How Bipolar Disorder Can Be Attributed to Heredity

In today's society, more people are diagnosed with a bipolar disorder that in past generations. A bipolar disorder is when someone has mood swings that can range from very low or really high such as depression. In an online article it mentions, “More than two-thirds of people with bipolar disorder have at least one close relative with the illness or with unipolar major depression, indicating that the disease has a heritable component (DBSA, par. 4). Many people can relate to someone in their family with a bipolar disorder or a disorder close to it. In most cases of a bipolar disorder, it is hereditary and given from past generations.

A bipolar disorder is more common in families; its a higher risk factor. The author Hoos proved “Studies report rates of bipolar disorder between 4% and 15% in children with one bipolar parent, compared to 0% to 2% in the offspring of parents who don't have the disorder. And if both parents are bipolar, rather than just one, a child is about 3.5 times more likely to develop the condition” (Hoos, Par. 4). This study shows that if a parent has a bipolar disorder, their child will have the possibility of getting it. If both parents have the disorder, their child will most likely have the disorder too. The child could get a small portion of it or a really high risk of it.

In some of the online articles, parents wrote in and said that they had a high risk of a bipolar disorder and then gave it to their children. Some of them claimed if they knew it was hereditary then they wouldn’t of even had children because their parents suffered so much from it when they were growing up. They didn’t want their children to go through the same thing but now since they already had their children, there’s nothing they can do about it.

“Interestingly, the bipolar parents in the study who had a childhood history of ADHD were more likely to have children with bipolar disorder rather than ADHD. This disorder will be stuck with someone diagnosed with it, there are ways to make the symptoms less” (WebMD, par. 1). There are symptoms that go along with this disease and some could be no self esteem, restless, less likely of sleep, racing thoughts, and distractibility. Ways to treat the disorder is to seek help; talk to a psychiatrist. Another way is medication. Doctors will prescribe medication to help with the disorder. If someone is dealing with a family member or a friend with the disorder, the best way to help them is with support. Show them that they have people there to support them.

Some people claim that this disorder isn’t hereditary but after researching this topic, it is hereditary. The hypothesis before the researching was that a bipolar disorder is hereditary and very common in families.