I was reading elsewhere an interesting observation by someone who lived in Japan during that terrible earthquake and the damage to the nuclear reactor. There was a lot of fear and anxiety (duh!) and this person eventually managed to move to a safe place. But instead of feeling ‘safe’, the fear continued and it was as if her brain was searching for another source of fear and anxiety to latch onto. It didn’t go away. (PTSD?) I was wondering if one was raised feeling that way because of ignorant uncaring unloving parenting, when you didn’t feel loved or safe in your home - is this the same thing? Forgive me if I sound stupid, but that never occurred to me until now. Such a thing can’t compare to living in a REAL disaster area. No matter what the source of the fear, your body is put on alert for, seemingly, life. When the source is removed, it trys to find a NEW source. Why is that? Does your brain ever let you relax without psychotherapy and antidepressants? (Meditation, exercise, talking myself through things, and coffee and the clear light of day are helpful.) Because I grew up in fear every day of my life, and here it is years later, and I still wake up in fear, every day, looking for, thinking about, new threats, bad things that can happen to me, what I should do if the bad things do happen.
There are several dopers who can address this better than I can, but yes, it is quite possible to get PTSD from growing up in a violent household. It’s sometimes called complex PTSD if it involves long-term trauma instead of a single event like an earthquake. Like any other mental illness, psychotherapy is recommended, and the other things you listed are very beneficial too. The choice to use or avoid medication is different for everyone. It can spontaneously resolve, it can also spontaneously get worse (although that’s less common). If it’s not treated, it usually just hangs around.
If it’s getting in the way of living a healthy, comfortable life (which it sounds like it is based on your description of waking up in fear every day), please seek out a counselor. If you don’t have health insurance, churches and local advocate’s groups may know of low-cost resources for you. If you’re willing to say what area you’re in, some dopers may be able to help you find something too. Good luck. 
Thank you so much for your kind answer. I’ve been following this topic on the SD for a long time, always looking for answers from others similarly afflicted. ( I’m used to the anxiety just hanging around, because there’s always something coming along to fire it up. I manage to cope somehow, it’s all I know.)
Of course it can. But anxiety may not be directly associated with any events. It can be a chemical thing, possibly even software. If you’re coping, you’re doing better than a lot of people.
C-PTSD is real and can have very serious long term effects. It can be a build up of what many might think are even minor events over a long period of time.
The good news, if any can be had from our recent wars, is a lot has been learned about how to treat C-PTSD. Look for a therapist who knows how to do EMDR. It is a wonderful technique which helps sufferers, for lack of a better term, reprogram their brain to be able to cope with the trauma and move on.
Yes, but it’s also caused by interpretation. You can train yourself to reanalyze and reinterpret the situation. It’s hard to do, at first, but with patience, you can train your self to stay calm and not freak out. That’s what I do when I’m scared and want to flee, now I just force my body to cope, and calm down, and then acclimatize, and it’s worked. I don’t freak out as much. Often though, this has to do with stimulants, and lack of complex carbs, or protein in my case. Since I’ve changed my diet, my panic and anxiety has seriously gone down. Now, I can be mellow, plus I switched to a high theanine based green tea, that helps, and a complex vitamin B of at least 100 mg, just in case I ingested the wrong food. I have malabsorption.