Minutes

What role does genetics play in experiencing our feelings?  Psychologists wanted to determine what roles genetics plays in fear and anxiety.  

Serbian and an English researchers  studied over 700 Serbian twins to explore how genes and environment influence anxiety disorders and fear-related traits. Participants completed surveys on anxiety symptoms, fear-based personality traits, and twin similarity. The goal was to see if traits like behavioral inhibition and fight-or-flight responses overlap were both or singly prominent in disorders like panic, agoraphobia, social phobia, and generalized anxiety. 

Results? Genetics plays a role in fear and anxiety, but it’s complex. Shared genes contribute to both fear traits and anxiety symptoms, but individual life experience had the strongest effect on how people respond.   

So, what does this mean for you? Our brain is shaped by what we’re born with and what we go through! The next time fear kicks in, remember, for survival our bodies automatically respond and sometimes from our history of trauma/fright, but wait: take a deep breath, breathe slowly, relax, think it through. What are your alternatives? Decide.  How do you want to respond?