Denise Rodriquez was 16 and a senior in high school when she had her first panic attack.

She was carrying a heavy class load that year after skipping a grade. That morning, exhausted and falling asleep in class, she drank a cup of coffee on an empty stomach and tried to get on with her day. A trip into the noisy cafeteria ultimately triggered a dash down a panic-filled path of anxiety and terror.

“I was having shortness of breath as if an elephant was sitting on my chest,” said Rodriquez, who is from Miami, Florida. Paramedics thought she was having a heart attack.

It became a pattern. “Every day after that first attack, I’d have one (panic attack) around lunch time. My mother had to leave work to come ‘save’ me at school,” she told LifeZette.

Rodriquez, now 26, suffers from generalized anxiety disorder and is one of more than 40 million people who experience various phobias, panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders and other anxiety-related mental illnesses. The National Institute of Mental Health says these anxiety disorders involve more than transient worry or fear. For sufferers, the anxiety doesn’t go away and can gradually worsen, interfering with jobs, school and relationships.

But what if there is a genetic component to anxiety-related illnesses? Could better treatments be used?

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Turns out there is an anxiety gene.

A study by Dr. Francis Lee and BJ Casey at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York demonstrated that people with a certain genetic mutation are less anxious than others. That allows them to get over their fears more easily and permits them to bounce back from stressful situations faster than others, explained Heather Salerno in an article in Weill Cornell Medicine, Vol. 14, No. 3.

Sanam Hafeez always believed there was more to anxiety than simply chalking it up to living in a high-paced environment with near-constant stimuli.

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“I absolutely believe there is a genetic component to anxiety. Genetic mutation is linked to anxiety,” said Hafeez, a neuropsychologist and school psychologist in New York. “I see it all the time in my practice.”

Also, anxiety disorders often run in families, she told LifeZette. And if a person has one anxiety-related condition, they are pre-disposed to others.

Discovering a genetic link within the realm of anxiety-related ailments helps doctors focus on a more customized treatment and drug plan.

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It’s working for Rodriguez. She had a biogenics test done through a cheek swab that helped determine which drugs will be most helpful, based on her genetic make-up.

Different strategies help different people. NIMH lists other ways to manage anxiety, including talk therapy and self-help groups. Cognitive behavior therapy is also beneficial and teaches sufferers to manage symptoms by changing their thinking patterns. This helps them navigate anxiety-provoking situations.

Service dogs are another option for those willing to put in the time and effort needed to have an animal around all the time.

Newly married Valerie Parrott uses a service dog to manage her anxiety and migraines. A recent photo of Parrott shows her with Bella, her service dog. The dog attended her wedding and helped provide comfort when her anxiety level skyrocketed. The photo went viral last weekend.

The Sioux Falls, South Dakota, woman relies on her 3-year-old yellow lab to alert her to symptoms of anxiety she herself might miss, such as an elevated heart rate. Parrott can then get herself to a safe place to alleviate her symptoms.

Service dogs should not be confused with the therapy dogs who go into hospitals, nursing homes and schools with a handler to offer canine love and affection to patients, residents and students. Instead, service dogs have special access privileges in public places such as planes and restaurants. Also, they are specially trained to perform tasks for their owners with specific needs, said Sherry Woodard, animal behavior consultant with Best Friends Animal Society in Kenab, Utah.

The tasks can be as varied as waking a person up from a nightmare to checking all the rooms before entering the house so an owner can feel safe. Service dogs can be any breed, as long as they love people and want to work as a team, Woodard told LifeZette.

Karen Feld, who lives in New York City, has two toy poodles to help her with PTSD and seizures. Dealing with the aftermath of an assault, a car accident, PTSD and a brain tumor means Feld must be hyper-vigilant to stem off symptoms. The dogs are her health watch dogs.

Typically they are very calm.

“When they get agitated, it’s their way of signaling me,” she said.

Feld has used medication, but the dogs are her security.

“I trust them. I don’t have to be quite as worried about things. I’m more comfortable dealing with problems,” she said.