Before you can understand what causes anxiety attacks, you first need to understand that there are a lot of different reasons why a person might get an anxiety disorder. One person’s trigger might not do anything to another person, but there are a couple of things that have been proven to increase the odds of anxiety attacks. Medical experts have concluded that environmental, biological, mental, social, and life experiences can all lead to panic and anxiety disorders.
First, some people just have anxiety and panic programmed into their genetics. There is mounting support that shows that your heredity and the environment you were raised in can lead to panic and anxiety attacks, but this is no excuse to stop looking for freedom. Studies show that some families have higher than average rates of anxiety. In many cases if one identical twin comes down with a panic disorder, the other twin stands an increased chance of also getting the same panic disorder. Non-identical twins share a much weaker connection, indicating that genetics does play a role. Some research also tells us that anxiety can be learned from our parents when we are little.
Some causes of anxiety attacks can be traced to personality. Certain personality types seem to take on anxiety and panic more readily. People that have low self-confidence may also run a greater chance for attaining anxiety attacks. If you have not formed effective ways of coping with stress from day to day life you also may have more frequent anxiety attacks. Perfectionists often experience anxiety attacks and nervous breakdowns when their hopes on how things should be are not met. We can adapt these personality faults by trading our beliefs for more flexible ones.
Things that happen in our lives can also lead up to anxiety attacks. When sustained for a long time, violent and abusive scenarios tend to influence a person’s likelihood of experiencing panic attacks. If you have endured abhorrent life circumstances you may wish to seek out counseling or other treatment options to move past these experiences.
Some medical problems have a noted influence in a person’s level of overall anxiety. Increased amounts of anxiety have been documented in cases of diabetes, high blood pressure, and overactive thyroid glands. It is common for the stress of putting up with a serious illness to add up to higher levels of anxiety.
I hope this introduction to a few of the many possible causes of anxiety attacks has helped you learn about what can contribute to panic disorders. With a bit of understanding I hope that you can start on the road to finding relief from anxiety and panic conditions.