BP and the "heredity" of mental illness

There ISN'T any doubt that Gulf residents should REQUIRE that BP be responsible IN EVERY WAY for the conditions they have caused in and around the Gulf states which include providing temporary counseling for residents who seek this type of help.

NOW that being said, I realized a fundamental FLAW in the general "mental health care" & psychiatry philosophy of heredity the other day, and I believe this is the appropriate forum to discuss it.

We've all heard, ad nauseam, the claims of heredity involved in the mental illness issue. Psychiatrist's have claimed since its beginning and will continue to claim in the future, that mental illness travels in families and is passed from parent to child. Widely disputed, this fundamental "principle" of psychiatry and its treatment platform has been the basis for many arguments, both casual and scientific.

SO, if we, for the sake of argument, grant this, philosophical basis for a second, lets take a look at the situation in the Gulf states.

For that matter. lets take a look at the history of oil spills and the conditions they have caused.

We know that, historically, in addition to the ecological damage, the Exxon/Valdez "event" has caused a catastrophe, in human relationships as well as the regional damages within Valdez harbor and the surrounding areas. This damage can be tracked to its financial roots but lets look a little deeper than that. Families were known to have split due to pressures caused by the decimation of the local economies, including but not limited, to fishing and its supported businesses, restaurants and other small business have closed, the local real estate economy collapsed due to high numbers of mortgage foreclosures, people not being able to pay their house payments becoming homeless. These economic conditions create a rapid downward spiral within effected communities and indeed within the families who live there including deaths and suicides. These families are still being effected by this "event" 20 years later. Either by the local fishing industry, which has NEVER recovered, or the resultant collateral damages caused by associated drug and alcohol abuse as well as many other well documented effects. There are residents who assisted Exxon(Mobile) in the clean-up effort who are even now still diseased by the use of toxic chemicals during the clean-up process. Among these resultant effects are and not the least of which, is litigation. These people sought legal recourse and found the scales of justice to be empty. Or rather emptied, by ExxonMobile.

With the BP Gulf "event" widely reported to be WORSE than the Exxon/Valdez by orders of magnitude, to expect conditions in the Gulf region to be ANY different would be naive to say the least. Already there have been suicides reported. And we aren't even 90 days into this "event".

We must accept that the actions of these corporations have indeed effected these communities in a negative way. We can arguably say that the complete nature of these actions haven't been felt in either region, to this date. Additionally we must accept that the actions of these corporations have impacted the local environment in a negative way. The chemical structure of the soil in and around Valdez harbor has been documented to be impacted. The beaches in the Gulf are, even now, being reported to have oil under the visible surface of the sand. Which leads to the next statement of fact, that the terms "clean up" hasn't taken place in either region. The full strength of effects from these damages to BOTH these communities has yet to be felt by their residents.

Lets return, for a moment, to the argument of heredity as it relates to mental illnesses. It is claimed. by the mental health care industry that, in some cases, heredity has been found to be the "cause" of certain individuals mental illness. This would mean one or both parents of these individuals (or perhaps a grandparent) had experienced some sort of mental illness and this illness was then passed down to the offspring through the genetic process. It is claimed to have been followed in multiple generations. This is said typically happen to, or rather "found" in teens and young adults but may occur at any point in these individuals life track. More and more lately, major mental illness diagnoses are given to individuals as young as 2 years of age. Additionally. these individuals may be characterized as debilitated or disabled and may require, if severe enough, hospitalization in a mental institution. These are widely known claims, and may, if you were to consult a "mental health care provider" be referred to as 'an industry standard' or widely accepted and promoted within the mental health care industry.

So if we accept, for the sake of argument, the notion of heredity as a cause of mental illness, and we accept the fact that these corporations have impacted these communities significantly in a negative way, and we grant that these individuals may at some point in the near future require "treatment" to deal with the conditions caused by these corporations. When, as history has documented, the effects of these events upon residents are felt for decades and these communities of individuals become decimated by the these effects and the children of residents are thusly "diagnosed" as being, depressed, or bi-polar, or ADD, or ADHD, or autistic, or schizophrenic, or manic depressive--what happens to the argument of heredity as it relates to mental illness?

I believe that statistics will show, PRIOR to these events, BOTH communities will be shown to have no more incidences of mental illness than the general public at large. Additionally I believe, after these events have been documented for decades, associated incidences of diagnosed mental illnesses will have increased significantly in children of residents of these communities.

Doesn't that then COMPLETELY OBLITERATE the argument of heredity involved in mental illness?

Doesn't that then COMPLETELY EXPOSE this "industry standard" philosophy as arbitrary and in fact document its status as patently UN-scientific in its nature?

Or does that mean that I alone, have singlehandedly discovered a new and emerging cause of hereditary mental illness-

-BRITISH PETROLEUM and EXXONMOBILE