What causes anxiety?
There is no easy answer. Anxiety is usually caused by a mix of things. This means it can be hard to see why it started. We can understand anxiety better if we look at the different factors involved
Your Nature
- Some of us are born more likely to develop anxiety. This is due to our genetic make-up.
- Those who had a lot of common childhood fears (fear of the dark, fear of being left alone etc.) seem to be more prone to anxiety in later life.
- You might also be more prone to anxiety if you found your early school life difficult. You might have found it difficult to settle at school.
- You might have been very shy or irritable and might have cried a lot.
- Your nature as an adult can also be important. If you get upset easily and you are often tense or worried you might be more prone to anxiety.
Shades of grey
None of this is black and white - fears of the dark and worry etc. are normal. But if you have fears that are much worse than would affect other children and adults and other people see them as a problem, you are likely prone to anxiety. Your nature is not the only thing that matters. Clearly, other factors matter. A child's fear of the dark might be made worse by a parent's way of dealing with it. This means it is important to look at other things:
Childhood
- The kind of childhood you have can make you more prone to anxiety. Not having a stable, secure and loving upbringing can make you more likely to worry.
- Being wrapped in cotton wool by a parent can also make you more anxious.
- You might have learned to cope with stress by avoiding facing problems.
- If you had a lot of change in your life when you were young - moving house, schools, being ill (or someone close to you being ill), parents separating - this can make you more prone to anxiety.
Adult life
The more changes in life, the more prone most of us become to anxiety. Good events as well as bad can trigger stress. This is due to having to adjust to change.
Hassles in your life make you more prone to worry and anxiety. A hassle is a problem that is there most days. It can be quite small but it might be hard to do much about it. It can gnaw away at you. It could be a problem at work, at home, with neighbours, with debt, with coping with illness. You might be able to cope with this for so long but eventually it can get too much and as time goes on it will be harder to cope. You might develop a problem with anxiety.
Coping with life events
Why do some people cope really well no matter how many life events and hassles get on top of them?
The problem with life events and hassles is not the problem or situation itself. It is the way you view that problem or event. Some people are 'active copers' and some are 'avoidant copers'.
Look at the different ways two people react after the end of their marriages:
"THIS IS AWFUL, I never wanted this to happen but things were going from bad to worse. Now is the time to end it. I'm very fragile and tense now. I know the next year is going to be rough but I will have to cope with it as best I can and I know I will get through this."
"THIS IS AWFUL, I never wanted this to happen. It's all my fault. I just want to run away from all of this. I'll never marry again - it would just happen again. My life is always going to be a mess. I always screw things up. I'm a nervous wreck. I don't know what to do."
These people have been though the same thing but the way the cope with it is very different. The first person is facing up to their fears while the second person is avoiding them. If you are like the second person there are things you can do to help yourself to cope better.
As we have seen, anxiety is not caused by just one thing. It is a complex problem that can be hard to understand. A mixture of things can make you vulnerable - your basic nature, childhood factors and the coping skills you have at hand. When these things are in place, life event, hassles and the way you look at things can all trigger anxiety.
You do not need to have all of these factors to cause anxiety. People with easy-going natures who have had happy and secure childhoods can still get anxiety. We have a long way to go before we fully know what causes anxiety.
