Causes Of Anxiety Disorders

by Lisa Monroe

In today's world, it seems that almost any topic is open for debate. While I was gathering facts for this article, I was quite surprised to find some of the issues I thought were settled are actually still being openly discussed.

Anxiety disorders are varied and include things like social anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and phobias. Millions of people around the world are diagnosed with an anxiety disorder during their lifetimes, and so many are looking for answers as to what has caused this medical condition, which can be quite serious. The title here may be misleading, because there really is no one cause of anxiety disorders. You may have an anxiety disorder for any number of reasons, or a combination of reasons. In order to learn more about your condition and try to pin point its cause, here are a few of the things that play into the development of an anxiety disorder.

First and foremost, many people want to know if anxiety disorders are genetic and can be passed on to future generations. Studies show that this may be the case. If a parent has an anxiety disorder, there is a chance that you may get this disorder as well. My father suffered from panic attacks and I never could understand why he could not deal with the problem. He was a Christian man with great faith and I was perplexed as to why that faith did not sustain him and get him over the attacks. Now as I approach the age that my father was when he first started experiencing those attacks, I find myself beginning to experience panic attacks. I now know that it is familial and that it can be passed on from one generation to another. My father did not suffer from anxiety attacks until after I was grown so I was not taught these behaviors. However if you are raised in a family where panic attacks or anxiety attacks are the norm, you are essentially taught these panic behaviors. Phobias are especially common to be passed to other family members. Insecure relationships with parents may also cause anxiety disorders later in life. In short, this may be partially due to genetics, but also has something to do with your childhood environment as well.

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Other environmental experiences outside of your childhood living conditions play into the development for anxiety disorders as well. If you have a traumatizing event as a child, or even as an adult, that even could either stay with you, causing post-traumatic stress disorder, or could affect your thinking, causing other types of anxiety disorders. Social pressures and culture may play a role in this as well, teaching people to become anxious at certain times or fearful of certain things.

An anxiety disorder may also be the result of health factors not related to genetics. Chemical imbalances can lead to panic attacks and anxiety attacks. Phobias and other anxiety disorders sometimes develop due to a chemical imbalance in the brain, especially with the chemical serotonin, which also affects depression in some people. Evolution comes into play, because you automatically have a fight-or-flight system built into our brains. The foods we eat, amount we exercise, and sleep we get every night all play roles into how our brain functions.

Lastly, anxiety disorders may develop due to stress. When you are stressed about something, you may find that you slow start to wear out. While our bodies are built to handle certain amounts of stress, over time, this simply breaks down and we give in to anxiety, which can develop into an anxiety disorder. No matter what the reason, however, it is simply important that you ask for help dealing with your condition. Help does not have to be expensive, check out http://tinyurl.com/ldhs82

If you've picked some pointers about anxiety that you can put into action, then by all means, do so. You won't really be able to gain any benefits from your new knowledge if you don't use it.


“Lisa Monroe is a Prolific Writer, Forensic Editor & respected Instructor in Social Sciences & Humanities. She enthusiastically studies past and current behavior & interaction, is a dedicated teacher & married mother of three children living in Sugar Land, Texas.” More of Lisa’s articles can be found here http://www.txrus.com © Lisa Monroe – TXRUS 2009.