Anxiety, trauma and genetics

[maria]

Hey all,

I was wondering if anybody else feels that their anxiety was brought on by something else other than pure genetics...To put it midly, I was beaten by my father for 15 years and my mom ignored it. I don't know why I didn't tell my teachers or friends, but I was a kid, so I guess that was my normalcy. Anyhow, I didn't have any real panic attacks until my 20s and was wondering if it was due to all the built up stress I had as a kid...I was very active as a child and involved in a whole bunch of sports, so I think it helped relieve some of the stress. I will probably be in therapy forever, but it seems to help me. I don't want to be considered a victim forever and don't want to blame my parents for certain things, but it is still hard sometimes. I've been told by various doctors and pharmacists that anxiety is 40 % genetic, but nobody in my family has been diagnosed with anxiety, although I suspect my dad must have had it. He assures me that he never did, but for obvious reasons, don't trust that explanation. I suppose my thoughts are if you could bring in a photo of your brain to your employer and show that there's a problem, like a smaller amygdala in the brain or something like that, there would be less stigma attached to anxiety and depression and OCD. Hope I am not babbling here too much. I'm just curious about the genetic component vs. stress-related components. Any thoughts?

[Robbed]

Much has been made about the genetic link by the meical establishment. After all, anxiety-related drugs like SSRIs are HUGE moneymakers for pharmaceutical companies. Remember that it is drugs that are taen regularly YEAR AFTER YEAR that bring in the big bucks. Not those Cipro tablets that you may have taken for 10 days to get rid of an infection.

With this said, the genetic factor appears to be MUCH less of a factor than previously thought. Indeed, stress has been shown to be THE major factor when it comes to anxiety. And in YOUR case, it looks like you have had to deal with LOTS of it. Being beaten by yourdad for 15 years no doubt caused you alot. This could also have caused you to have a low self-esteem, which may have caused you to worry about such things as making friends, having good relationships with others, being able to get a good job, and so many other things. You might have even gotten to the point where you hate yourself. And guess what? ALL of this is stress. When experiencing these sorts of problems for long periods of time, you don't need any genetic link to develop an anxiety problem.

As for your dad having an anxiety problem, this is impossible to know. He could have. But not necessarily. Someone doesn't need anxiety to do horrible things to others. And in fact, most anxious people are actually VERY gentle. But if he does, keep in mind that anxiety is most likely inherited by means of learned behavior from parents rather than DNA.

As for stigmas, I tend to think that the stigma of problems like depression, anxiety, and OCD would be GREATER if they were purely genetic. To me, genetic means that it is something that you are trapped in and can do nothing about. The fact that genetics actually DON'T rule when it comes to anxiety means that something really CAN be done to rise above it (although that's not saying it will be easy).