What causes anxiety? If this is a topic that you find interesting, you may want to brace yourself. The answer is that some of the factors that cause anxiety are things that we as individuals can control, such as life experiences and personality. In that sense, we may be causing some of our own anxiety.
Of course, there are factors involved that we cannot simply decide to change, such as genetics or brain chemistry. Some of these are firm and fixed, such as genetics, and some are difficult to change at all even with a doctor’s contributions, such as brain chemistry. Still, we can affect our personality. And even when events in our lives happen that are outside of our control, we can control how we react to these events.
Scientists who do brain research tend to agree that brain chemistry affects anxiety. Often, people who suffer from anxiety are prescribed medicine to alleviate the symptoms. These medications work to change brain chemistry, leading scientists to deduce a link.
The fact is that anxiety also runs in families. It is rare to find only one person in a family who suffers from anxiety, when the rest of the family is fine. Rather, it is more likely that there are clusters in families. People who have a parent, grandparent, sibling and so on with anxiety are more likely to experience anxiety themselves.
Your personality may also play a role in whether you will experience anxiety. Research has established a connection between experiencing anxiety and personality traits such as poor self-esteem and a general lack of coping ability. Some researchers point to these findings as proof that personality can influence whether or not you will become an anxiety sufferer.
It can be hard to tell which is influencing which in some cases, though. When anxiety occurs in childhood, it can influence a person to have low self-esteem, which can contribute then to more anxiety in adulthood.
Long-term poverty or lengthy experience of abuse can make a person more vulnerable to the experience of anxiety later in life.
Finally, taking certain substances can cause us to be more anxious. Coffee can be the culprit, and can be a major contributor to anxiety. The use of some illegal drugs like LSD or Ecstasy can also bring about anxious states.
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