3 Main Causes of Anxiety Disorders
You’ve known for a long time that you’re anxious, but have you ever wondered why you have anxiety?
Anxiety disorders are caused by 3 main things, and today I’ll break it down for you.
Once you know where it’s coming from, it’s a smidge easier to start tackling the problem.
1. Biological Causes of Anxiety
Let’s start with the biological side.
There isn’t exactly a “gene” for anxiety, but there are certain things biologically that increase our risk for developing anxiety.
Anxiety does tend to cluster in families, so certain families have more people with anxiety than other families do.
That tells us that there’s something we inherit that increases risk for anxiety (and also probably something about the experiences that happen to those families…more on that later).
What we know is that people seem to inherit from their parents a general tendency toward anxiety.
This means they’re more likely to have anxiety in general rather than a specific type of anxiety.
So one person in a family might have a different type of anxiety disorder than another.
We can see this inherited tendency even in babies…some babies are more adventurous while others are more cautious; those cautious babies are more likely to turn into adults with anxiety disorders than the adventurous babies.
2. General Psychological Causes of Anxiety
In addition to inheriting a general biological tendency toward more negative emotional experiences (like anxiety), there are certain general psychological tendencies we develop in a lifetime.
Things like low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, poor coping skills or difficulty using coping skills, and a belief that things in life are unpredictable and uncontrollable can all increase our risk for developing various types of anxiety disorders.
For example, if I believe most things in my life are out of my control…and I don’t have much confidence that I have the skills to control the things that actually can be controlled…this is a recipe for feeling really anxious and out of control.
Notice that these things are all really general — they’re not about any specific type of anxiety.
Another general psychological cause of anxiety is having repeated stressful or traumatic events in your life.
A lifetime of your brain being on high alert because life was chronically stressful (e.g., living in poverty) or included isolated or repeated traumatic events can make your brain more alert to danger and anxiety in general.
Finally, having parents or siblings or other influential people in your life who have anxiety can teach you some general habits about how to deal with the world.
If you see your parents avoiding things because of their anxiety, or drinking/eating/smoking/shopping/etc. because of their anxiety, your brain will start to pick up some general ideas about how the world works.
You might start to believe the world is dangerous, anxiety is bad, and you should avoid things that make you uncomfortable, which then sets you up with a general approach to life that increases risk for developing an anxiety disorder.
3. Specific Psychological Causes of Anxiety
So we have these general psychological quirks that increase our risk for anxiety in general. And then on top of that we have specific thoughts, feelings, and actions that increase our risk for a specific type of anxiety.
Or if I have the general belief (see cause #2) that I’m inadequate and the specific belief that people will judge me or reject me, then I might feel anxious in social situations and withdraw.
These belief systems cause another specific psychological cause of anxiety: attention bias.
Attention bias is your brain’s hard-wired tendency to pay more attention to things it thinks are dangerous.
If you think about it, this is super helpful. If I’m being robbed at gunpoint, my brain is automatically going to pay way more attention to the robber and the gun than it is to the wildflowers nearby or the sunset.
But if you’re already primed for anxiety because of your biology and general psychological makeup, then this attention bias means you just pay extra attention to whatever your particular brand of anxiety disorder has decided you should be anxious about.
So for people with panic disorder, it’s physical sensations; for people with social anxiety disorder, it’s indications that people don’t like you or that you’ve made a mistake; for people with generalized anxiety disorder, it’s uncertainty; etc.
I mentioned above that experiencing repeated stressful or traumatic events in life can increase risk for developing anxiety in general.
But specific stressful or traumatic events can also cause specific types of anxiety.
For example, a traumatic event with a bunny can cause a bunny phobia (this is the Little Albert experiment if you’ve ever taken any introductory psychology classes).
Or a traumatic social event can cause social anxiety.
Anxiety Disorders Aren’t Caused By One Single Thing
Having any single one of these elements likely won’t result in an anxiety disorder.
But the more of these things you have experienced, the more likely you are to develop an anxiety disorder at some point (probably after something very stressful happens to you).
If you’re noticing that you have some extra anxiety hanging around, it’s useful to start getting that anxiety spiral to slow down.
If you haven’t already, consider taking my free 5-part email course where I’ll teach you proven strategies for identifying what’s making you anxious, dissecting how you ended up in a downward spiral, and turning that spiral around. Get in here.
While you’re doing that 5-part course, I’ll be over here writing some more articles to help you master your mental health.
Talk to you soon,
Dr. Finch
P.S. Remember, this is education, not treatment. Always consult with a psychologist or therapist about your mental health to determine what information and interventions are best for you. See the disclaimer for more details.
Hayden C. Finch, PhD, is a practicing psychologist in Des Moines, Iowa, dedicated to helping you master your mental health.
