Yu’s scenery is declining, so Han Xin left, Chen Ping also left, even Fan Zeng, the unique strategist, also because of Chen Ping’s plan was Xiang Yu angry away, halfway sick and died. Once Fan Zeng left, it can be said that Xiang Yu had become a loner, and the king was finally besieged at Gaixia, and defeat at Wujiang was inevitable.  Emotional well-being will undoubtedly have a direct impact on a person’s health. Sentimentality is the main character trait of Lin Daiyu. Lin Daiyu’s parents died at an early age, leaving her with psychological trauma. She is sad, easily sentimental, very sensitive to the dark, negative, pessimistic aspects of things. When she saw the flowers blooming, she thought of the fading scene of the flowers falling, and when she saw the reunion of another family, she thought of her parents dying and being alone and lonely. Therefore, she often sighs to the empty space alone, weeps at the window, and even washes her face with tears all day long. She has low self-esteem, self-love and pride, year-round apprehension, serious insomnia, in this situation, how can she have a healthy psychological condition? Until finally, when it was rumored that Jia Baoyu married Xue Baochai, she was finally struck down by the pain of lost love and left the world with infinite sorrow.  The above characters whose feelings can be lamented and their situation can be sad. It cannot but show that personality has a certain influence on their life writing and their life ending. If Cao Cao had been broad-minded and Xiang Yu had been humble and accepting of advice, history would have been rewritten, and if Lin Daiyu had been able to judge the situation, be confident and face reality, perhaps she and Jia Baoyu would have ended up together.  Is there a genetic predisposition for psychological disorders?  The diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders or behavioral disorders by psychiatrists indicate that they do not believe that psychological disorders have a family genetic background, and therefore such disorders can be cured by psychotherapy. Psychiatrists, on the other hand, mostly believe that psychological disorders have a family genetic background, i.e., family aggregation, and belong to the category of psychiatric disorders, which is a disease.  In terms of the correlation between personality traits, behavior and genetic and environmental factors, a number of studies have shown that the percentage of genetic factors is more than 50%. Therefore, it can be said that a personality or behavioral trait is associated with certain genes, and is a combination of multiple genes and environmental factors, similar to the case of polygenic diseases. Thus, personality has a genetic predisposition and susceptibility to stress disorders, and its associated genes are characterized by microefficacy, which has a familial background but does not follow Mendelian laws of inheritance. Psychological disorders and mental illnesses are the combined effect of multiple micro-effective defective genes and are induced by environmental factors as a total effect. While the formation of human personality traits has a combination of congenital genetic and acquired social environment, people with significant personality defects are more likely to lead to significant psychological disorders, and psychological disorders are a side reflection of personality traits.  In terms of psychiatry, mood swings are related to environmental factors. A person with normal psychological quality can become depressed when he or she is subjected to sudden and strong mental stimuli, such as the death of a relative, a drastic family change, unemployment or an accident, and this depression is a normal emotional reaction. Generally speaking, this depressive reaction does not last long and will gradually disappear over time. However, in the same situational situation, some people show persistent depressive reactions, indicating that there are also individual psychological differences and family genetic predispositions here that lead individuals to overreact to stress.  How to overcome psychological disorders?  Above we talked about personality —- character traits as a result of a combination of genetic and social-environmental factors, thus also indicating that human personality is moldable and psychological disorders can be overcome. Through gradual adaptation to the environment and acceptance of acquired education, continuous learning is possible to gradually overcome the psychological barriers, so as to have a healthy mind and develop a mature personality. Good personality quality is the harmonious development and unity of the elements of knowledge, emotion, intention and action. In fact, it is common for a person to have a certain psychological disorder or defect, and as long as it does not affect life and social life too much, and the person and society can accept the disorder or defect, there is no need to deliberately “overcome” it. No one is perfect, no one is perfect, good and defective coexist to be a complete person. If a psychological disorder or defect causes the person pain and seriously affects social adaptability, efforts should be made to overcome it.  How to have a healthy mind and a sound personality?  Personality is formed and stabilized until the age of 18, during which time it is extremely malleable. Therefore, the psychological development of the next generation should start at an early age, because education plays an important role in the growth and development of personality. Bacon said: “Reading history makes a man wise, reading poetry makes a man intelligent, arithmetic makes a man precise, philosophy makes a man profound, ethics makes a man cultivated, logic and rhetoric make a man good at discernment” Knowledge can shape a man’s character. Secondly, we should pay attention to the cultivation of humanistic environment, focus on strengthening the construction of family culture, campus culture and community culture, play the role of artistic inculcation, cultivate good aesthetic concepts, enrich the life of the next generation, pay attention to the cultivation of how to share their own and others’ successful experiences and the endurance of accepting setbacks from an early age, strengthen the collective consciousness, pay attention to parents’ words and teach by example, improve the educator’s personality infection, guide the establishment of good interpersonal relationships, learn conflict resolution skills, actively engage in social life, learn to understand society and adapt to it, and cultivate in them the ability to make good judgments and choices and behavioral habits so as to achieve the unity of mind and body, and the harmonious development and unity of man and society.  In the case of adults, strengthening their own psychological quality is conducive to overcoming their own psychological barriers, the formation of defects is not a day’s work, and perfection is not a day’s work. So how to overcome psychological barriers to improve their own personality? From the perspective of social psychology and individual psychology, the most effective way to overcome psychological barriers is to know one’s own shortcomings, to promote one’s own strengths, to follow nature, to adapt to the social environment, to solve problems and to fully understand the environment in which one lives. The inconsistency between the individual’s psychological experience and the original psychological cognition will lead to psychological conflict, and the original psychological cognition will be reorganized, relocated, sublimated and integrated, so that the external stimulus and the psychological cognition can be coordinated with each other to avoid the psychological dilemma caused by the intensification of the psychological conflict, and to achieve reasonable psychological adaptations.  To achieve reasonable adaptations, the first thing is to face the reality, have a correct assessment of their own, when a moment can not be resolved can be used: 1. Change the perspective of the problem. Switch attitude to re-examine the cognitive things, you will be able to see the positive side of things; 2. Timely adjustment of goals. Let yourself face reality, realistic change want to achieve the goal of the way and method, if necessary, temporarily abandon the goal, so that their goals are more realistic, so that they can reasonably relieve the pain and tension, to obtain inner balance; 3. Temporarily as far as possible from those stimulus sources that lead to psychological stress reactions, find some new interests, may be out of travel or participate in group life more, dilute the psychological dilemma; 4. Reasonable use of suggestion, so that the psychological compensation. Suggestibility is a psychological characteristic of human beings, an unconscious self-protection ability, constantly suggesting to yourself that “failure is the mother of success”, “turning grief into strength”, recognizing the positive factors contained in the negative, so that you can rise to the occasion, cultivate a strong will, and increase Open and tolerant mindset. Discerningly listen to the opinions and criticisms of others, tolerate the mistakes and shortcomings of others, and then will gradually find that others are accepting themselves, so as to eliminate fear, reduce self-defense, and avoid loneliness; 6. People with low self-esteem will be overly narcissistic and self-pitying, exaggerate their own shortcomings, self-deprecating, sensitive and fragile, unable to withstand setbacks, and withdrawn and introverted. This type of personality is important to objectively analyze the environment and their own situation, more discover their own strengths, positive interaction, expressing repressed emotions, cheerful mood, restore self-confidence.  If the psychological disorder seriously affects the daily life and work of yourself and others, after the above self-regulation is not effective, you should see a psychologist or psychiatrist at the right time, in order to exclude the inner conflict and solve the inner pain as soon as possible. And drugs are more effective in relieving symptoms such as depression, anxiety or compulsion, which can shorten the time of psychological disorders.  Cao Cao, Xiang Yu and Lin Daiyu were unable to transcend their weaknesses well, which eventually led to their sad and lamentable end of life. We should learn from history, sum up the experience, remember the lessons, and stimulate the awareness and courage to transcend the self and overcome the self, so as to make unremitting efforts for the healthy development of the individual and the harmonious growth of the group. The life of a person is actually a continuous process of self-improvement, full understanding of self-knowledge, can be well adapted to the social environment. The change of the times is bound to produce an endless stream of new ideas and new things, and a sound personality is the fundamental guarantee for people to actively and positively regulate themselves to adapt to the change. In the road of life, if the face can not be changed, then change yourself first, only to comply with society and the environment to eventually find a piece of blue sky belonging to their hearts!