Is anxiety genetic?

[not_so_insig]

My cousin posted yesterday on Facebook about how he suffers from anxiety (so much so that he sought professional help in the past). I too both suffer from anxiety. I was wondering if it was genetic? Obviously we have the same grand parents.

[Pi.R^2]

As far as I'm aware a lot of mental health problems can have a genetic component, but there's also lots of environmental and other factors that can contribute.

[sherlock holmes]

It comes down to the age old debate of nature vs nurture. There's evidence for both. Nobody knows for sure, but there will be a genetic element and an environmental element. It may be that in your genes you have a predisposition for anxiety, and it lies dormant until there is sufficient stress in the environment to activate it.