Reflection Blog 1

I found the article "The Identity Dance" the most interesting. While reading about how DNA and life experience mold our personality, it made me think. How it can be turned on and off, or go up and down by other genes, also involving the ups and downs of everyday life, was something that stood out to me. It's something I suppose I never put much thought into, or knew anything more than the basic concept of it. Studies show that now depression is a combination of specific genes and stressful triggers; simply having the gene will not send most people into despair. With scientists rapidly discovering genes linked to illnesses such as cancer and birth defects, they now are also finding genes with traits such as sexual preference, aggression, and mental illnesses. I personally think people in society today are misinformed about depression and mental illnesses. It seems like the amount of people who suffer from one or both continue to increase. Shouldn't there be a way to catch the these specific genes and make these people aware, so possibly an illness can be detected early and treated properly? Although we can't predict the circumstances and triggers in our life that could potentially cause a mental illness, I wonder if more people knew they carried these specific genes, if the number of diagnoses in adulthood would decrease. I've worked with so many patients who suffer from various types of mental illnesses. For most of them, their quality of life is diminished by being overly medicated. Sadly, with the exception of counseling, their isn't much else for treating and maintaining most mental illnesses. Since scientists can't find a gene that directly causes mental illness, depression or any other mood disorder; If I had unlimited funds to research more on something specifically, it would be on mental illness or depression. I can personally relate to depression and anxiety and have suffered from both since a young age. After reading this information, I know realize it was really apparent I was depressed after a traumatic event in my life occurred. Learning about how low serotonin levels are a major factor in human anxiety was helpful and useful to me in understanding more of why I suffer from anxiety. Also, the serotonin transporter gene (which produces a protein that ferries serotonin between brain cells), was extremely informative. I was unaware there was short and long version and that people who carry at least one copy of the short version of this gene were more likely to have an anxiety disorder. The statistics proven on the short gene related to depression, were fascinating. Forty-three percent of people who carried the short gene who experienced four or more tumultuous events became clinically depressed. Also, people who have the short gene who experienced no stressful events also became depressed at the average rate as the general population. While only seventeen percent of the long gene people who endured four or more stressful events wound up depressed. With that in mind, does the nature vs nurture theory play a part in causing/preventing mental illness, depression, and anxiety? If you carry certain genes to make you susceptible to specific diseases/illness, are environmental factors enough to change anything or be prevented? A specific paragraph I especially liked at the end of this article is: The new science of nature and nurture isn't as straightforward as the DNA-is-destiny mantra, but it is more accurate. People have a really hard time understanding the probabilistic nature of how genes impact traits like depression" (Kenneth Kendler, director of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at Virginia Commonwealths University.)