You’re More (Psychologically) Flexible Than You Think
How lived experiences influence gene expression and mental health.
Posted April 27, 2026 | Reviewed by Devon Frye
Imagine two genetically identical plants. One sits on a bright windowsill, watered daily, soaking in warmth and light. The other is placed in a dark basement, neglected and forgotten.
After a few days, it is no surprise when the windowsill plant blooms, while the basement plant wilts—but when their environments are swapped, so too are their states. Same genetics . Different outcomes.
This analogy illustrates a key point about mental health: Our genetic background does not determine our fate. Like plants, the ways we are nurtured or neglected directly impact our psychological well-being.
The End of Nature vs. Nurture
Human psychology has often been framed as a debate: nature versus nurture. Are we shaped more by our genes or by our experiences?
Modern science strongly suggests that both nature and nurture are at play, but our experiences often have the greatest influence. Mental health challenges, such as anxiety and depression , are not primarily determined by heredity. If they were, we would be passive recipients of the same psychological distress our parents faced.
Research in epigenetics shows our biology is constantly responding to our environment. Our genes and brains are flexible—not fixed—and lived experiences profoundly affect psychological well-being.
Epigenetics is the study of how environmental factors influence our genes, switching them on and off throughout our lifetime. These factors include everything from toxin exposure and diet to chronic stress and trauma .
While we are born into this world with a fixed strand of DNA, the way this strand is expressed—namely, the way we feel, think, and act—is completely unique to how we interact with the world. For instance, a 2025 Nature Human Behaviour study with over 21,000 identical twins found that zero to 18 percent of differences in their mental health traits were accounted for by genetic factors, with majority influence accounted for by lived experience. What’s more, by adjusting our environment and/or how we relate to it, we can potentially reverse epigenetic patterns and improve mental health.
Imagine two more plants: one with a predisposition to wilt, and the other to bloom. The former "born to wilt" plant sits on the windowsill, and the latter "born to bloom" plant is placed in the basement. Despite each of their predispositions, will it surprise you when the windowsill plant blooms and the basement plant wilts? Comparably, if a human’s environment is supportive and reliable, genetic predispositions for mental health challenges may never manifest.
Why Context Changes Everything
Without context, we label; with context, we understand. Viewing emotional wellness through the lens of lived experiences can be quite eye-opening. It is ultimately the difference between labeling someone as “ill” and validating their feelings. For instance, without knowing the wilting plant’s environment, we might judge it as defective, rather than a natural product of its surroundings.
Consider someone who struggles with social anxiety but has never been asked about their childhood neglect. Or someone suffering from depression but has never told anyone they were abused. Without the full story, we miss a significant portion of the "why" behind poor mental health.
Trauma and chronic stress are known triggers for changes in gene expression linked with depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia. With a particular emphasis on the negative outcomes of early life adversity, it naturally follows that trauma-informed approaches to healing are growing in popularity.
Flexing Your Healing Abilities
The good news: You are not broken; rather, you are a human being who has experienced hardship. Even better news: You hold the power to nurture and revive your psychological well-being. We are not prisoners of our genes or our lived experiences.
Trauma-informed approaches to healing consider the intersection of nature and nurture. Through this lens, mental health challenges are regarded as normal responses to adverse life events. Moreover, humans are valued for their psychological flexibility and ability to recover from circumstances we did not choose.
Findings on neuroplasticity align with this approach, as the brain knows how to form new neural pathways in response to its environment. Through active engagement in therapy and lifestyle changes, we can liberate ourselves from genetic predispositions and adverse life events. As for environments we cannot change, our brains quite literally hold the power to shift how we relate to them. Ultimately, we have neuroplasticity to thank for our resiliency and the success of therapy.
A specific set of circumstances was required for your DNA to form, just as a specific set of lived experiences has influenced your genes to be expressed. Extraordinarily, the way you express yourself next could chemically reverse these outcomes for the better. Just as a plant can recover when it is nurtured, so too can we. What an ironic and beautiful set of circumstances, that one of the few permanent features of humankind is our ability to change.
Anbalagan, S. (2024). Genetics and epigenetic in mental health. International Neuropsychiatric Disease Journal , 21 (6), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.9734/indj/2024/v21i6451
Assary, E., Coleman, J. R., Hemani, G., et al . Genetics of monozygotic twins reveals the impact of environmental sensitivity on psychiatric and neurodevelopmental phenotypes. Nature Human Behaviour , 9 (8), 1683–1696 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02193-7
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Kirsten Davidson is a Registered Psychotherapist (RP) and the Founder of Mind The Gaps Psychotherapy.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.