Hereditary and Environmental Factors At the Origin of Anxiety and Stress



Posted: Monday, December 06, 2010

by Francesca Tessarollo

Financial crisis, precarious employment, catastrophic news on TV ... these and more are the reasons that fuel the anxieties of Italians.

Anxiety, or at least fear disorders, seem to be increasing among Italians. The alarm is given by Eurodap, the European Association for Panic Attack Disorders, which carried out a survey with a sample of 600 people: 70% declared to consider a world a treacherous place, a condition that obviously results in constant alarm states. The causes of these disorders can be various, from hereditary to environment factors, and many different techniques are used to prevent and treat these problems.

Environmental factors are notably to be taken in consideration: among the causes that most influence the anxiety of Italians there are, according to researchers, the alarming and sometimes catastrophic news broadcasted on TV. On the one hand it is true that information already has even too many filters; on the other hand the images that are broadcasted on TV are increasingly explicit and violent, and certainly contribute to the uneasiness of viewers. Fear disease, in particular, which seems to affect more and more Italians, comes from the feeling of danger that viewers have when they hear alarming news; and these days, due to financial crisis, precarious employment, crime news and wars, alarming news are not lacking at all. News like this cause the feeling of being living in a treacherous world, where something terrible and without remedy is going to happen at any moment. The era we are living in contributes to this feeling: the precariousness that seems to have affected all the fields, from employment to economy, relationships and so on, has also deprived us of our benchmarks, and this results in a widespread situation of alarm.

Solving these problems is not always easy, although there are many different types of solutions offered, from courses of positive thinking to psychotherapy. The condition of uneasiness that affects many people is a really serious problem, which can have negative consequences both mentally and physically, causing headaches and irritability, gastritis and insomnia, tachycardia and anxiety states, and in some cases requiring the intervention of a specialist. One of the latest novelties as far as anxiety and stress treatments is concerned is the "istant therapy", a much faster psychotherapy than the usual ones; a solution that is certainly consistent with these days: in times of crisis people are certainly more stressed, thus need more treatments, but at the same time they earn less and can invest less on self care. Certainly this type of therapy is not effective in case of serious illness, but can be useful to prevent serious anxiety.

Other types of therapy to cure anxiety, like transgenerational psychoanalysis, are based on the fact that many of these problems are not only caused by environmental factors, but also by hereditary factors. Hereditary factors, indeed, are believed to contribute to anxiety and discomfort by 60%, while environmental factors contribute by the remaining 60%.

In conclusion, both environmental and hereditary factors are at the base of the problems of many Italians, problems that should not be underestimated.

This article was written by Francesca Tessarollo with help from test bilancio competenze. For more information, please visit ansia rimedi naturali or linea del tempo storia.

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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Jennifer Stewart
 1 year 149 days ago.
152 fans.
The figures you quote are amazing. I'm sure it's not just Italians; I think anxiety is increasing globally.
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