Treatment is often delayed because medical attention focuses on the cardiovascular symptoms or the irritable bowel complaints. The diagnosis is also complicated because it's easier to tell the doctor about chest pains than about vague but persistent fears. This connection between unrealistic worry and physical ailments has a long history. Accounts of anxiety disorders date back to the time of the ancient Greeks. There is much debate about whether anxious people come from anxious families.
Some evidence points to a predisposition when a similar proneness is found in both parent and child.
But the role played by genetics, imitation, and learning remains unclear. Whatever the basis, feeling anxious can become entrenched. Many people cannot remember a time when they were not anxious. To be eternally vigilant carries a price. In that disorder, many of the physical symptoms are intensified into short but frightening episodes.