Finally, a memory of the frightening event and response is imprinted on the brain. Now, the body is primed to respond with fear to whatever triggered the reaction. People with anxiety disorders don't need grizzly bears or knife-wielding assailants to fuel their fear. A dentist or daddy longlegs will do just as well, thanks to the fear memory imprinted on the brain, ready to fire again and again in response to the same stimulus. While scientists don't understand exactly what triggers the false alarms, they believe it is a complex mix of genetics, brain chemistry and psychology.
Recent studies show that anxiety disorders probably are inherited.
Some get headaches, others get upset stomachs, others react with hypertension and some react with false alarms. Scientists are studying the biochemistry of anxiety at the new National Institute of Mental Health center in Rockville, Md., and in hundreds of NIMH-sponsored studies nationwide. Using PET and MRI devices, researchers peer into the brains of people with anxiety disorders and gather evidence that brain chemicals may function abnormally in the chronically anxious. I want to find out how the signals go wrong, why a Vietnam veteran hearing a traffic helicopter thinks he's under attack again. We need to know where that tracks in the brain.