Dear Island
Welcome to Beyond Blue. We are not qualified to diagnose etc but we have our own lived experience to talk about to you. Nature v nurture is a good question but I don't think it has been answered yet. BB has lots of information about anxiety and depression so I suggest to read this as your first port of call. You can ask for whatever parts to be sent to you or you can download it. Look under Get Support and The Facts at the top of the page.
Depression seems to run in families I have noticed but I'm not certain anyone with a family history will necessarily become depressed. I do believe your upbringing can affect the way you feel. If a parent is depressed they make a poor role model for the children. So the child doesn't learn how to cope with the normal ups and downs of life. Again this is not necessarily what happens in all cases, just my belief. In reality, the jury is still out on this one. Dysfunctional families can also have this effect on the children.
BB has information about OCD. Here is the link. https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/anxiety/types-of-anxiety/ocd You will need to copy this into your browser. Many people who write in here also have OCD and have learned to live with it. If you look in the anxiety forum you will find some threads about OCD. Feel free to join in the conversations. If you wish you can start your own thread but check out the others first
I hope this has been useful to you. It would be good to hear from you again.
Mary
