Anxiety Disorders: Nature versus NurtureAnxiety is a part of human nature, a survival mechanism that has evolved to protect us, and the problems it can bring, in themselves, reflect what it means to be human:- However, when we talk about nature versus nurture in regard to anxiety problems we are usually referring to the cause of the problem: is it due to nature (a faulty gene, brain structure, chemical imbalance or disease) or nurture (the environment we live in, our experiences, learning and conditioning)? The answer, of course, is both - but what role does each actually play? Genetic information passed from parent to child could contain much more than we are aware of today, possibly even passing on hopes, fears and desires - such things being an integral part of a person's make up. Without doubt a parent that has lived a life 'surviving' with OCD (or depression or high anxiety etc.) will pass such 'survival' information to their offspring. So - genetics is important in the form of predispositions: coded information from our ancestors to help us survive/ thrive in various environments, but it is the environment in which we live that controls whether these predispostions flourish or wither and die. Let's look at OCD, for example, being a major problem that current trends proffer 'nature' as the cause: OCD represents trying to get control over 'unseen' forces and dangers - through rituals (there is no other way to attempt to get control over powerful negative forces that control us other than by rituals), ordering (to have everything ordered, in control) etc. Note also that a parent with OCD not only promotes direct learning (as a role model) but often treats their children in such a way (over cautious, negatively due to their own problems etc.) that may promote fears and anxieties. A child with OCD from a parent with OCD does not confirm a genetic link as the cause. Included in the 'nature' argument is the idea of physical brain differences being the cause of OCD - they are not, they are the result of it, and many books that proffer this cause go on to say that the brain can be changed by learning (to a non-OCD state) - yes it can, just as it is changed in the first place to an OCD state by learning and conditioning. And so, science may find brain structure changes, neurotransmitter level differences, protein diffrerences, genetic differences in those with OCD - BUT all these changes are, more logically, the result of the OCD not the cause. |