# Do you believe genetics or environment is the main cause of our troubles?



## DeliveryDude (Apr 21, 2019)

Do you believe genetics or environment is the main cause of our troubles?


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## sanpellegrino (Sep 15, 2016)

Environment. Mainly self induced through partying through my mid teens up until mid 20s. When I was a child I lived in a hostile environment, arguing, fighting etc. And I was mainly left to live in my room and play video games. Looking out the window, wishing I was out playing but felt too uncomfortable to go out with my friends because I was so stressed. It sounds pretty textbook but I think my environment has shaped me into the person I am today. Lots of random goings on, having to deal with things that come up suddenly leaving you less time to prepare for. I can be avoidant too. Something I dealt with for quite a few years.. Idk. Stuff.


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## blue2 (May 20, 2013)

I'd say mostly genetics, a predisposition to certain traits, 
but if others would help the person from early on to fit in or feel welcome I think everyone would be fine,
but that mostly never happens in real life, anyone a bit different from the group is usually beat down from a young age & it can leave a lasting impression, that's where the environment bit comes in, it's usually both I'd say.


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## Yer Blues (Jul 31, 2013)

Environment and genetics.


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## andy1984 (Aug 18, 2006)

both


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

I believe many people look exactly like their parents because they spend so much time looking at their parents. Makes total sense, right?


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## Paul (Sep 26, 2005)

I have to go with a third option: me. Genetics predisposed me to be shy, environment didn't socialize me as much as it could've. But I'm the one who chickened out of all the things I needed to do to develop myself, not because I couldn't do them but simply because they were hard and it was easier not to. I'm the one who turned shyness into social anxiety instead of growing out of it like most do, and I'm the one still not making the leaps I need to for fear of falling.


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## truant (Jul 4, 2014)

My genetics made me the kind of person that culture likes to put through a meat grinder. So, both.


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## Ai (Oct 13, 2012)

Paul said:


> I have to go with a third option: me. Genetics predisposed me to be shy, environment didn't socialize me as much as it could've. But I'm the one who chickened out of all the things I needed to do to develop myself, not because I couldn't do them but simply because they were hard and it was easier not to. I'm the one who turned shyness into social anxiety instead of growing out of it like most do, and I'm the one still not making the leaps I need to for fear of falling.


Same. :|



truant said:


> My genetics made me the kind of person that culture likes to put through a meat grinder. So, both.


:squeeze


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## That Random Guy (Jan 31, 2015)

*Both*

I say both.

My parents hold tendencies that would make one more likely to lean introverted and they're also kind of very individualistic.

That in itself only goes so far, however, as they are both functioning adults. My mother is the most sociable/extroverted of the family, then my sisters, and then my father maybe.

I don't think what they showed me was the cause alone, however. I had a pretty rough time adjusting to moving around a lot as a kid. That, along with my parents being busy, led me into isolation.

My parents did some of the work but the outside definitely also did a lot more of it just as well.


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## truant (Jul 4, 2014)

Ai said:


> :squeeze


:squeeze


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## FloridaGuy48 (Jun 30, 2014)

Paul said:


> I have to go with a third option: me. Genetics predisposed me to be shy, environment didn't socialize me as much as it could've.


Agree with your 3rd option. Its the case for me. People like to take a position on one extreme or the other on this issue. Its either genetic's or its environment people say but its both.. There are a lot of factors and for myself anyway they both played a role. I was naturally a shy and anxious person and didn't grow up in the best environment as well. If I had better parents with the same genetics who knows how I would have turned out. Or if my genetics were better but the environment was horrible who knows how it would have turned out either. Lot of things go into making us who we are


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## harrison (Apr 14, 2012)

Both.


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## blue2 (May 20, 2013)

Paul said:


> But I'm the one who chickened out of all the things I needed to do to develop myself, not because I couldn't do them but simply because they were hard and it was easier not to. and I'm the one still not making the leaps I need to for fear of falling.


....Well there's that too, it was definitely easier to not be around people my age when I was younger because of the genetics/environment combo & it just became a way of life to not be around people where possible, but anyone who fought a chicken would know they're really brave when they need to be, we gotta be like the chicken :yes


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## blue2 (May 20, 2013)

truant said:


> Ai said:
> 
> 
> >


 :squeeze


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## ScorchedEarth (Jul 12, 2014)

Environment, except in the most severe psychological disturbances. Why? Because if you're even partially unable to fit in or function normally, the situation is likely to snowball. If you had trouble fitting in as a child, you may have missed out on socialization, which makes it even harder in puberty, which leaves you at a competitive disadvantage in adulthood, which can lead to chronic unemployment, which is self-perpetuating and takes its own toll on top of everything else.


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## truant (Jul 4, 2014)

blue2 said:


> :squeeze


:squeeze


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## RelinquishedHell (Apr 10, 2012)

Both. More on the environmental side. The abuse and manipulation was really bad.

It took getting away from most of my family in order for me to fully accept the reality of how evil and sick they are.


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## bischofff (Jun 22, 2019)

I'm the living proof of why environment is superior to genetics. Environment will make you or break you.


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## nubly (Nov 2, 2006)

environment. majority of 'problems' can be overcome by working on them.


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## CNikki (Aug 9, 2013)

I've created a topic a while back that pertained to this. It's still a debatable subject, especially within the realm of psychology since it's still a relatively new concept to know how the brain responds to certain stimuli and events.

My personal take is that genetics sets the foundations of what the person can potentially do in terms of how they deal with geographical, cultural and economic advantages or disadvantages. There's no denying that certain mental health issues are inherited since there's been genes found to activate for someone to have mental health disorders. Epigenetics is also new and further looked into since the severity and complexity of both genetics and environments intertwining can have a person develop certain disorders to different extents.

Unfortunately, most things such as IQ and learning/disabilities are 'set in stone.' Also within the first few years since our brains are most moldable with displays of what we have inherited along with having the greatest capacity of neurological networking to tweak them. It becomes harder to change them as one gets older since neurons decrease as a person ages and pathways are harder to change (note that I said 'harder', not 'impossible').

I would have to side with genetics since, again, it builds the foundation on everything that we would experience in life. We're not born with a blank slate (tabula rasa) as it was once thought. Everything else is either by chance or the adult(s) are smart enough to give small changes for their children to excel a bit better than they have. It's like saying that certain physical illnesses such as cancers, diabetes or asthma can be inherited and people are not hesitant to be extra cautious and face the reality of what can be passed on. The brain shouldn't be seen as differently on that level.

**Also going to note that much of what's been listed have/had been things I went through and gradually accepted, even if it meant to leave them alone or find different ways to go around them. I have found that many family members have went through similar things, but different times with lack of information to the point where they have went ignored tend to have put them at a more disadvantage than myself.**


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

blue2 said:


> ....Well there's that too, it was definitely easier to not be around people my age when I was younger because of the genetics/environment combo & it just became a way of life to not be around people where possible, but anyone who fought a chicken would know they're really brave when they need to be, we gotta be like the chicken :yes


 It's funny that a chicken was chosen here. Since chickens look like birds but really aren't. Meaning that they have wings but can't really fly because they're frankenbirds. Generally, if they're lucky, they're able to get just far enough off the ground to say they did. The humble chicken is an apt metaphor for humanity (And perhaps many SA people in particular). No matter what they do, they are pretty much guaranteed to either end up on somebody's dinner plate or spend their miserable lives toiling away as egg producers in unpleasant and overcrowded conditions that are only most conducive to the well being and comfort of their owners.

On the bright side, I guess chickens don't actually know most of these things and just accept things as they are so at least there's that.


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## EmotionlessThug (Oct 4, 2011)

Both, because the Supercomputers that computing the copy human DNA are remapping businesses, interaction, buildings, accidents, education, relationship, jobs that affect the person's mind overall. I learn the Supercomputers separate families into small groups and manages families situations. My cousins mother and father ended up moving out of the house they rented, because the owner fall out with their wife. Now my cousin's mother, father, and cousins have to live in a small basement that they rented from their own family.


The Supercomputers also create dreams for people showing how it dictates the citizen environment, such as who should have sex, who should receive interaction, who should receive compliments, who should receive isolation, who should receive a partner, which job to work, which family to interact with, where to live, who should win the lottery, who should receive an accident, who receive suicide, who should murder, who should be behind bars, who should be poor, middleclass, rich and who should live in the streets.


There was a man who recently came out the cell for the first time in seventeen years, because the Supercomputers clocked in a kid to mess with his niece. So the man's intention rapidly started to lose patients and he bat the boy to death with a baseball bat, he said its his fault, instead of thinking that the Supercomputers designed that scenario to keep prison in business.


The reason for having no free will of actions in the environment, it's because the citizens are not known about managing DNA themselves without relying on Supercomputers to babysit their mentality throughout the day each day for daily maintenance.


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## Deaf Mute (Jun 12, 2017)

Both, **** genetics and **** environment. I picked genetics because imo the less you have resource/environment-wise the more gifted you need to be physically/intellect to balance things out, whereas if you grow up in a good environment + have good upbringing/have a lot of opportunities, you can be conditioned properly and grow into a good person (I mean you can still **** up, but you don't have to be perfect). Whereas if you're on the lower spectrum in everything, you gotta be perfect in everything you do for anyone to even consider you as a human being.

You're basically *sub-human* or *some exotic* pet for people if you can do something they can't.. but you're never equal. As soon you make a mistake it's back to the bottom of the food-chain, back on your knees having to suck off people's egos to survive heh. You see someone pull their **** out (ego) and then shove it in your face, but then when there's a bigger **** around they stfu and become modest?

My eyes do a 180 and go to the back of my brain.










Can't tell you how many times I've just had to smile and act like I don't know anything/play dumb just so people feel good about themselves when really I just want to walk away and be alone.. but I can't otherwise I'm standoffish/rude so I'm forced to sit their and give them a mental BJ. :smile2:

I had neither sound genetics/good environment/upbringing so I'm living a miserable life, on top of ****ty genetics, the abuse and trauma from my parents and school/people after school has left me incredibly cynical and cutthroat in terms of relations with people. (I also have extreme perfectionism in certain areas because of my upbringing which makes me volcanically frustrated and resentful a lot of the time...)

For me (unfortunately), it's either you're Superior or Inferior or a third unicorn option of beloved/accepted for what/who you are despite flaws (*which almost seems like it doesn't exist these days because of social media/narcissism).

I hate my personality, but it's the result of everything I've experienced, so it is, a truth at least of being human... Pity it's a ****ty truth.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Depends on the person but mostly genetics for me. Environmental stuff made it worse, but everyone in my family has issues.


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## komorikun (Jan 11, 2009)

Mostly genetics. Many on SAS claim they were relatively normal up until puberty, so in that case maybe their issue is more environment. I've always been this way. Ever since I can remember. 

A few environmental things made life much harder. My parents never pushed me to do things (sports, music, art, foreign language, etc), so that just made me even less motivated. Being shy and awkward is hard enough but lazy and unmotivated just guarantees that life will be an uphill struggle. It could have been worse I suppose. I wasn't abused. 

My mom got cancer when I was 12 and I then dropped out of school and hid in my bedroom pretty much for 6 years. That certainly didn't help me become a normal, well-rounded social person. 

My dad not wanting to help me through college and getting rid of our house made things difficult. I really needed a free place to stay and encouragement to get through college after 6 years of being a hermit. Perhaps some people who are go-getters, energetic and motivated, could deal with no support from their parents but I couldn't. So that's a big reason I didn't finish my degree until my 30s. 

But you know, I've been on my own for over 20 years, so can't put all the blame on others. I've made a lot of questionable decisions in life that has got me where I am.


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## The Linux Guy (Jul 11, 2013)

Genetics gave me all my current health issues, including a learning disability. People made fun of me because of my learning problems.


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## Mayaa (Jul 11, 2019)

I would say environment, as my SA started from a traumatic event as a child, that slowly molded itself into a mental illness.


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## Maslow (Dec 24, 2003)

Both. 

If I had grown up in a healthy environment, I could have dealt with the other problems. 

And if I didn't have the other problems, I could have overcome the problems caused by growing up in an unhealthy environment.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

From what I have seen, it is definitely more environmental and less "genetic".
Somehow, we learned to react the way we do.


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## twitchy666 (Apr 21, 2013)

*supermarket today*

bike route chosen

roads too gridlocked on live cameras

handbasket mode racing past all

dumped all on belt. forgot one thing - coriander!

rush about. no coriander. everything i wanted was removed from the belt!
my pizza, egz, chillies (scotch bonnets), ice cream
fresh basket! all gathered again


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## LeCoffee (Aug 15, 2015)

If you're talking about troubles as in social anxiety I think it can definitely be both, but for me it has to be genetics. There's really no reason I would have it otherwise, I've never really been bullied seriously and have a pretty good home life, I've just always felt this way and have always been anxious about whatever I do. The only thing I can think of that might be environmental is that my parents raised me nonreligious and I went to a religious school (ya ik weird) but I was always scared people were going to find out and dislike me or something because of it, but even so my brother never had any problems with social anxiety and he had the same story so for me it is definitely genetic, unless maybe i go to a psychologist and they somehow discover something in the future which I doubt.


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## Eietuvis (Apr 1, 2014)

Overall could be both. But anxiety is made, so environment.


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## Darkmaster006 (Jul 6, 2015)

I'd say genetics may imprint us from birth with predisposition or tendencies. Yet, that's not the main cause. Rather, what our environment consists of is what lets these harmful tendencies thrive or not, as well as our own actions and the actions of other people.


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## lily (Nov 9, 2018)

it's hard to say but I'd say both genetics and environment; your genes or physical disposition of your being inside holds chemical structures like what becomes serotonin and GABA. If you've been fed well as an infant nutritionally then you can handle stressful situations better than those who were not. Two people can have the same environmental trigger yet be more 'weak'. One can develop social anxiety or other mental health issues while the other doesn't or has less based on how nutritionally brought up they were as an infant. That's my opinion.


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## 8888 (Oct 16, 2014)

I think it's different for different people but for me genetics since I wake up nervous first thing in the morning.


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## SorryForMyEnglish (Oct 9, 2014)

When people don't know what they're talking about. Basically they're heard some things somewhere and at the same time they know some scientifically-sounding terms so when they use them they sound supposedly ''scientific'' (not really cause it's anti-scientific).

And you don't even know about environment, how exactly it can influence someone's character and what things do.

Whenever people don't know how to explain certain complex things they say ''genetics'' or ''talent'' or whatever. It's because they don't want to put too much thought into it.


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

Can't speak for others but for me it is genetic. I was born with a rare disease called MHE and excessive shyness is a symptom as odd as it sounds.



> Yu Yamaguchi, Ph. D. - SBP Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, California
> 
> My laboratory has been studying the role of EXT1/heparan sulfate in mouse embryonic development. We have created a conditional EXT1 knockout mouse model. These conditional EXT1 knockout mice are being used for genetic studies to figure out how the deficiency of EXT1/heparan sulfate causes MHE.
> 
> ...


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## love is like a dream (Jan 7, 2011)

genetics are everything. 

in fact it determines your entire life. your color, your intelligence, leadership skills, composure, body type, height, behavior, personality traits, susceptibility to certain diseases, etc

i mean.. even if you think my post is dumb, it's because of my genetics.

you = literally the genes you inherit.


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## Cletis (Oct 10, 2011)

I think I'm a good case study here since I have a brother that I never knew about until recently and we were raised in different families. I was raised by our birth parents and he was adopted out as a baby. He has no hint of social anxiety and I'm a total wreck. His personality is worlds apart from mine. We look very similar except he is several inches taller and 50 lbs. or so heavier.

In other words, he's normal and I'm not. Genetics plays a part but it's not the determining factor.


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## cybernaut (Jul 30, 2010)

Environment


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## 546617 (Oct 8, 2014)

third option: your consciousness/or spirit, depending how evolved you are etc.


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## Citrine79 (Dec 14, 2016)

I voted environment but I think it is both for me. I was born and raised in a crappy, depressing town. I still live there today. I attended lousy schools. I believe that if I lived elsewhere that my life would be different. Not saying I would be totally free of anxiety but I would be in a much better place.


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## Fever Dream (Aug 18, 2015)

I can blame both.


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## PandaBearx (May 26, 2013)

It depends on the person, but I'd say both. It has to do with genetics and an environmental influence.


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## Suchness (Aug 13, 2011)

Both, also for some reason people respond to stress differently even as early as when being in the womb.


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## Suchness (Aug 13, 2011)

546617 said:


> third option: your consciousness/or spirit, depending how evolved you are etc.


Yeah, that too.


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