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A study in an extended family of monkeys provides important insights into how the risk of developing anxiety and depression is passed from parents to children.The study shows how an over-active brain circuit involving three brain areas inherited from generation to generation may set the stage for developing anxiety and depressive disorders.
[...] "Over-activity of these three brain regions are inherited brain alterations that are directly linked to the later life risk to develop anxiety and depression,'' says senior author Dr. Ned Kalin, chair of psychiatry at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. "This is a big step in understanding the neural underpinnings of inherited anxiety and begins to give us more selective targets for treatment."
[...] Interestingly, the brain circuit that was genetically correlated with individual differences in early-life anxiety involved three survival-related brain regions. These regions were located in the brain stem, the most primitive part of the brain; the amygdala, the limbic brain fear center; and the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for higher-level reasoning and is fully developed only in humans and their primate cousins.
More evidence for epigenetics. If trauma can be encoded on the genetic level and passed down to offspring, can shared trauma affect a population's DNA and in turn express itself in its group behaviors/culture?
Original Submission
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Francis on Thursday July 09 2015, @10:59AM
There's usually a genetic aspect, but with regards to anxiety, there's no need for it. If you tell a kid often enough how scary everything is everywhere, eventually the kid is going to have problems with anxiety. That's just how the brain works, the things you focus on are the things you internalize.
It's not always obvious, but it is dangerous. Telling a kid that he did well on the test because he's smart, rarely ends well. Something you are isn't something that you have much control over, but you do have control over how hard you work and how effectively you do it. So, complimenting a child's work ethic has at least some hope of encouraging progress.
(Score: 1) by jcm on Thursday July 09 2015, @05:56PM
I disagree about "complimenting a child's work ethic", this is some subtle brain manipulation.
You should encourage curiosity and avoid focusing on results.
What creates anxiety is the obsession of external achievements, so the child starts to believe that "it's never enough".
In fact, it's more subtle than that: when your mind is "exteriorized" (this means that your thoughts are orientated towards the outside, like "how should I act ?", "I must succeed", "do people love me ?"), anxiety increases.
When you are able to "interiorize" your thoughts (this means forget about the outside results, like "I'm doing something for the pleasure of doing it" or "I don't mind what other people think of me" or "I'm trying my best but I won't predict if I'll succeed or fail"), anxiety disappears.
This is very easy to experiment, and is the basis of many therapies.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday July 09 2015, @06:47PM
I'd say you nead a healthy balance of both. If you have too much "I must succedd" etc., you get anxious. But if you get too much "I don't mind what other people think of me" you won't succeed in life.
A therapy for anxiety will of course teach you the latter, because that's what is missing. It's just like you'd teach an anorexic to eat more; however you wouldn't teach that to an obese.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1) by jcm on Thursday July 09 2015, @09:05PM
>"I don't mind what other people think of me" you won't succeed in life.
Uh ? What is your definition of "success" ?
Why is it so important to succeed ?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday July 09 2015, @09:30PM
For example, not being the asshole that thinks only of himself and that is avoided by everyone for that reason.
Because you'll likely not be happy for long if you don't.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1) by jcm on Friday July 10 2015, @08:14PM
>For example, not being the asshole that thinks only of himself and that is avoided by everyone for that reason.
You are too much focused on what others think about you.
I can assure you that it doesn't really matter.
Also, I believe that your morals are: "having friends"=good, "not having friends"=bad.
Did you even realize how lonely you are ?
"Thinking about himself" ?
Why do you believe you seek success, if it's not for yourself ?
To get some nice self-image, you can pretend that you do that for others, but the truth is that you do it for yourself.
>Because you'll likely not be happy for long if you don't.
If you believe happiness results from success, you are deeply wrong, because failures will hurt you a lot.
Happiness is just a state, there is no action to trigger it.
Don't mix "happiness" and "pleasure".
Sure, succeeding gives a lot of pleasure, but happiness ??? I doubt so.