Recently it was all the rage to talk about the genetic cause of anxiety, some gene that when present heightened the risk and severity of anxiety. I never much bought into the theory as everyone has the capacity for anxiety and many people manage to shake it off. I am not a big fan of explaining anxiety away with physical causes, it smacks of a cop out to me. Anxiety is something that can be dealt with.
The latest that I have read is that anxiety can be caused by abnormal brain structure. People apparantly who have a thinner ventromedial prefrontal cortex are less able to deal or cope with stressful situations and therefore develope anxiety and post truamatic stress disorder (PTSD). Apparently those who develop PTSD tend to have less active ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
IF this is true then it would certainly seem that anxiety sufferers need to deal with past traumatic memories (through regression, EMDR, or whatever) in order to get over their symptoms.
Research like this should never be considered as a reason to sit back and do nothing about anxiety. It is still treatable and there is still lots you can do about it.
For more info on brain structure causes of anxiety check out the BBC story here.
