Dear luminary22:

Some illnesses are genetic, so more of them happen within a family.

Some illnesses are caused by lifestyle practices or are aggravated by such, so they may happen more in one family than in others.

Mental troubles happen more within a particular family because abuse begets abuse: parents abuse their children, the children growing up in an abusive household abuse each other, others, and later on their own children.

What happens within a family is a combination of genetics, choices made and random events.

If by “chronic terrible luck” you mean there being a god or the like that unleashes its rage at a particular family, I don’t believe so. Because I don’t believe in a god or gods.

The troubles that you encounter in your life, maybe you are lost, not knowing why. So you figure it may be bad luck. If you explore why, understand better how your personal troubles came about, then you will see reasons outside of bad luck. Would you like to look into any one particular matter?

anita