Genetic Pre-disposition to neurosis.

[SavedByGrace3]

Some years ago, I began research into not only our family ancestry but the study of genetics. In the course of this research, I have taken several DNA tests for the purpose of mapping and confirming genealogical pathways and ancestors. To date, I have logged over 33,000 "cousins" on ancestry.com. These are people who have descended from the same blood relatives that I have. The DNA test is valuable back five generations, or to about the mid-1700s. This has been a very valuable tool in my family tree research.
An offshoot of this research is finding genetic causes of mental and physical issues and strengths. Hundreds of thousands of genetic markers are tested from within DNA. Scientists have tested these markers and found groups of people who possess certain traits centered around certain chromosomal pairs. For instance, by looking at a certain pair of genes in your DNA, they can tell if you are genetically predisposed to traits. They compare many people who have the same pairings, and they also find physical and mental traits to be the same. In my genes, this has proven accurate in many cases. One case puzzles me. According to one group of genetic markings, I am allegedly 100% predisposed to neurosis. I am about to turn 70. I have never really noticed this issue in my life. It seems the older I get, the more "emotional" I seem to be. I do not think it affects my life that much. I find I actually pray more and seem to be more empathetic toward people. I also have to be careful what I read into people's motives because, in doing so, I may inadvertently assume something negative about them or what they want.
Neurotic thoughts and behaviors, by definition, are so extreme that they interfere with your personal, professional, and romantic lives. What’s more, they tend to be your default response to even minor problems.
Has anyone else had these tests done and experienced these results?

Resutls:

Reference papers and your DNA​

Genome-wide analysis of over 106 000 individuals identifies 9 neuroticism-associated loci.​

Smith DJ et al. 2016
Researchers performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of neuroticism in participants from three cohorts. Meta-analysis identified nine novel loci associated with neuroticism. A strong association was observed at a locus on chromosome 8 spanning 4 Mb and containing at least 36 genes. Other associated loci including interesting candidate genes were on chromosome 1 (GRIK3), chromosome 4 (KLHL2), chromosome 17 (CRHR1 and MAPT) and chromosome 18 (CELF4).
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27067015

Association analysis in over 329,000 individuals identifies 116 independent variants influencing neuroticism.​

Luciano M et al. 2018
Researchers identified more than 100 significant independent loci from a GWAS of neuroticism in UK Biobank participants;15 of these loci replicated in an unrelated cohort. These loci locate near CACNA1E, MSRA, XKR6 ,LINGO2, CELF4, ZC3H7B and BAIAP2. Genetic signals were enriched in neuronal genesis and differentiation pathways, and substantial genetic correlations were found between neuroticism and depressive symptoms, major depressive disorder and subjective well-being alongside other mental health traits.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29255261

Multi-trait analysis of genome-wide association summary statistics using MTAG.​

Turley P et al. 2018
Researchers introduce multi-trait analysis of GWAS (MTAG), a method for joint analysis of summary statistics from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of different traits. They used MTAG to summary statistics for depressive symptoms, neuroticism and subjective well-being. In regard to neuroticism, the number of lead SNPs increases from 9 to 37 from GWAS to MTAG. Some of these SNPs located near PCLO, BSN CACNA1E and all encode important parts of the machinery that releases neurotransmitter from the signaling neuron.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29292387

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for neuroticism in 449,484 individuals identifies novel genetic loci and pathways.​

Nagel M et al. 2018
Researchers conducted a large GWAS meta- analysis of neuroticism from the UK Biobank study, 23andMe, Inc. and the Genetics of Personality Consortium. They identified 136 independent genome-wide significant loci (124 new at the time of analysis). Of the 17,794 SNPs in high linkage disequilibrium (LD) with one of the independent significant SNPs, most were intronic or intergenic and 3.8% were annotated as potentially having a functional impact, with 0.9% (155 SNPs) being exonic, of which 70 were exonic nonsynonymous (ExNS). These ExNS risk locus were locate near gene such as MAPT, FAM120AOS, GNL3 and ITIH1.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29942085

Result	Scientific Reliability	Chrom	SNP ID	Population
AA Increases neuroticism	4 out of 4	chr17	rs4969391	European

 

[linux.poet]

I am wondering how reliable these tests actually are.

However, if you ran such a test on my family, you would find a high genetic predisposition for autism (on my mom's side) and trauma (on my dad's side). What can happen, especially if you spend a lot of time in Christian circles, is that you see your genetic predispositions that are harmful, label them as "sin", and adopt beliefs and behaviors that work against them. The neuroplasticity of your brain, even if it has DNA toward a particular tendency, will shut that DNA off or work around it. You're not doomed, basically.

Also, what can happen is that you may have a high genetic tendency for something else which cancels or balances out the neuroticism or complicates how you express it. This can hide it from you.

Finally, neuroticism isn't all bad. It simply means that you have intense emotions, which increases your productivity and lessens tolerance for people who are trying to get in the way of what you're trying to do. You don't have tolerance for liars and stupidity, and sometimes that is what is needed in life. It reminds me of Barbara Sher's Tedx Talk where she was talking about neurotic New Yorkers and what they were able to accomplish:

I hope you are encouraged by the video. It's very humorous. God bless.