Posts Tagged ‘About Anxiety and Panic Attacks’

It has been a known information for many years that anxious parents can pass anxiety disorders on to their children.  Although this truth is well known, no one is prepared to say yes to this question "is anxiety inherited”.

But now, a new study by the scientists at Johns Hopkins Children’s Centre, came up with the conclusion that a family-based program where parents and children are being treated jointly, can reduce the symptoms and risks of anxiety amongst these children.

Each person can get fretful from time to time, but when the crisis starts taking over one’s life, the condition is then called anxiety disorder. It can be exceedingly stressful and inhibit people from living their lives fully. Some individuals with anxiety disorder may also have phobias and develop panic attacks.

For the study purposes, the Hopkins investigators looked at 40 children with the ages between 7 and 12 years. The children were not diagnosed with anxiety disorder themselves but all of them had at least one parent who was diagnosed with the condition.  What other proof do we really need to answer the question "is anxiety inherited".

Researchers randomly split the participants into two groups, with 20 of the children and their families taking part in an 8-week cognitive behavioural therapy program, while the other 20 were put on a waiting list and did not receive any treatment during the period of the study, but were offered therapy one year later.

The CBT program, which consisted of one-hour-long weekly sessions, was focusing on an development of problem-solving skills, instruction about anxiety disorder, as well as helped parents identify and change behaviours alleged to contribute to anxiety in the children.

The chief researcher of the study, Dr. Golda Ginsburg, PH.D., a child psychologist at Hopkins Children’s Centre and an associate professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said that according to the records gathered by the experts, the children of parents with an anxiety disorder are up to seven times more likely to develop the disorder themselves, and up to 65 per cent of kids who live with an anxious parent meet the criteria for anxiety disorder.

The results of the trial revealed that within a period of 12 months, 30 per cent of the children who did not participate in the program, had developed an anxiety disorder, compared to none of the children who were enrolled in the family based therapy. A 40 per cent decrease in anxiety symptoms in the year after the therapy program were independently reported by parents along with investigators who analyzed the behaviour of the kids and their parents. There was no fall of anxiety symptoms observed among children on the waiting list.

The parental behaviours adapted with therapy program included overprotection, excessive criticism and excessive expression of fear and anxiety in front of the kids. The program targeted childhood risk factors such as avoiding anxiety-provoking situations and anxious thoughts.

According to a recent editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, it is deterrence and not treatment, of childhood anxiety, that is of a primary importance, because anxiety disorders affect one in every 5 children in the United States, but very often are left unrecognized. If not addressed in time, the trouble can lead to depression, substance abuse and poor academic performance throughout childhood years and way into adulthood.

Results of the study will be published in the June issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. The study was funded by the US government’s National Institute of Mental Health.  So "is anxiety inherited", yes.  Can we change the pattern of behaviour yes!

Could it assist a few of us if we had the answer to this question “is anxiety inherited”?

I’m not positive.  It may help us come to terms with the fact that we suffer with anxiety.

Have you looked at your family history, parents, grandparents and maybe even further back?  Or have you grown up with a family member suffering from anxiety?

My mother suffered fairly badly with anxiety, chiefly when she was going all through the change.

  Her anxiety triggered her to become house bound, resulting in her leaving her job on health grounds.

I don’t recollect looking back at my younger days my mum suffering with anxiety.  But she did.  Just because I cannot recall it.  It does not denote that I did not pick up on it.

The predicament for me is, that since she  was suffering with anxiety, I may well of picked up that learnt behaviour, without truly knowing what it was.

So back to the big question “is anxiety inherited”, well it may not of been in my actual genes, but I could of learnt the anxiety behaviour from my mum.

I have had some great debates with friends on this subject.

Like how come I have anxiety and my three brothers and my sister do not suffer with anxiety.  For sure that would confirm that anxiety is not inherited.  Although on the other hand I have to have learnt it from somebody?

My anxiety has been labelled as “free floating anxiety”, so I do not know what I get anxious around, but I do know I have anxiety.  So understandably I must have learnt that behaviour from somewhere.

The reason this is so key to me is, I if I learnt this behaviour, then I can work on learning a fresh way of becoming.  I can work on the reality that this is the behaviour of my Mother and not me.  It was something that I picked up while I was growing up.  It does not belong to me; I borrowed it from my Mum.  I did not appreciate what I was picking up on.  But I picked up on the anxiety my mum was suffering from and stored it away ready for the right conditions to manifest in my life for it to happen and be part of my life.

For me “is anxiety inherited”, yes, as a learnt behaviour, not as something that is permanent in my life.

If you would like some help with anxiety? Then, please read on.

  1. Breathe Correctly.

Researchers at The University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre have pinpointed one of the reasons why breathing is so significant when we are suffering from  anxiety. They establish that we habitually hyperventilate when we are in an anxious state. This is correct, as you and I know. We are conscious of short and rapid breathing  which in turn creates tiny brainwaves, all contributing to our stressed state.

If we could do with help with anxiety, we will need to learn to breathe with the abdomen muscles. By doing this we create much longer breaths which make slower  brainwaves. That is the sort of relaxed breathing we do when we are composed and serene. Whilst we are conscious of this, we can understand this technique and it really  does soothe us down, if done right.

  2. Meditation
A large amount of people are put off by the idea of meditation and even yoga because they just feel it is too difficult to be taught and that they will never have the time  to do it.  All you have to do is to find the quietest place at home.

You can select to sit down or even lie down. The essential thing is to feel comfortable. Contemplate on your breathing and practice letting air fill your  lungs and then when exhaling, feel the abdominal muscles tightening. The secret here is that you are able to shut out all the clutter, noise from  around you, while you concentrate solely on your breathing. You will be amazed at how much calmer you will feel and you may not need help with anxiety.

  3. Diet
Certainly getting the right nutrients, minerals and vitamins can really help in creating optimal conditions so that our brain functions just as well as our  body. Any foods that can boost the levels of serotonin can enhance our mood. That can always lower anxiety levels. The best foods, are the complex carbohydrates which are the whole grains, fruit, vegetables and nuts. Did you know that the element called tryptophan helps in calming  and is contained in some dairy products and also turkey meat?

  4. Herbal remedy for anxiety?
Lots of herbs are now known to help keep anxiety at bay. The better known ones are valerian, camomile, passion flower and winter cherry. These actually work  and there are no nasty side effects either, unlike the anti anxiety medications prescribed in massive doses across the populace.

Anxiety is a person’s normal reaction to conditions or situations that make us anxious, apprehensive or uncomfortable. The response may be physical, emotional or behavioural. Factors that activate  anxiety may well include pressures from work, stress from home, lack of exercise or sleep, or medical conditions. The food we eat is also a precondition for anxiety attacks.

There are several highly recommended foods for anxiety attacks. If we do not properly give food to the brain’s neuron-transmitters, then it is more likely that we do not have sufficient nourishment to balance the brain’s activities. Take into account eating foods that are rich in vitamin B and amino acids. Chicken, beef and most especially tuna are highly recommended, as well as green and leafy vegetables like broccoli, spinach and cabbage. Milk and milk products like cheese and yogurt have high-protein contents.

Although chocolates and other sweets are typically accepted as mood enhancers, these foods for anxiety attacks may only give a "roller coaster" effect on your brain activities which gives you a swift flood of energy and then in time pull you down to an all-time low. Stay out of food that are prepared of simple sugars to reduce mood swings, and try to have a nourishing portion of fish, vegetables and fruits for a more steady quantity of energy.

But eating the right foods for anxiety attacks is only one of the possible ways to handle anxiety. Of course, the foremost step is to have a discussion with a doctor who will first have a apt diagnosis to your condition so the necessary steps can be undertaken. There are cases when foods for anxiety attacks may be complemented with prescription medication, or other alternative methods.

In a good number of anxiety conditions the best treatment that is most often recommended is to undergo psychotherapies. These methods not only relieves the symptoms of anxiety, but also gives a more permanent solution to it. It teaches the person how to identify with his situation and recognize the factors that causes anxiety. From there, the psychotherapist and the patient can work together on the best possible solution to anxiety attacks.

Anxiety and panic attacks can be bought on by many different things, such as stress, depression, grief and alcoholism.  What ever it is triggered by, the affect is that your mind is saturated  with worrying and frightening thoughts. And these thoughts really do influence your life. Everybody who suffers from Anxiety and Panic Attacks knows only to well how scary that panic mode can be. Coming to terms with the fact that it is not the intrusive thoughts that are accountable for your anxiety, but the way you react to those thoughts, that triggers your anxiety or Panic Attack.

For loads of anxious folks, there dwelling or a room in their domicile is a reliable haven.  But while the anxiety and panic plague these safe places, it can leave you feeling entirely helpless and on your own.  Folks who do not suffer with Anxiety or Panic Attacks have no concept as to how to a great extent these feelings take over our lives.

  Having Anxiety and Panic Attacks can really change your self-esteem.  People saying upbeat things to you, have no sincere affect, but people saying downbeat things really hit you hard.
It works very much the same with your thoughts, when you have destructive or disturbing thoughts, you tend to  focus on them and not the positive and happy thoughts… and then so it goes… off into panic. Learning to organize our thoughts is a step towards beating Anxiety and Panic attacks. In my case I learned that these attacks would not hurt me, that was the difficult part. I then learned that if I faced my thoughts and the things that made me anxious, I could seize control again and not be stopped by my Anxiety Disorder.

Anxiety can be overcome, once you start to get an awareness of what is causing your anxiety, you can then learn some coping skills to help you over come your Anxiety and Panic Attacks.