Quite a number of my med/psych pros seem convinced there is a genetic factor involved in many, many cases but even the staunchest of those believers also believe nurture has a huge impact, whether ^it^ is in the DNA or not. A well trained anxiety gene makes for great protectors, emergency response, etc.

In my own case, I believe I learned anxiety in my mother's womb. Her life was in crisis while she was pregnant with me and I came down the shoot screaming bloody murder. Haven't quit yet. I don't remember ever NOT suffering anxiety.

Peace and healing vibes appreciated and passed on. Pay it forward.

I agree with Arfie; I don’t remember a time before I was anxious. I didn’t recognize my anxiety for what it was—and neither did most of the adults around me—until I was about 10 years old. Everyone just thought I was a bit more worried and careful than other kids my age. My mother is a bit anxious and my dad has been slightly depressed in the past, but for the most part everyone in my family is relatively stable. I believe that a small portion of my anxiety and other mental health issues is genetic; however, I believe the majority comes from my desire to control things. As a child, adults controlled ever aspect of my life—because I was a child and couldn’t do things for myself, duh—and I wasn’t really a fan of that. I felt like my mom wasn’t really on top of things—I’m talking about little things that don’t matter in the grand scheme of things like being on time or having a plan for the day—and I didn’t like feeling like I didn’t know what was going on or what would happen next. I plan my weeks out every Sunday night and have literal minute by minute schedules for my days because I like to know what’s going to happen. I plan extra travel time for everything because I HATE being late and I want to control basically everything in my life. This is, without a doubt, due to the environment in which I grew up. Don’t get me wrong, my parents are amazing and I had a really great childhood, I just think I was genetically predisposed to some anxiety and certain factors in my life made things worse. I hope this answers your question.
Thank you for the vibes, I am sending them right back to you. Good luck to everyone in your endeavors this upcoming week. May your anxiety be minor subdued and your happiness plentiful.

Ah. Anxiety is natural. It's a part of you, from birth.

As it affects your well-being, well, when I was young, I was constantly vigilant and aware due to being less able to hear natural sounds normally. (Long way to being hard-of-hearing bilateral)

I learned to breathe evenly so I would not be noticed for shaking, fidgeting, or otherwise releasing tension physically.

I write a lot every day. It soothes my mind to let go of those words floating, flying, flinging in my head.

Best wishes making your anxiety work for you! As children, we do natural things to feel better, as adults we relearn those natural things and also add more things!

I'm kind of new here and trying to find others to connect with.

For me my anxiety started as a young child, I was bullied all through my school years and had a abusive mother and a aloof father that didn't want a lot to do with his son. It made me question my self worth and developed social phobia and anxiety. My father was also a Vietnam vet and had flash backs that scared me, one time he almost killed us all.

Because of all this I also had a hard time sleeping which still persists to this day and this makes my anxiety far worse.

I'm trying to learn new coping skills and took up guitar as a way of expressing myself.

Hopefully things will get better for you. Sometimes all we have is hope.

For me, I think there's definitely a genetic component to it, as there is a strong family history of mental illness running on both sides of the family. I have a sister with bipolar, a father with depression, a cousin with PTSD, a second sister with depression, a cousin with bipolar, etc.

On the nurture side of things, it probably didn't help that I grew up in one country and one culture and then had to move to a different country and had to learn a whole new culture in my teen years.

Like someone else has posted, I can remember growing up as a kid, being called a "worry wort." But on one, including myself, knew what it really was back then.


It wasn't until my college days in my late teens/early 20's that I really began to wonder whether the anxiety and panic attacks really were "a thing."