Anxiety Attacks - Can You Inherit an Anxiety Disorder?

There are many factors that contribute to the development of anxiety disorders. All of them play a role in creating the necessary conditions for panic attacks, panic disorder and other phobias and anxiety to play an overwhelming role in your life. 

One important factor might be the inherited, long term or sustained risk that predisposes you to panic and anxiety. 

Inherited risk factors such as biological causes, childhood circumstances and accumulated stress are the long term problems that set the stage for potential panic and anxiety problems. In order for these long term factors to come into play, they usually need to be triggered or activated by short-term problems. 

These triggers can include excessive stress, trauma or conditioning. Once panic attacks or anxiety have entered your life, they only stay in your life because you are maintaining the causes that are fueling them.

Your maintenance of panic and anxiety include nervous or agitated self talk, excessive worries, and avoidance of fearful situations. 

In people who have panic disorder or some of the other anxiety conditions, the alarm system is triggered even though there is no danger and many scientists don´t know why this happens. 

Panic disorder does seem to run in families, which may mean there is a strong biological component but many people with no family history develop panic disorder which suggests that biology is not the only factor at play. 

There is a lot of controversy about whether panic disorders, phobias and anxiety can be inherited. Research has not uncovered a magic gene that controls anxiety or clear evidence that your parents are to blame for you condition. 

That would be a convenient source of blame but it´s not the silver bullet. However, studies using twins show an increased likelihood that one twin will have panic disorders if the other does. These studies seem to support that at least some of the responsibility falls to your genetic design. 

What many researchers and experts on this subject believe is inherited, is a personality type. If the personality type you inherit is predisposed to be anxious, volatile, excitable and reactive you are more likely to develop an anxiety disorder. 

However, the manifestations of that reactive personality depend on the stresses you are exposed to in childhood, adolescence and beyond. 

You may never had the opportunity to develop full blown panic disorder or agoraphobia because you were raised in a nurturing environment and were surrounded by supportive people. It´s the old nature and nurture argument.

Since nurture plays a role, here are some contributing factors that might predispose you to panic attacks or anxiety disorders. If your parents were overprotective this may lead to an excessive worry and concern for your own safety. 

The fearful attitude of your parents about catching a cold, crossing the street, not climbing too high etc. etc. will cause and reinforce a reluctant, fearful view of the world is a dangerous place. If your parents were high achievers and expected the same from you it could have had a detrimental impact. 

The high standards and the strive for perfection may have made you a perfectionist and too self-critical. These traits can lead to anxiety disorders because perfection is impossible to achieve and a lifetime of coming up short can certainly fuel a doubtful, anxious personality

Growing up in an insecure environment, either physically or emotionally can lead to anxiety conditions. Aside from the more obvious physical, sexual or emotional abuse, experiences such as divorce, death, or an alcoholic or addicted family member can lead to excessive clinginess and lack of confidence later on in life. 

Regardless the reasons for anxiety problems, they can be dealt with and while it may not solve the underlying issue that caused or triggered your panic attacks or other anxiety, it can stop the panic attacks in their tracks and that´s the first step to regaining your life.