Can You Be A Good Parent When You Have A Mental Illness?
It seems other people don’t think so.
I know now that mental illness is not a learned behaviour, nor is it really a hereditary issue, although, if you have a mental illness, it can mean that your child has a higher risk. But it is not a cause and effect thing. Just because I have OCD, depression, dissociation problems, and other things, does not mean any of my children will have those issues.
I Don’t Want My Children to Have OCD
I used to really worry that my children would get my OCD. OCD is obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is a terribly debilitating condition that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. It is a far cry from the jokes you see about it, believe me. As someone who has had this disorder pretty much all his life, it isn’t a fun thing to have to live with, and it doesn’t come out when things are a little messy.
It has had me on my knees. It has put me through so much trauma in my life that I have reached points where I have wished I was dead because surely dying would be so much easier than what I feel or what OCD likes to tell me.
And the idea of any of my children getting this condition from me breaks my heart.
