Personality traits linked to anxiety?

[theharvestmouse]

As always I have thought a lot about anxiety, why me? etc. Spent countless hours thinking about it over the years.

One thing that I am now sure about is that my personality and character is a major factor in my anxiety. I am an introvert, I am shy and I am also very sensitive as well. All traits that in my opinion are very much linked to anxiety.

It got me wondering if this is a common thing with people similar to me or if there are any really outgoing people who actually suffer from anxiety.

Think someone posted something similar a while back on this subject.

[swgrl09]

I don't know, I am introverted and shy but I think that just affects how I handle my anxiety. Being introverted makes us bring it inwards and internalize.

But my two sisters are very extroverted and they have worse anxiety problems than I do! They just are very vocal about what they are anxious about, whereas I hide it.

My mom was a hypochondriac and had panic attacks and she was also very extroverted.

[Rennie1989]

I am introvert and always been a worrier like my mum.

[theharvestmouse]

Me too, my mum is a worrier and I am the same.

[Pipkin]

Hi there,

Not sure about the introvert/extrovert thing - I'm different depending on how comfortable I am in a situation. One thing many of us share is wanting to be in control, often of the uncontrolable. It's made me very staid as I've got older, whereas I used to love new things and enjoy taking risks.

Pip x

[kittikat]

How interesting....I am also introvert, shy and sensitive but I also agree with Pip about the 'wanting to be in control' thing and this has also been pointed out to me by my GP.

Kitti :)

[NoPoet]

Hi, here are some things my therapist said which could explain why some people develop GAD and other issues, where others don't.

= 1 =

Some people naturally are born more anxious, or nervous, or self-aware etc than others. There may be an evolutionary purpose behind this. Back in ancient times, and even today in some countries, humans needed to be workers or hunters or soldiers; but if EVERYONE is out there hunting for food or staying at home looking after the children, oopsie daisy, here comes a massive unanticipated threat like a dangerous animal, geological event or (more likely) other humans coming to ruin your day.

Humans who are more cautious, who are constantly on the lookout for danger, make naturally good lookouts. If everyone was brash and bold, no-one would bother looking out for danger, and that could get everyone killed. So it was necessary for nature to make sure that some people look out for the others. Of course, most of us today don't need lookouts, so our anxiety has no place in society, but it is still there and it causes all sorts of problems.

So today, an anxious person might simply find it difficult to handle everyday life as they are designed to look out for threats. CBT would be a good way of training yourself to control your threat response and train yourself up for another role in life.

= 2 =

People don't develop personality disorders after they are about 10 years old. If they don't have disorders by the time they are 10 years old, even if they're close to developing one, then they never will. I'm not sure what the statistics on this are but she was pretty assured. There's a "but" coming unfortunately.

These people might not be diagnosable with personality disorders, but they can still experience all kinds of difficulties unless they learn how to cope properly, and this can include GAD, depression, etc. There's another "but" coming.

These people may be at risk, BUT they might never develop GAD etc, they might learn to overcome their difficulties one way or another, so there is always hope that a person can recover from anxiety-related disorders and so forth.

[theharvestmouse]

Interesting stuff and quite logical as well.

[swgrl09]

Psychopoet - you bring up an interesting point in your second half of the post. My therapist said to me that things that would not be traumatic to us as adults can be very traumatic to us as children because we have not developed certain logical parts of our brain yet. As children we process things in an emotional way simply because that is what has developed. So a lot of things that we are exposed to as children can have a huge effect on us in the long run just because our brains did not know how to handle it at that time and could not either.

So in my case, with hypochondria/health anxiety and generalized anxiety, a lot of it was because I was constantly subjected to my parents having anxiety attacks and being afraid of health problems openly in front of me. As a child, I could not rationalize it. This gave me an anxiety tendency even if I wasn't truly symptomatic until I was in my 20s. It was also exacerbated by my mom's death, which kicked it into the forefront of my brain and made it much worse.

[NoPoet]

Swgrl09 - your therapist has it bang on. It's interesting how you found out your parents influenced some of your problems; I recently discovered that my mum was physically ill when pregnant with me and, later, my brother, and she was very depressed during my early childhood.

I suffer from GAD and occasional depression, and my brother has schizophrenia. My two sisters do not have any such difficulties and my mum wasn't so ill when pregnant with them.

So there seems to be a provable link between our parents' behaviour/health during our childhood, and our ability to cope with the world. There may also be some link to illness during pregnancy. It seems an alarming number of people whose mothers were physically or emotionally ill during pregnancy grow up with problems.

[tt2012]

Hi, here are some things my therapist said which could explain why some people develop GAD and other issues, where others don't.

= 1 =

Some people naturally are born more anxious, or nervous, or self-aware etc than others. There may be an evolutionary purpose behind this. Back in ancient times, and even today in some countries, humans needed to be workers or hunters or soldiers; but if EVERYONE is out there hunting for food or staying at home looking after the children, oopsie daisy, here comes a massive unanticipated threat like a dangerous animal, geological event or (more likely) other humans coming to ruin your day.

Humans who are more cautious, who are constantly on the lookout for danger, make naturally good lookouts. If everyone was brash and bold, no-one would bother looking out for danger, and that could get everyone killed. So it was necessary for nature to make sure that some people look out for the others. Of course, most of us today don't need lookouts, so our anxiety has no place in society, but it is still there and it causes all sorts of problems.

So today, an anxious person might simply find it difficult to handle everyday life as they are designed to look out for threats. CBT would be a good way of training yourself to control your threat response and train yourself up for another role in life.

= 2 =

People don't develop personality disorders after they are about 10 years old. If they don't have disorders by the time they are 10 years old, even if they're close to developing one, then they never will. I'm not sure what the statistics on this are but she was pretty assured. There's a "but" coming unfortunately.

These people might not be diagnosable with personality disorders, but they can still experience all kinds of difficulties unless they learn how to cope properly, and this can include GAD, depression, etc. There's another "but" coming.

These people may be at risk, BUT they might never develop GAD etc, they might learn to overcome their difficulties one way or another, so there is always hope that a person can recover from anxiety-related disorders and so forth.

I believe your therapist is right. I had my first panic attack about third grade, which means I was 9 years old. Looks like I was born with a panic/anxiety disorder. It still troubles me. It occurs randomly. Very debilitating.

[Beckybooboo]

Hi,

Before all of this happened I was a very out going, confident, cocky character who always made people laugh and a good sense of humor was always my thing!

Now, since I've been dealing with anxiety, depression and intrusive worries/doubts/thoughts it's made me become very withdrawn, lack of concentration, shy, extremely sensitive and nervous in public spaces.

[tt2012]

Becky,

I used to be talkative. Maybe even obnoxious at times. I still make people laugh when I'm not feeling nervous... Yes, public places makes me nervous now as well. I feel better if it's something outside. Like I need an escape or when the attention is not on me. I just don't want anyone to see me having a panic attack. That is what embarrasses me. I don't like crowded closed in places. Ugh.. it is so strange.