Could my family have caused me to develop an anxiety disorder?

I'm 17 and I grew up in a home with a dad who drank and abused me mom sometimes. He would just flip out over little things. I was always shy and withdrawn and this just made it worse. He was an intimidating person and this just made it worse. After a while I started to avoid him. I can't even be in the same room as him because I'm afraid of him. He stomps when he walks and now I've become afraid of loud noises. He always clears his throat and stuff and it scares me. This is rediculous. I shouldn't have to be afraid of my own family. I've always had some anxiety with people and my family made it a whole lot worse. Now I'm scared of people pretty much. I hate my family and don't really care about them. I don't know for sure if my family caused me these problems, but could they have?

Also my doctor is making me take paxil for my anxiety. It's doing no good as I feel nervous all the time now. My mom keeps telling me I need it when she doesn't even know the reason why I have depression and anxiety. God I'm so sick of stupid people! I've never wanted to take this worthless medication in the first place, but my mom pushed me to do it. I've been on it for a month and my next appointment is next week. I'm going to ask him to take me off it because I don't need medication. I just need to get away from my worthless family.

Hi Doll,
as for the meds, you should be in constant contact with your doctor, they do take time (couple weeks or months) for your body to adjust to and if it's not helping you at all you may need to adjust the dosage and again wait for your body to adjust. in the meantime, try to look at the meds as something to help you survive the effects of your home life, and believe in their power to help you. don't look at them as something that signifies that there is something wrong with YOU. i used to take paxil for depression (probably around the time that you were born), brought on by abuse in my relationship. it took a while to see any effect. and a pill won't solve your home life, but it can help you manage how you deal with your home life.
i don't think you are the reason you should take them, but your home environment sounds less than happy, and the meds could help you cope with some of your more disturbing reactions to your home life.
living with an alcoholic can be very frightening, they are unpredictable, you never know when they are going to fly off the handle and/or be abusive, leaving your nerves raw from walking on eggshells and always being intimidated and on the alert.
you are absolutely right, you shouldn't have to be afraid of your own family. but you are. you weren't born with anxiety, you developed it through being forced to live in a frightening and unsafe environment. you are suffering from the circumstances you were born into and have lived with.
your nerves are raw, the jumpiness isn't something you should be living with. it comes from fear. the abuse you have endured, the abuse also being the fear of the abuse you may have to endure, that you know you will endure.
you do need to get away from your family, how old are you? you should discuss everything with your doctor. your doctor should be made aware of why you are taking the paxil, why you have anxiety, be completely honest, he will see very soon that you need to be in counseling - ask for a referral for counseling. and you do need support. counseling would be a great relief for you, they can help you sort through it all, identify your feelings, give you tools to help you cope with your home life until you are old enough to go out on your own. they may be able to help get you emancipated or into a foster home or residential school. if nothing else, you would be able to talk to a 'normal' person who won't judge you, intimidate you, invalidate your feelings, who has a healthy perspective on life and how it should be. they may want to take you off the meds or try another med that is more relevant to your situation. and, don't go off paxil by yourself, follow your doctor's advice for lowering the dosage until you can get off of it.
they can help you overcome the effects of your life, come to terms with things, help you get grounded despite your family's dysfunction, validate your concerns that you are not living in a normal healthy atmosphere.
you are a great person, and please know that the world is not all people like you have grown up with. there are plenty of healthy people out there, please don't give up on people.
please try to get into therapy/counseling, you need some relief and validation, or you wouldn't be here asking this, get your doctor to get you into therapy where a professional can validate your feelings about your home life and help you to find yourself so you can be the best you that you can be. truly. there is life beyond your family.
learn from your family how NOT to be, not a drunk, not an enabler, not an abuser, what kind of parent not to be, who not to marry, etc... and learn who you are and who you want to be. you are special and have so much to offer. believe that.
Best Wishes

yep family can definately be the reason for developing an anxiety disorder.. trust me I know... You should try to like people a bit more cause you never know when you'll meet someone that makes your day golden. Find a friend you can confide in and use them to blow off steam and they should comfort you as well it helps ALOT!!

When I was your age, I'm 14 now, I drank alot too and beat on my father. He used to go drink out of the upstairs toilet when he got thirsty since he was too lazy to come down them, I guess the best thing to do is to rub his nose in it and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Yes family can cause anxiety.Not only that ,but its also hereditary.My grandma has it my mom has it,my uncles,have (on my moms side) and now I have it

it's a balance between nature and nurture.

sounds like you might be in need of some family counseling..have you explained all this to your mother?

I would say your family is taking a big part of your anxiety.

I suggest you to go to the town office and ask them to find you a family counselor.

I would also like to make sure you don't go off of Paxil on your own. You might already know it but that is very dangerous.

And remember - you are the only person who can make your life wonderful :-)

I think it's very possible your family caused it. You need to get out of that environment, or you will continue to have anxiety.

I myself suffer from anxiety. It got so bad at one point, i thought i was going to have a heart attack, i couldn't breathe, or eat, and i was just depressed.

My doctor prescribed me Ativan (which i would suggest if you have to go that route) It took away my anxiety, but didn't cause any side effects, or nervousness. I immediately felt better, and was able to deal with my anxiety.

I know how bad it can be so i wish you the best of luck!

you need to make yourself a plan. when you have this anxiety you feel like you will experience this feeling forever, but if you feel you have hope perhaps it will relieve sum of that stress. i recommend you do go off of it. your mother obviously needs some help as well if she has stayed with your dad. im afraid to say it but unless ur dad makes sum drastic changes, (unlikely) you are gonna be uneasy all the time. im sure people on this forum disagree with me but i dont think medication is necessary when it comes to most mental problems. you arent unbalanced, you just have stress issues. i feel like people become reliant on these pills and you have another problem, trying to get off of them. see it as a good thing that you dont NEED these pills. make an effort to fix what you can. you can not change your father but you can try to stay away from him as much as possible, make a change in ur life instead of being helpless and stressed. good luck

yes definately, your family is the source of your anxiety. my parents were and still are. Im 49 years old and am still intimidated by my dad. all my life all i ever heard from my dad was how good for nothing, and worthless i was. and how i would never amount to anything. for the first 30 years of my life, i thought my first name was dummy. thats what he always called me and thats the name i answered to. I fear failure because if i fail at anything, those haunting words come rushing back to me. good for nothing worthless rotten, never amount to anything dummy. i was afraid of my mother as well. everything in our house had to be spotless. one thing out of place and she'd go into a rage. my room had to be spotless and bed made before i left for school. if so much as a dust bunny was found, she'd pull all my clothes out of my closet and throw it on the floor. she'd pull out all my dresser drawers and dump the clothes out and then throw the drawers on the floor. the bed was stripped down and the mattress was pulled off the box spring. posters were ripped off the wall too. my music records were broke in half. then i was given 30 minutes to clean up the mess. i started having anxiety attacks at age 5. the age when her rages started. every chore i was given to do, when completed, i was made to sit on the edge of my bed and wait for her inspection. talk about anxiety. i sat in fear frozen because no matter how well i cleaned, it was never good enough. to this day, when my parents come over, i sit in fear, worried sick my home isnt clean enough to meet her approval. stay on your medication. it takes about 30 days to get into your system and start working. contrary to other comments made here, anxiety mediction is not addictive. it wont make your anxiety disappear altogether, it just lessens the severity of it and helps helps lessen the frequency of the attacks. the less attacks you have will also help you learn how to cope in stressful situations. see if you cant move in with a relative or close friend for awhile. seeing how you are still a minor, call child protective services and report your dad for his abuse. just because hes your father, doesnt give him the right to terrorize you. reporting a parent is a hard and serious thing to do but your dad needs a wake up call. by the way, shame on your mom for not protecting you. even though she may be a victim of his abuse, she still owes it to you to finish rasing you into adulthood in a happy healthy environment. good luck