As you know, we don't simply wake up one day with an anxiety disorder. It starts off slowly and gets stronger and stronger over time. Few of us, if any, had an anxiety problem as a child – it's usually just the opposite. Yet something happens that turns the confidence we had as children into anxiety. Something happens to us that takes away our confidence and fills us with insecurity, so much insecurity that anxiety (our self-protection system) kicks in.
And it isn't a defective gene, or an imbalance of chemicals in the brain (the neurotransmitters Serotonin and Dopamine are usually the ones blamed) or that our brains are somehow different from other people's. It's a whole series of experiences, learning, feelings, thoughts and behaviours that set the ball rolling towards insecurity and fear.
Far from being a mystery, the development of anxiety disorders follows a logical psychological progression and we can map out what happens every step of the way.