Guilty thoughts about having kids

i don't feel guilt since i don't ever plan on having kids but trust me, atleast your kids will have loving, supporting parents who acknowledge their mental health.

@Anonymous - As it stands, the human population is nowhere near its estimated carrying capacity of ten to twelve billion. At the moment, overpopulation is a myth. In coming decades, our population is expected to grow by two billion, peaking somewhere around 10 billion before plateauing. This is because as birth control becomes more available to women and rates of infant mortality drop, mothers increasingly have fewer children...it is easier for them to choose when to have kids, and they have less of them because parents are more confident that their children will survive to adulthood. So the human population is not going to keep growing out of control - it is about to begin slowing to a halt. An argument made in response to this is that a population of 10 billion is not sustainable. This is false - we grow enough grain to feed 10 - 12 billion people. We also have enough clean water for the whole world. Famines and droughts are a problem not of resource availability, but of infrastructure and poverty. In poorer areas that have less advanced technology and transportation networks, food may rot before it ever reaches market shelves. Even when rations do make it to their destination, there is no guarantee that customers can afford to eat. A similar problem applies to water - in many cases, we do not have the transportation networks to easily give it to those who need it the most. This is a reality that changes as technology advances and developing countries gain wealth, meaning that our carrying capacity as a species continues to rise; it is likely at this point that we will never hit it. While I realize that this response may have seemed a bit defensive, understand that your claim has a problematic history; it has often been used to blame third world countries...who are responsible for much of the world's population growth...for a problem primarily created by the developed world, and it has also been the rationalization for human rights abuses hiding under the guise of aggressive population-control laws. As it stands, overconsumption is a much more serious complication than population is; even if there were only 500 million people alive on Earth today, we would still be facing serious environmental issues if all of those 500 million people consumed as much as Americans, which is why pushing for infrastructural change is important. To Tsm95...edenmn and Uugggghhhhh are right. There are always risks around bringing a child into the world; however, even if they do end up having to deal with psychological disorders, you can support and help them through it. Even with the mental health problems that I have, I am glad to be here; I imagine many others like myself feel similarly.

the bright side is that if they do have those things, they’ll have an understanding parent that’s able to catch it easier and get them help. There’s a risk with bringing any child into the world and unfortunately we can’t prevent everything, but we can do our best to make it easier for them

You could adopt, of course it won’t look like you but oh well. In all seriousness regardless of OCD the human population keeps going up and is a huge component of many of the environmental and societal issues we face. I don’t want to be a part of that so I’m choosing to not have kids. If you’re dead set on having kids, only having 1 or 2 is also a good compromise:) Just my 0.02!

Totally relate. I'm going through a divorce right now that, in a large part, triggered by my mental health. Along with that, my kids struggle with ocd and other mental health issues. I can't help but think I caused their issues and hurt my ex wife with my mental health.