What Causes Anxiety

Anxiety disorders are caused by a number of factors including:

Learned Behavior

Everyone learns to how to cope with emotional stress through observing family, friends, teachers, and peers, and growing up surrounded by people who constantly respond to stressful situations with anxiety, nervousness, and intense frustration can influence how they themselves will respond to such situations.

Personality Traits

Certain personality traits appear to have an influence on the development of anxiety disorders. Some common personality traits shared by those who suffer with anxiety include low self-esteem, a lack of confidence, and inadequate coping skills.

Abuse, Trauma, and Negative Experiences

Anxiety can be triggered through the experience of a serious traumatic event. Abusive relationships, violent occurrences, and emotionally stressful situations such as poverty or an unstable home life can have a negative effect that triggers anxiety as well.

Mental and Emotional States

Anxiety disorders can co-exist with other mental and emotional issues such as substance abuse, depression, and eating disorders. It is possible that suffering with one of these problems may contribute to feelings of anxiety.

Brain Chemistry

Prescription medications often have an influence over the appearance of anxiety symptoms. These medications change the chemical balance in the brain, so their influence suggests that a chemical imbalance may be partly responsible for anxiety disorders.

Genetics

Anxiety disorders are often an issue for several members of the same family. This could be because of a hereditary predisposition towards an anxiety disorder.

Over time, even everyday stress compounded with other factors such as sleep difficulty and over-stimulation through the use of caffeine, nicotine, and sugar can cause an anxiety disorder to develop.

Author: Nan Little
Website: http://www.insightjournal.com/

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