To some extent, one has the feeling that anxiety can actually be inherited; that is, living in an anxious environment and with anxious people often triggers a sort of return anxiety, as if there were a contagion.

The question, however, is a bit more complex than that and many questions remain unanswered: is there a genetic component that predisposes more to the development of anxiety or is it more of an environmental issue? A lot of research has tried to answer this question, but it has not yet come to a true conclusion on the potential inheritance of anxiety.

Anxiety and inheritance, what the research says

Many studies carried out on members of the same family and in particular on twins have suggested a certain influence of genetics on the development of anxiety disorders and, in particular, of panic attacks.

Several genes have been brought into play, but a given hereditary component of anxiety has never been ascertained, that is the set of genetic conditions that could be the basis of the familiarity of the anxiety disorder.

According to some hypotheses, in genetically predisposed people, anxiety would begin to show its signs from a young age . According to recent studies, in fact, when anxiety develops before the age of twenty, it is more likely that there are other people with similar disorders in the family.

According to the study entitled Genetic and environmental influences on relationship between anxiety sensitivity and anxiety subscales in children, some traits of anxiety in people who have a predisposition towards anxiety disorders, and in particular panic attacks, can be noted in children around 8 years of age.

Scholars who have addressed the complex subject of the potential inheritance of anxiety have often found that people with anxiety and panic attacks had a first degree relative who suffered from a similar disorder, but the main question remains the same: there is a genetic component or the question is to be attributed above all to environmental factors?

People of the same family, for example, could have suffered the same trauma, have the same socio-economic difficulties, have experienced such a stressful situation ...

Summarizing, therefore, the potential inheritance of anxiety has been studied for many years and the hypothesis that there may be some familiarity with these disorders, at least in some cases, is becoming increasingly widespread. Of course, however, much remains to be discovered, as with all the problems concerning the most complex organ we have: the brain.

The good news is that, again based on the studies carried out on the potential inheritance of anxiety, the cases in which a certain familiarity of the disorder has been noted have not proved to be more difficult to treat than those in which a familiarity.