March is Brain Health Awareness Month, a perfect time to speak with award-winning ABC news journalist, James Longman, who has written a compelling new memoir, The Inherited Mind: A Story of Family, Hope and the Genetics of Mental Illness. The book details how the author’s study of genetics led him to link growing up in a family with mental illness with his own bouts of depression. You might have seen Longman broadcasting behind enemy lines from Moscow. When Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine, the correspondent witnessed firsthand the massacres in Bucha, sharing those horrors with the world on network television.
Longman Describes His Own Bouts With Mental Illness
At first glance, the helmeted and bullet-proofed journalist–reporting on the deadly war from Ukraine, flanked by bombed-out buildings–appears invincible. And in many ways he is. But when I sat down with him, I got a peek into the vulnerable side of Longman, who tells the story of his father’s suicide, conflicting family perspectives on the death and a tumultuous relationship with his mother.
The journalist recounted coming out of a second major depressive episode in 2016, wanting to figure out why it kept happening to him. “I knew there was a murky history, but no one had taken the time to explain it to me,” he says. “My father had schizophrenia and ended his life, his brother had schizophrenia and my grandfather also ended his life. My mother dealt with clinical depression. I felt like there was this tidal wave, crashing down on me, and I wanted to figure out the origins and what I could do to avoid it.”
Longman told me he still has a difficult relationship with his mother around his father’s death. “The whole point of my book is to explain the different perspectives on family trauma,” he states. “There’s the thing that happened and then there’s the thing that people say happened. And it’s the latter that becomes more powerful than the objective truth.” He adds that he wanted to reattach the truth by finding multiple perspectives about his father’s suicide.
“I have to keep my mother at arm’s length. That’s hard for her to hear, but that’s the truth.” He recounts when he was eight-years-old calling from boarding school to make sure she wasn’t drunk before going home on weekends. “I didn’t have brothers or sisters, and my mom was the only carer in my life. This really hurt me that in my whole teenage years she was drunk. Even now in 2025 after all these years, she disputes that, but it’s true, but she allows me to have my own version of events as I remember them.”
The author told me he wrote the book for all kinds of reasons, one of which is for people who currently have tricky relationships with their families and might feel shame about it. “We’re surrounded by all these ideals of what family should be like. I’ve obsessed about it my whole life and felt sad and shameful that I didn’t have big family Christmases like the Home-Alone movies,” he laments.
I asked the correspondent what advice he would give others who experienced childhood trauma that still haunts them. He responded that finding community is the most important. Isolation is the killer–especially in the Western world where we isolate one another. “My dad didn’t find community. He was isolated–stuck on his own. We’re not meant to live alone or suffer alone. You’ve got to find your group, your tribe. It’s not a badge of honor to deal with things on your own. It doesn’t make you weak. It’s not natural to do it alone; you have to do it with other people.”
Longman confides that when he’s in a bad place, he knows that sharing how he feels about himself with his close friends is important. “I’ve never felt shame about a mental illness. I’ve felt shame about my family’s situation and not having a conventional family makeup. What I’ve come to learn is that a lot of genetics were passed down to me on my father’s side, and there was an environment that was passed down to me on my mother’s side which was unhealthy.”
I asked him where is the starting point to healing. “Accepting what’s not for you and what you didn’t get is what you have to start with,” he declares. “Then you can build whatever you want. You don’t have to repeat what happened in your childhood as long as you know what makes you safe and happy.”
Longman also recommends being honest with yourself about what kind of relationship you want with family members who are not good for you and to not fear hurting their feelings. “Only then can you start something new,” he insists.
“For me, it was being able to build the family I always wanted that I always dreamed about. Just because I didn’t grow up with it, doesn’t mean I can’t build it. That’s what I’m in the process of doing now.” As he builds his own life, he asserts that he cares less and less about what people think. “I have a lot to be proud of and that’s the most important thing.”
According to Longman, the study of genetics helped him understand he has the inner power to undo some of the genetic coding that he has. “You and I know that you can’t edit your genes. What you get is what you get. And that’s it,” he told me.
“But the world of epigenetics has shown me that there is a whole universe of agency available to us on a biological level. That means I may have inherited trauma, but if I live my life a certain way now, I can make sure that my children can inherit healing. And that’s a very powerful concept so that we can take control of our own destiny.”
Take Action If You Have Mental Illness Concerns
Studies show that mental illness is considered a greater threat than cancer. Suicide has become a global health crisis and the 10th leading cause of death in the United States—a rate that has risen 30% since 2020. If you or someone you know is having mental health issues, learn what to do instead of toughing it out here. Employers can learn how to break the stigma around mental health here.
If you or a coworker has a mental illness challenge or is contemplating suicide, reach out to someone in authority immediately and insist the employee get professional help even if he or she resists. Call the suicide & crisis hotline at 9-8-8 or contact National Alliance On Mental Illness available 24-7. Trained crisis workers will listen to you and direct you to the resources you need.