Dear Aunt Silvia My wife to be comes from a family where they suffer from emotional breakdown ending to madness. I have dated her for seven years but I am yet to see her with symptoms of madness. My family is against me marrying her, what should I do? Is madness hereditary or not? Because I also fear that my offspring might suffer the same fate since they will also be carrying my wife’s genes.Theo. Dear Theo,For more than a century geneticists and social scientists have been trying to prove that mental illness is hereditary. Today most professionals and lay people believe that the hereditary nature of schizophrenia and various other mental illnesses has been confirmed by an accumulation of various evidence. However, a review of that evidence finds that is far from conclusive. It is therefore suggested that a stubborn insistence on this genetic theory of madness is itself part of the problem—a universal tendency to sweep the dark side of family life under the rug—and leads to biased research.There is a saying which goes that everyone is mad only the level of madness differs. This can apply to the family of your wife to be. Seven years is a long time for you not to have detected at least some symptoms of madness. It does not mean just because one or two of her relatives are mad, then she will also be mad one day, even though research is yet to prove otherwise. Recently it was also been reported that almost thirty percent of mad cases in our local hospital is caused by drug abuse. Have you ever cared to check whether these mad relatives your wife to be has; have been involved in any kind of drug abuse? Drug abuse has now become number one killer. Those who do not die due to drug overdose usually become mad. Some people have also been known to run mad due to being in abusive relationships, or were abused when they were young. Long gone are the days when one goes mad then people say they have been bewitched, even though I have never believed in witchcrafts because of my Christian convictions, you should ask your wife if she has known her family to be involved in witchcrafts, so that you know where to start from when looking for the answers you need. Also before you make any concrete decision you have to look into all these avenues and come up with a conclusive answer. I don’t know if a person can undergo a test to determine whether they can be mad or not at a later stage in life but all these questions should be answered to you if you seek a medical advice together with your wife. This is a lifetime commitment you need to think carefully after seeking medical advice. I wish you the best. Ends
