How Will Mental Illness Affect My Custody Case?
It depends on how bad it is. Half of the divorce cases out there involve one or the other party being on anti-depressant medications, so that in and of itself won’t matter much. It really depends on how severe the mental illness is, and how it affects your parenting. If the mental illness negatively affects your parenting, or poses a danger of harm to the children, that will obviously be more relevant. And unless your mental health records are already sufficient for a custody evaluator to assess your mental health, you can expect that a custody evaluation will include a psychological evaluation as well. A mental illness that doesn't negatively affect the child cannot be considered in determining custody and parenting time. [1]. Even a mental disability, in and of itself, does not determine custody of the child, unless it can be shown to have a negative affect on the child. [2].