"They will turn to the Lord, and He will respond to their pleas and heal them."
Isaiah 19:22
Isaiah 19:22
What we are is the sum of our actions, reactions and life experiences. These factors influence our lives in way we don't even imagine, they influence the kind of parents we will become one day and how we will treat our kids. A new study made by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers' state that beside our genes, anxiety and depressions influence many aspects of our lives. In today's modern society scientist believe that our traits are dictated by genes alone but they forget that our experiences can make other traits or inhibit others.
Kenneth Kendler, M.D., director of the VCU Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics makes a clever comparison between the famous quote "you are what you eat" with the life experiences, we are what we experience. The two quotes are similar and they present the truth to a certain degree. Our past experiences stay with us for life and will influence our decisions and the way we react to various factors.
The study used nine data sets from approximately 12000 identical twins that showed signs of depressions and/or anxiety throughout their lifetime. Kendler used the information given by the participants to study the influences of experiences on our lives. He selected twins because they have almost identical genes and they share the same family background. These factors will make the results of the study even more rigorous.
The study revealed that in the early stage in life there were no major differences in the twin's lives but once they start changing environments and make divergent decisions they would take different paths in life and change their friends, lifestyles and diets. The participants were asked to complete reports concerning their personal symptoms of anxiety and depression in a five to six year time frame.
Charles Gardner, Ph.D., a research associate in the VCU Department of Psychiatry and a colleague of Kendler, developed statistical models which helped observe how segments of each person's variation altered with time. The study revealed that environmental experiences can strongly influence the levels of depression and anxiety by mid life in adults.
