Can You Inherit Anxiety And Phobias?

This is strange…

A study done at Emory University and published in Nature Neuroscience exposed mice to the smell of cherry blossom. Then they zapped them with electrical shocks. These mice naturally grew an aversion to the scent (nothing “shocking” here).

But here’s where the plot thickens like chocolate pudding.

When the children AND grandchildren of these mice were exposed to the cherry blossom scent, they had the same stress response… even though they had never been exposed to it!

Plus, these offspring had more neurons that detected this scent than mice who had parents who were not exposed to the scent (or shocks).

Meaning: our irrational fears… phobias… and anxieties may have roots from our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. - as a way to pass down certain survival instincts.

​Does this mean we are victims of our genetics?

Bruce Lipton, author of The Biology of Belief explains that you’re not controlled by your genes. Just because your genes predispose you to certain fears, how these genes express themselves is determined by…

Epigenetic (“above the genes”) influences.

Including:
Thoughts
Beliefs
Emotions
Physical Environment
Social Circle
 
So even if your bloodline has passed these stubborn fears down to you. You still can do something about them using the list above. And techniques that work for collapsing fear will still work despite where it came from.