Question:
There is no doubt in my mind about it being genetic. My father has had
anxiety/PA/depression since he was 15 and has been on Pamelor for many
years.
My fathers youngest brother had panic attacks, though not as bad as my
father.
My sister had a short bout with OCD which went away. She never had PA,
but has always been a little "upitty" or high strung IMO.
I got anxiety/PA/depression when I was about 22.
Answer:
I'm the only one in my family with an official diagnosis, but I am 100%
certain my mother had Paranoid Personality Disorder and derpression. I
don't need anyone to tell me that. Her sister, she was.. very
controlling and very tightly wound. If it was a disorder, I don't know
the name of it, but I am sure she had something. It just wasn't
healthy, whatever it was. Alcoholism was rampant in my family, both
sides. Just about every single person, except my two grandmothers and
my mom - all of them, alcoholics - and that goes back as far as I know
the history of my family, too. My birth father did actually get very
involved with AA and achieved sobriety. He and I were the only ones
that even acknowleged we had a problem with alcohol.
I want to say that my maternal grandmother was probably the most
mentally healthy, friendly, positive and funny person I have ever
known. She was such a joy, and just had the best personality of anyone
I have ever met, and anyone who met her felt that way. When she went in
to the hospital for the last time, and her Urologist came to see her -
she was terminally ill, but he had helped buy her a few years - he
teared up to cry when he came to see her. He knew what was coming, and
she had effected even a doctor in that way. She was special. What a
bright spot in an otherwise..not really healthy, happy lot of folks.
I had to mention her if I was going to discuss my family.. yes. Many
people with what would have been diagnoses if they had asked for help -
but not all of them. No.
I definitely believe that anxiety states can have heriditary causes. My
mother suffered the same as me and I also saw it in my late wife's family.
She came from a large family of 10 and 3 that I know of suffered from panic
disorder and agoraphobia.
My other 2 siblings have also shown signs of anxiety disorders but with them
it hasn't been as pronounced as in my case.
I would also say that this isn't the only cause of anxiety disorders,
however. Although in the case of a person not having a history of anxiety in
previous generations, who's to say that the particular mixing of the genes
of their parents hasn't resulted in the exact brain chemistry that leads to
an anxiety disorder?
There is at least three generations of anxiety disorder
within my family, including myself. I personally think
it's likely that anxiety disorders have been passed
genetically within my family.
However, if we want to be scientific, we have to
acknowledge some uncertainty in individual cases.
Even if one of my parents inherited an anxiety disorder
genetically, that's no guarantee that the same happened
in my case. There is always the possibility of passing
along an anxiety disorder psychologically rather than
genetically (such as a child's development being
influenced by behavior of parents or other events).
Even in twin studies, there are cases where one twin
develops an anxiety disorder while the other does not.
People might genetically inherit a disposition towards
anxiety disorders rather than the disorder itself.
So, even in cases which involve family history,
genetic inheritance might not be "the cause" of
an individual's anxiety disorder.
We simply can't be sure about individual cases until
proper diagnostics are developed to test for understood
biological markers. Until then, the best we can say is
that some of us certainly 'seem' to have genetically
inherited anxiety disorders.
