{"id":1476,"date":"2016-04-11T18:13:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T18:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bcchrtpgg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=1442"},"modified":"2025-09-16T16:06:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:06:45","slug":"genetic-counselling-relieve-people-guilt-accompanies-mental-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/tgrc\/2016\/04\/11\/genetic-counselling-relieve-people-guilt-accompanies-mental-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"Release from Shame: Genetic counselling can relieve people of guilt that accompanies mental illness"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Many people enter genetic counselling to find out whether they will pass an illness to their children or to understand the causes of their condition.<\/p>

When the bottom fell out for Rina Varley, she was unable to work, and didn\u2019t even have a name for her illness.<\/p>

\u201cI had been working in newspapers, selling print ads for quite a while, and then I had a bit of breakdown,\u201d she said. \u201cI was depressed. I couldn\u2019t work. I couldn\u2019t even get out of bed.\u201d<\/p>

Although Varley had been seeing therapists for nearly half her life, she had never received a definitive diagnosis.<\/p>

\u201cThey didn\u2019t seem to think it was important to put a name to it, that it wouldn\u2019t be helpful to have a label,\u201d she recalled. \u201cIf I had cancer, they would give it a name. But with a mental illness, there\u2019s a stigma and people get weird and judgey.\u201d<\/p>

She felt lost, betrayed by her mind, and with no real focus for her energy.<\/p>

\u201cFinally, in 2012, I received a diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I had a label, but I knew nothing beyond that,\u201d she said.<\/p>

Varley started to work on a one-woman play about her struggle under the tutelage of actor and activist Victoria Maxwell, the self-appointed Bi-Polar Princess.<\/p>

\u201cShe mentored me writing my script, and she recommended genetic counselling,\u201d she said.<\/p>

Many people enter genetic counselling to find out whether they will pass an illness to their children, or to understand the causes of their condition.<\/p>

\u201cFor me, it was purely curiosity about whether there was some trauma in my past that brought this on,\u201d she said. \u201cDid I do something wrong? Well, no. It\u2019s a combination of environmental factors and genetics.\u201d<\/p>

With a name for her illness and an understanding of its causes, Varley was relieved of a lifetime of shame.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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\u201cNow I know there is a community of people who battle negative thoughts and destructive beliefs all day, every day \u2014 that I\u2019m not just a drama queen,\u201d she said.<\/p>

Genetic counselling is often misunderstood as a way to select genetically superior offspring, according to Jehannine Austin, professor of psychiatry and medical genetics at the University of British Columbia.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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In the absence of good scientific explanations for their illness, many people become convinced they have done something to bring it on themselves.<\/p>\t<\/blockquote>\n\t

\n\t\t– Jehannine Austin\t<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
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The process was originally used to counsel parents of children born with genetic disorders \u2014 such as Down Syndrome \u2014 and for people dealing with adult-onset diseases such as Huntington\u2019s disease.<\/p>

\u201cHuntington\u2019s is one of those diseases that is entirely genetic. If you have the gene, you will get the disease,\u201d said Austin, who founded the world\u2019s first genetic counselling clinic. \u201cPsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety are quite different \u2014 they are not entirely genetic in origin.\u201d<\/p>

In the absence of good scientific explanations for their illness, many people become convinced they have done something to bring it on themselves.<\/p>

\u201cI regularly speak to people who are convinced it\u2019s their fault that they have schizophrenia because they smoked a lot of pot when they were younger,\u201d said Austin. \u201cThey feel that they must have triggered it somehow.\u201d<\/p>

Credit: Vancouver Sun<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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