Peaceful Mind Space

Is anxiety inherited, what do you reason? For me I do not believe so. I think some of us are born into a lineage where there is anxiety and panic attacks.

However that does not indicate that we will have anxiety. Speaking from my own personal understanding my Mum had anxiety and I’m not a 100% sure but I think my Dad was a pretty apprehensive guy. So yes it was in my family. But i have four siblings and none of them suffer from anxiety or panic attacks. I am additionally a Sagittarius and it seems that we are prone to be anxious people. Thus this could also be a contributing factor.

When I had my first attack of anxiety I did ask my Doctor the question “is anxiety inherited”, he was not certain. As far as he was concerned there was no proof either way. So I assume there is no definitive answer to the question “is anxiety inherited”. I truly think that there is no such thing as an anxiety gene within us. I do believe that we can pick up on the behaviours of those closest to us when we are growing up.

So I think we can have learnt behaviour. That is something entirely different to anxiety? As kids we may have witnessed somebody close to us having an anxiety attack and not in actuality understood what was going on. But what we will of picked up, was the worry they where feeling. And if it was a close relative who was acting afraid, then we would really be nervous, as we looked to them to keep us out of harm's way. But we would not of understood there fear.

Thus there may be an case for anxiety being a learnt behaviour, but as for the question “is anxiety inherited”, I am not positive. Although it would be really useful at times to know where my anxiety came from. And yes when i was feeling down it might of been quite useful to have someone to blame and be angry with. But again that's just part of the process, well it was for me. The not knowing or understanding was really frightening. It would of been good for me to have the doctor say, yes its inherited,at least then i might of least understood my anxiety better.

What do you think? Please leave a sensible comment to the question “is anxiety inherited”. I would really value your input.