My tendency to anxiety is an inherited factor and I note that many other people posting here have the same problem. My mother battled with it for years until in the 1960s she came across the teachings of Doctor Claire Weekes as expressed in her first two books on Acceptance titled 'Self help with your nerves' and 'Relief from nervous suffering'. That and the occasional Valium made a big difference to her life. She used to tell me that ancestors of her's suffered from anxiety going right back into Victorian times, some couldn't even work because of it. In those days it was called Neurosthenia (nervous weakness), then Anxiety Neurosis and now General Anxiety Disorder. It'll probably be called something else before too long.
Anxiety that runs in families is due to some genetic factor, our bodies produce too much cortisol maybe, or it doesn't produce enough serotonin or something else. But that doesn't mean we have to suffer all our lives and recovery isn't possible. Claire Weekes used to say that anybody who relieved themselves of anxiety once using her Acceptance method should consider themselves cured because even if they do have reoccuring episodes they know the way to relieve it having done so before.
So people with inherited anxiety should make and follow a recovery plan just like everyone else - then when they feel the old feelings coming on they can take early remedial action such as Doctor Weekes' four imperitives: Face, Accept, Float and Let time pass. Don't believe for a minute that because you successfully brought about recovery and then many months or years later the problem returns means you've failed. All it means is a 'repeat prescription' is needed of what brought about recovery before.
I think the mental health care sector should do more research into exactly what hormones become out of balance causing our nervous systems to become over sensitive. Many people wonder why their anxiety is worse first thing in the morning and then improves as the day progresses. This coincides with the production of cortisol which peaks about 8 a.m. Nature thinks we need a boost of cortisol, a 'fight or flight' hormone, to get us started with the hunting and fighting that was all part of a normal day 5,000 years ago. But these days our mornings are more passive so all that cortisol doesn't get used up and just sloshes around in iur systems making us feel anxious and depressed. Some people find that the L-thianine that occurs naturally in green tea counteracts the excess cortisol first thing in the morning. I find it helpful but only within the context of a brew of green tea and hot water, I've tried tablets that have higher concentrations of green tea and L-thianine but they don't do it for me.
Whether or not you make green tea part of your recovery plan, inherited anxiety isn't a life sentence because when you've cured it once you can cure it again. And again if need be. These things are sent to try us - we all have our cross to bear, who is without one?
