GROSS: Has it been helpful to get this information about your genes? STOSSEL: Yes and no. I wondered in advance of doing it whether I would, you know, I was actually in some ways worried that what if I got the results back and show that I had all the genes for resilience and resistance to anxiety? And I thought boy, you know, I managed to squander an excellent genetic inheritance. And in some ways I feel like now I can point to something and say see, you know, it's not, I'm not just a malingerer, I've got it right there in my genes that shows I've got anxiety woven into my genotype. But I also want to emphasize, it's something that, you know, I need to emphasize to myself, that, you know, genes are not destiny. And there's, you know, as much as we now know and the information is proliferating all the time, they're still far more that we don't know. And the way that, you know, all these genes interact is so complex and, you know, they're starting to find interesting correlations. But the reality is that you can always, you know, neural plasticity, the ability to kind of carve out new neural pathways, continues throughout your entire life and in fact, even your genome can get affected by the environment - certain genes get turned on and off. And you don't want to fall prey to a kind of genetic determinism where you sort of lie back and say well, I'm you know, look, I'm doomed, I've got the neurotic gene, I'm going to be neurotic. No. You can overcome that. In fact, a lot of the research these days is on a psychological trait called resilience - which basically, you know, people who are particularly resilient recover from trauma more quickly, they're more resistant to anxiety and depression. And the thing is, you know, resilience is clearly partly genetically determined, but it can also be learned and developed with practice. And that's something that, you know, I am trying to learn to do better and that, you know, anyone struggling with an anxiety you can become more resilient and resilience is really the key to overcoming your ailment. GROSS: Do you think there's a neurochemical basis for resilience? Are doctors, you know, scientists looking into that? STOSSEL: Yes. They definitely are. And in fact, there's a lot of fascinating research into her a neurotransmitter called neuropeptide Y or NPY. And what's fascinating about this is that, so they've done studies of Navy SEALs and Army Rangers, you know, who go through these incredibly hard obstacle courses as part of the training in order to get admitted into the Navy SEALs and the Army Rangers. And it's a test of your physical endurance and resilience and your psychological resilience and endurance. And basically the test is designed to try to break you, because if you can't be broken, then you're Navy SEAL material. And there are studies that show that you can predict in advance who will complete the course and who will not based on the levels of neuropeptide Y that they have in their brains. Neuropeptide Y is evidently directly positively associated with resilience. And there's a separate research that shows that the amount of neuropeptide Y you have is genetically determined. So it may be that, you know, so and actually, I think there is now drug research into could you come up with some sort of synthetic NPY or a way of augmenting those in your synapses to in effect engender chemical resilience. And then separately meditation, mindfulness meditation. People who are really, really good meditators, and even those who aren't good, some who are novices, with just a little bit of meditating, if you do it properly, your brain will actually change. The connections in your neo cortex, where irrational thoughts take place, become stronger and more interconnected and your amygdala, the seat of fear, becomes smaller. And the people where you see those effects on the anatomy of the brain report that they are less stressed and happier. So there are multiple ways that you can build resilience in a way that actually has, you know, physiological correlates that you can see in the body.