What is the Cause of Anxiety and Fear - Is it All Down to Genetics?

The most common cause of anxiety and fear is fromoff between anxiety and performance, and increasing
stress, yet another word we hear a lot of these days.mental and physical performance is proportionate to
The feelings we feel when we are backed into aincreasing anxiety levels in the body. However there
corner or threatened are anxiety and fear butbecomes a point where increasing anxiety levels too
increasingly in today's world we do not always knowfar decreases physical and mental performance
WHY we feel threatened, is it instinctive fear ordramatically. We all need to have some fear but too
genetically induced fear.much fear and we just cannot perform.
Genetic fears are the ones we have inbred into usThere is another problem that can make things
from birth about the fear of snakes, spiders or heightsconsiderably worse too. The fact that anxiety can
for example and we can think up plausible reasonscause further anxiety and end up in a viscous circle.
why we should be scared of them. They can bite usThe exam student who is so anxious that they cannot
or pass on diseases or kill us if we fall.revise then starts worrying about the exam and lack
An instinctive fear is one for example when a babyof revision which in turn makes them more anxious,
cries when it is away from its mother or with athen they start worrying about the outcome of the
stranger as being away from the mother is a threat toexam and get more anxious and simply waste more
the baby's existence and therefore it cries out to betime worrying about the exam and getting themselves
back with mum.so worked up over it, causing a viscous circle of
As we know it is quite normal to have some fear it iswasted time and worrying.
good for us and also a little bit of anxiety doesSometimes the timing of our anxiety seems to go to
sharpen our senses up and improves performance.pot, an example of this is where someone handles a
Top athletes often say they are anxious just before atraumatic event and copes very well with it like a
race and actors and actresses the same before goingmass car accident where there are lots of bodies
on stage. This is good and it sharpens their senses upabout and they seem to take control and nothing
and often they give their best performances.bothers them but hours and sometimes days later the
However, the problem arises with extreme fear andanxiety sets in causing distress.
extreme anxiety and this is not good. A good exampleIt would seem then that genetics does play some part
of this is when sitting an exam, some students are soin anxiety and fear but so does instinct too and the
anxious and fearful of the exam they simply cannotfact that anxiety problems are so common in the U.K.
prepare properly for them and as a consequence doBeing the most common psychological problem, more
appallingly in the exam,making their anxiousness evenso than depression shows the extent to which our
worse.inbuilt mechanisms are finding it hard to deal with 21st
There are also instances where fear is so powerful itcentury problems.
makes you freeze. Heights being an obvious one, andAnxiety cause 14 people in 100 in the U.K to seek
your instinct here is to hold on or you will think that youtreatment as it causes problems with their daily lives. It
will fall and possibly die. A great fear showing theis a big problem and one that needs to be taken
body's response to it.seriously in society.
To be at your best you have to have a sort of trade