“There must be something wrong with me. I worry all the time. My best friend never worries and tells me to just relax. It’s not that easy!” I have heard this said to me dozens of times. And when people believe there is “something wrong with them” they often equate this with a moral failing, as if it’s some kind of failure as a human being to be more anxious than other people.
It’s not a moral failing.
The reasons some people are more anxious than others are complicated. But two of the causes of anxiety in the Worry Loop that you can’t change are your past and your genes. Nature and nurture. These vary infinitely between people, but there are overall patterns.
It’s important to understand a little bit about how your genetic material and your experiences interact. The more you know, the more you can accept yourself as you are and find a path forward that works for you.
There are very few resources that explain more than “genes are complicated.” Those that do dive so deep into the details that those of us without a Ph.D. in neuroscience just nod and smile, then back away slowly. This is my attempt to bridge that gap.
The Example of the COMT Gene
To illustrate this complex interaction of genes and experience – nature and nurture – let’s focus on just one gene that impacts the Worry Loop: the COMT gene.
The COMT gene makes a chemical, conveniently called COMT. One of the things COMT does is process dopamine, both in the Worry Loop and elsewhere in the brain. Dopamine is one of the key chemicals that makes the Worry Loop work.
The COMT gene has two variants, Met and Val. Met causes the body to produce more COMT. Val causes the body to produce less. More COMT means more dopamine processing in the Worry Loop.
There are two versions of the COMT gene: Met, which produces more COMT, and Val, which produces less. So, people with the Met genotype process more dopamine than people with the Val genotype.
To look at the differences between the Met and Val genotypes, let’s use an oversimplified example of four fictional women, who all have identical genes except for one, the COMT gene. These women are named Mettie, Amethyst, Valerie, and Evaline. Not only are the four nearly identical genetically, but all four had good enough childhoods and grew into healthy, loved, supported adults.
As you might imagine from their names, Mettie has the Met genotype and Valerie has the Val genotype. These two imaginary women lead the exact same adult lives, free from major stressors. They are each happily married, with three kids, and have work they enjoy, that pays well, and has a positive work environment.
But because Mettie and Valerie have different COMT genes, they process dopamine differently. Mettie has what researchers would call “normal” dopamine processing. She does well, doesn’t worry too much, and she performs fine at complex cognitive tasks. We’d all like to be a Mettie.
But Valerie’s COMT gene means that she doesn’t have enough dopamine processing going on in her Worry Loop. She doesn’t worry a lot. But because of her COMT gene, her dopamine processing is like a weak Wi-Fi signal. She has trouble concentrating on complex tasks at work and home. Things just don’t always connect.
So, is the moral of this story that the Met genotype is better to have than the Val genotype? Nope. Mettie and Valerie had good childhoods and few major stressors as adults.
It turns out that if you have big stressors in your adulthood, the benefit of the Val and Met genotypes is reversed.
The Effect of Stressors
Amethyst and Evaline had good childhoods too, but as adults they went through messy divorces, became single parents to three kids, and were stuck in low-paying, unfulfilling jobs in toxic work environments. In short, Amethyst and Evaline have stressors.
Both their Worry Loops increase their dopamine processing as a result.
With major stressors in adulthood, both women’s dopamine processing increases. Amethyst’s becomes too high, but Evaline’s increases from too low to normal.
That means Amethyst’s dopamine processing goes from “normal” to too high. Like an extension cord with too much electricity going through it, it overheats and threatens to melt. All of this overactivates Amethyst’s Worry Loop, and she becomes a “Worrier.” She worries far more than her genetic clone, Mettie, who didn’t have any big stressors. Worry interferes with her concentration and sleep, and those problems cause other problems.
Then there’s Evaline. Without stressors, Valerie’s dopamine processing was too low, but major stressors have kicked up Evaline’s dopamine processing. In fact, they turn it up from too low to ideal levels. Evaline’s genetic twin, Valerie, had trouble with complex cognitive tasks. Not so for Evaline. Neither is she a Worrier like Amethyst. She has just the right level of dopamine processing to function well and adapt under stress. She may not enjoy it, but she handles it well. We call her the “Warrior” type.
Thanks to Mettie, Valerie, Amethyst, and Evaline, we’ve seen that there are not necessarily good and bad genes, and people don’t respond to stressors in adulthood the same way, at least in part because of their genes.
It Can Get Complicated
Please don’t go trying to type yourself as one of these four fictional women. This was an oversimplified example. For starters, we all have two copies of each COMT gene, one from each parent. You could have a Met/Met, Val/Val, or Met/Val combination. About half of us have a Met/Val combination and fall somewhere between Evaline and Amethyst when we’ve gone through stressors.
And there are several genes believed to affect anxiety, not just the COMT gene. Also, dopamine is only one of the chemicals in the Worry Loop; there are at least six neurotransmitters at work there.
Furthermore, all four women in this example healthy childhoods. Trauma deserves its own series of posts. While childhood trauma hurts everyone, regardless of genes, some people are more affected than others, and genes are part of the reason we respond differently.
In evolution, variants don’t become as common as the Met and Val variants and stay so common in the genetic code unless there is some benefit to both the individuals and the species as a whole. Our species and our societies need all four of these women. We need people who function at their best when times are good and when times are bad. And we need our “Worriers” who can be vigilant to dangers and warn the rest of us to be cautious. And we benefit from “Warriors” who perform best under pressures and forge ahead when most are a bit more wary.
My hope is to shed light on how we each got to be the way we are – a combination of nature and nurture – and show some appreciation for our uniqueness. It’s the interplay between genes and our environment that matters more than either one individually.
Where We Go from Here
Just as anxiety’s causes are highly individual and complex, the answers to what we do about it vary from person to person. Our sense of personal agency helps us know ourselves and chart our best course for the future.
And it’s important to remember that while it’s good to understand our genes and experiences to make sense of our tendency to worry, that doesn’t have to lock us into a lifetime of anxiety and worry. Our past and our genetics can help us make sense out of how we got to where we are and why we may be more vulnerable to the effects of stress than others. It points us toward the need for self-care and possibly therapy and medications to offset the challenges that life has given us.
If they were real people, Mettie and Evaline, who have normal dopamine processing, would be able to go through life without changing too much. They’d adapt all right. But Valerie, who needs a certain amount of stress to be her best, might find herself going back to school and becoming an ER nurse – and thriving.
Amethyst, who’s a Worrier, needs a calmer work environment and extra support with the kids. And if it’s bad enough she may benefit from medication or therapy to help her do those things. There’s nothing inherently wrong with her, she just got an uncomfortable nature-nurture combo that keeps her safe and ultimately benefits the larger society. All she can affect is where she goes from here.
In the next post I’ll be discussing how to know when worry has gone past the point of being helpful and it’s time to do something about it. I’ll also be talking about some of the things we can do to manage the anxiety in our lives when the Worry Loop starts to get the best of us.