Is mental illness caused

more by genetic or
environmental factors?

By Sena Wright
 Why I’m Asking This Question

❖ Learn more about the people around me.

❖ Become more knowledgeable about the world.
❖ Help in educating others about mental illness.
❖ Understanding the symptoms.
 What I already knew

❖ Mental illnesses can be caused by both

genetic, environmental, and
psychological factors.
❖ Depression can be genetic, and daily
lives can provoke depression easily.
❖ Mental illnesses can be triggered by
an extreme emotional event.
 What I Wanted to Learn.

What type of How can I help others

psychological who are suffering from a
thoughts triggers mental illness to better
mental illnesses? understand what they’re
going through?

What is the largest

cause of mental
illnesses?
How I Went About My Search

❖ Speaking to friends
and family about
their experiences.
❖ Researching online
using studies and
articles.
❖ Reading of others’
experiences.
What I Learned

❖ 18.5% of people in the U.S. suffer

from a type of mental illness.
❖ Affected by both genetic &
environmental factors.
❖ Most illnesses are caused by
both factors.
 Continued

❖ Gene variant also showed high activity in the amygdala: a

certain area in the brain which processes fear.
❖ People with this gene processed fear differently, therefore
resulting in different reactions such as triggering mental
illness.
❖ Abnormal balances of neurotransmitters injure the brain
❖ A large factor in mental illnesses.
What I Think About All This

I enjoyed the process of

researching a topic that I was
interested in, and it was
intriguing to learn about
mental illness and how to help
others who suffer from it.
 Works Cited
Mayo Clinic Staff. “Mental Illness”
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mental-illness/symptoms-causes/syc-2037496
8. Accessed 30 January 2018.

Charles W. Schmidt. “Environmental Connections: A Deeper Look into Mental Illness”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1940091/. Accessed 31 January 2018.

Minae Niwa. “Genes and Environment Combine to Bring on Mental Illness”

https;//www.pbs.org/newshour/science/genes-and-environment-combine-to-influence-mental-
illness. Accessed 30 January 2018.

Kacey Heekin & Larry Polivka. “Environmental and Economic Factors Associated with
Mental Illness”
https://coss.fsu.edu/subdomains/claudepeppercenter.fsu.edu_wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/02
/Environmental-and-Economic-Factors-Associated-with-Mental-Illness-Manuscript.pdf.
Accessed 2 February 2018

https:/www.nhs.uk/conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/causes/

Family & Friends