Passed down in genes?

[xboxer1994]

Ive heard that panic attacks and stress is passed down.
this could be very very ture for me cause my grandma has them.
but does anyone else have any knowlege of this.
i think it is but that makes me sad cause i dont want my kids to have it.

[Nicola_lou]

I think it might be true my grandmother has it to for many many years
But I'm not 100 percent.
And if your children or grandchildren have this u will have experience
And conquered it cause I believe you can. And by then hopefully everyone
Will be more aware.

[ann b]

I also think this could be true but cant say for sure i suffer with panic and anxiety as did two generations above me.Two of my children also suffer with mild bouts of panic,so in my family its passed down four generations.Hope that hasn't scared you as this could just be coincidence.:)

[purplehaze]

There is a chance of it but remember if we bring our kids up to be confident individuals then there is no reason why they wont live a panic free life. Nothing is set in stone!!

None of my grandparents suffered and no one on my mums side suffered, my dad did but my 3 brothers and sister dont. So I would say its a slim chance.

so go forth and enjoy your life and enjoy your childrend lives

[Squindered]

My uncle suffered from panic attacks like I do but no one else in my family does so there might be a link but it could just be coincidences.

[CJH86]

I believe its true in my case.....my dad suffered from panic attacks especially in his early 20's and hes been controlled on meds for many years, infact his anxiety disorder is completely parallell to mine in so many ways its creepy!

But i cant say it was how he and my mum brought me up, my sister is free of panic attacks. Unbelievably he kept the panic attacks and anxiety so well hidden i only found out this year! :scared15:

[NoPoet]

It's a hard call as the nature versus nurture (what we are born with versus what we learn as we grow up) argument has been raging for decades. As far as I know, current thinking is starting to lean towards the "you don't inherit it, you learn it" argument.

In other words the people around you can influence you, so if your family suffer from something like panic attacks, there is a fair chance it may affect you too. This is why members of the same family are very close to each other in outlook and behaviour.

[tryingtocope]

My mother and grandmother both suffered from anxiety and panic attacks, as do i. My siblings however don't.

[xboxer1994]

i think ther are more people that had and didnt know thats what it was or didnt tell anyone that they have/had them. like my gandma dosent know that she has them but i can tell thats what shes having.
just imange if all these people knew that they had them.

[Robbs]

i think it can as my grandma and my mother both got anxiety, i however get it worse than either of them have or did, as for learning panic/anx i dont think thats entirely true, maybe to an extent but i remember having weird anxiety feelings as a young child like weird butterflies in my stomach and feeling unreal and thats not the sort of thing a 5/6 year old learns, im positive i was born with it and things i've done, lifestyle and things that have happend to me etc has just made it worse.

dont be concerned as to weather you may pass it on to your kids as i dont blame my mother for it and im glad to be alive lol

[redhead]

i believe that some panic is inherited, but i also believe for myself anyways that some of these fears are learned behaviors from a parent or possible other relative.my mother was very fearful of dogs in return i myself became fearful of dogs. the reason is i saw her react with a fearful manor around dogs thus in return i also reacted in fear of dogs. just an observation. she was the same about lightning storms.

[CrystalStar]

My dad suffered a lot from panic attacks and his mum, my grandmother, certainly had "problems with her nerves" as they used to say in those days so I suppose at the back of my mind there's always the thought that these things might be passed down in the genes.

That's a bit of a scary thought, isn't it?

[Miss Dobbie]

My dad was a very anxious person, but its a case of nature vs. nuture I suppose

[NoPoet]

You've got to remember as well that the human subconscious is very powerful. It picks up on stuff we don't even notice. If someone is constantly behaving in a certain way and we spend a lot of time around them, it can be very hard not to be influenced by their behaviour, for example if you spend lots of time with a foul-mouthed friend, you might eventually find yourself swearing more as well.

[CrystalStar]

At least if we're thinking about whether there's a family tendency or not I suppose we're one step ahead of the game, as in being aware of signs to look out for. Also, there's a lot more awareness of these type of things these days whereas my dad tended to just struggle on with his problems without seeking help. If only he'd had the internet in those days!! I'm sure he wouldn't have felt so alone.

[CrystalStar]

Oh, I don't know. The fact that these things are talked about so much more these days makes it a lot less scary. And there's so much more information out there about it as well. I think anxiety and panic attacks is an area where more knowledge is a good thing and forums like this one at least mean that people no longer feel alone with their problems. Me included!

[Nicola_lou]

I don't think its the way we were brought up both my parents were fine no mental health it was just my fathers mother, and when we saw here was on her good days and eveything was kept from us until we were older then she just said she had bad nerves. Only now do I truely understand since I got it same age as my nan when hers started she said.
My father started having anxiety and panic attacts in august and stayed home three months from work, that was kept from us until I started having mine just after new year. And he can relate to how I'm feeling. He went back to work and pushed himself he don't have them anymore but still gets a little anxious but controllable.
I know the brain takes in more than we know that why we dream about people we don't no sometimes, and day ja vu when our brains picks it up before we register and we think have I done this before.

Its a strong argument I reading through I think it might skip a generation sometimes.