Back

Sapolsky and Mental Illnesses Revisited

May 30th, 2024

I recently watched a few of Sapolsky's lectures. One about the biology of human behaviour (I also read the beginning of his book Behave.) But another lecture titled "The Biological Underpinnings of Religiousity" caught my eye.

I highly recommend you go on YouTube and take a look. It's incredibly interesting to the vast majority of people, and personally, I couldn't hold a candle to the way Sapolsky speaks on the topic. He is a masterful lecturer (probably from watching his own father lecture in Brooklyn since childhood,) and he should be respected as such.

Here, I'll revisit mental illness from a genetic perspective, and I'll revisit the idea of schizotypy in myself.

Genetics

When I was a young boy, my father off-handedly mentioned that his father had experienced cruel, torturous abuse as a child. My grandfather had been tied up with thick yarny rope as an eight year old by his uncles, and beaten with wood sticks. They would terrorize and molest my grandfather and his sisters out of sheer cruelty.

Looking back, this may have been shortly after brutal Japanese occupation where food was scarce and stressors were high. But I can only conjecture.

The story is cruel, and I'm not sure why my father mentions it. Maybe because it is memorable. But the scarier part of it is that if those cruel humans are my grandfather's uncles, that makes me blood-related to them. I may have inherited some capacity to be cruel and unusual as well.

My father tells me that his mother, my grandmother, came from a well-off and well-respected famliy in the village, one of land-owning scribes perhaps. That gives me the notion that there is some line of intellectualism. Of course, as a person raised Asian, I take note of any ancestors who were well-learned.

On my mom's side, we visited my paternal grandfather's grave once. He had died during the war, but we learned that his father owned quite a bit of land. That's all I know about his parents.

For my maternal grandmother, she mentions that there is French ancestry, and that her father was a fisherman who could write. Writing was very rare back then, so it is something of note yet again.

My paternal grandparents themselves: my grandfather had thyroid issues and heart issues, but I did not know him well. My grandmother however is a diagnosed schizophrenic. She's suffering a bit much now, I'll visit her this week.

As for my paternal side of the family, they are a little odd. They don't really interact in the way most people do? It's strange. Or am I the strange one for thinking this? Something about speech cadance or the topics we talk about when we meet.

As for just raw diagnoses, I have one cousin with Aspergers and another with Autism on that side of the family. I also have an aunt with bipolar disorder and depression. I suspect that depression runs more significantly than we are willing to admit on that side too. I have a few cousins who themselves suspect autism/ADHD in themselves too.

On my mom's side, my grandma exhibits hermit-like behaviour. She doesn't go outside or interact with people and just tends to her plants. She spent the majority of her life post-divorce to herself just meditating.

I have an uncle that I think has some form of schizoid or autism but it's not confirmed. I also have a two cousins with diagnosed autism and one cousin with diagnosed ADHD. I have another uncle who I suspect has ADHD as well.

So to summarize the counts:

  • Schizophrenia: 1
  • ADHD: 1 (Possibly 4)
  • Depression: 2 (Possibly much much more)
  • Bipolar: 1
  • Autism: 4

That's about nine family members who have some sort of disorder.

Schizotypy

Looking at myself at my anxiety and depression (undiagnosed,) there is a high chance what I've got will be inherited by my children.

You know, looking back at my writing too, it's.... it's....... it's a bit out there too isn't it?!?! Err, loose associations? And I go off on philosophical tangents and whatnot...

I don't know. Hmm.

My maternal grandmother did pull me aside and said to me, "You need a religion to follow. It doesn't matter which."

Perhaps that's what she meant. Some guiding force to keep it going.