What age were you dignosed with anxiety?

[JenXO]

I think I was 7 or 8 but I showed signs earlier. I think I showed signs of OCD at 3-6 years old.

[sgil]

22, that's when the panic hit. When I think back now I can definitely see some signs though.

[jessed03]

I was diagnosed at 18. However, like you, I could have been diagnosed in childhood.

[Ponder]

I was diagnosed on the date of my Birth. Capitalised Lettering as per legal documentation re ownership legislation by and to the state. Condition = Human!
Journey = Deal with it. Although the path to acceptance is a little less resistant ... yet the lack of commiseration on it leads many to sucking off the bottle for longer than otherwise necessary.

[Snakeadelic]

Age of my diagnosis: 37.

Age at which anxiety-related symptoms began to manifest: FOUR YEARS OLD.

What a long, strange trip indeed.

[louise30]

I was diagnosed with Anxiety back in October 2015 so I was only 24 but I had been suffering with OCD for quite a few years previous until my partner urged me to see someone

[Snakeadelic]

louise, I really hope you get to share my immense good luck in finding a mental health care team/provider you 'click' with, someone who understands not only your challenges but the best way to help face them in a fashion well-suited to your lifestyle, goals, and personality!

[JenXO]

Age of my diagnosis: 37.

Age at which anxiety-related symptoms began to manifest: FOUR YEARS OLD.

What a long, strange trip indeed.

damn that is late!

[Snakeadelic]

Things like that happen in my life. I call them "character-building experiences" and whenever someone tells me what a character I am, I say it's because I've had so many character-building experiences! My (thankfully) minor tussle with the thyroid disorder Graves' Disease is a similar story...if it had been diagnosed when I was around 14 or 15, I wouldn't have lived my entire adult life with shaking hands and a ventricular arrhythmia, but it wasn't until I was 38 that my freakin' gynecologist asked if I'd been diagnosed with it! Told him I'd never heard of it, looked it up when I got home that day, turns out I exhibit those 2 (lifelong) symptoms, plus a third lifelong result--the "wide-eyed Graves' look" and had experienced another symptom in my teens, edema of the ankles with a peculiar orange-peel texture. Unlike the vast majority of people who have Graves', mine self-corrected after about 5 years on Synthroid. Another example of a character-building experience: money was tight, I had 9 days until payday, and I'd run out of Synthroid. We had a big dog at the time, my stepfather's "half golden retriever and half big black farm dog down the road", who also had to take Synthroid--at almost twice my dose, as an accident involving a pond full of chemicals had pretty much destroyed his thyroid function entirely. I wish I had a photo of my mom's face the day she caught me stealing the DOG'S medication! :D

[gadguy]

In my early 40's...after an intervention from friends who saw what a basket case I was becoming. Thank God for good friends. It probably should have been diagnosed as a child as I have always avoided social interaction, hated change and always extremely nervous. Anyway you deal with the cards you are dealt and carry on.

[Tremor]

I was diagnosed at age 30 (now 45), but after understanding the symptoms of anxiety I realize I probably have had this as long as I can remember. Never knew any different I guess.

[Robert Tressell]

I was well into my forties before I had to admit defeat and seek help. From my childhood i'd had cyclical bouts of anxiety. The worst thing was putting on a front for everyone and dying inside. I don't do that so much now. Modern life is SO hard for people with anxiety.
But the longest journey starts with a small step so seek help, it is out there.
I've started taking meds, keeping fit and trying not to internalize stuff. It's a daily battle but a war you CAN win!

[cloudy black]

right from the beginning i reckon. i say this because my mothers mum who was 52 years old when she died. was diagnosed with cancer and by the time i was 18 months old she had died. so if i think that my mum knew way before this,as most cancer takes a long time to kill you (morbid but true). then i was experiencing trauma in the womb. my mother was utterly devastated when her mum died. my mother was aged 31 when that happened. so i not only lost my gran who i never knew i lost my mother to grief as well.

[Joe Pu]

I was well into my forties before I had to admit defeat and seek help. From my childhood i'd had cyclical bouts of anxiety. The worst thing was putting on a front for everyone and dying inside. I don't do that so much now. Modern life is SO hard for people with anxiety.
But the longest journey starts with a small step so seek help, it is out there.
I've started taking meds, keeping fit and trying not to internalize stuff. It's a daily battle but a war you CAN win!

43, have not been diagnosed.

Had my first panic attack when I was 16. I knew there was something wrong with me mentally but was too ashamed to talk to anyone about it. I was almost 30 when I realized that I had an anxiety disorder and how common it is. I still hide it though, only my wife, mother and sister know.

[tirediron]

When I was about 51, and I went to my PCP concerning worry/anger issues. Looking back, I can see issues when I was young. I had plenty of friends and grew up in a middle class neighborhood in the mid 60's. I had a great childhood. But I can remember being really worried when my Dad didn't get home from work on time, or my Mom had gone grocery shopping and was running late. One Christmas eve, we were going to my Grandparents home and I just KNEW we were going to be in an accident. We weren't. Worry was always there. In my late forties, I was worried over financial issues, tuition for my son's, mortgage, etc. I was a pipefitter and worked as much OT as I could stand and was always tired. I lose my temper too easily and became concerned. My PCP thought it was anxiety and prescribed Paxil. I took it for a year and stopped. I'm 60 now and recently retired. I started having anxiety issues while making the decision to leave, and there were reams of paper work to do. Many items were out of my control. Pretty stressful time. Once retired, I realized home loud my street is. After forty years in a factory, I have some hearing lose, and some noises just go right through me. I went back to my PCP and I take a very low dose of analapram.

[Snakeadelic]

Cloudy, has anyone let you in on the fact that an ever-growing body of evidence is STRONGLY suggesting that the children of over-stressed mothers are often born with PTSD? PTSD at birth seems like it could easily turn into anxiety, depression, and other serious mental health issues in an undiagnosed child.

Joe Pu, seems like you've caught on to how incredibly difficult it can be living with an "invisible" disability. People who've just met me in person tend to regard me as "just someone highly distraction-prone during conversations" until they find out meeting strangers is a HUGE anxiety and panic trigger for me, and that I babble just to make sure I don't hyperventilate and faint. Not long ago, I went to the brick-and-mortar office of our former ISP during a seriously messed-up service provider problem and found the poor fella I'd been growling about working the front. I told him "LOOK at my face and know this is the face of invisible disability--this technology mess might end me up in the ER, so take a good long look and try to apply what you see to later customers with issues similar to mine!"

[cloudy black]

Snakeadelic Cloudy, has anyone let you in on the fact that an ever-growing body of evidence is STRONGLY suggesting that the children of over-stressed mothers are often born with PTSD? PTSD at birth seems like it could easily turn into anxiety, depression, and other serious mental health issues in an undiagnosed child.
gosh no. in this world i have had to make it up as i go along. daily life is such a trial at times. as i child i hated getting up in the morning and i so did not enjoy playing games with other children. in fact with hindsight it increased my anxiety levels must have done. at times this really perplexed me as to why i felt so dreadful all i wanted to do was to lie down and go to sleep to recuperate. for the most part i didn't enjoy being a child and i dont enjoy being an adult for the most part! lol

[Kixxi]

I was diagnosed at age 20, but once I started looking back the anxiety has always been there.

[nc_hantrell]

I was diagnosed at 18 years (I'm now 20), but looking back I've had symptoms of anxiety since I was about 13 or 14 years old.

[salvator here]

I've had anxiety as far back as I can remember, but it got worse in my 20's. I was officially diagnosed at 21 and was put on ativan. I'm unmediated now though and feel somewhat better and able to think clearer, but unwell still.

[Snakeadelic]

Quoting Tremor: but after understanding the symptoms of anxiety I realize I probably have had this as long as I can remember. Never knew any different I guess

And that's pretty close to exactly how I explain living with serious, constant tinnitus all day every day. I don't actually know what silence sounds like. In a quiet room I hear 3-5 dog-whistle-pitch tones in each ear, not always the same ones in both ears either. In my case it originates with severe, degenerating temporo-mandibular joint dysfunction, the ever-popular TMJ of dreaded medical lore. I have a particularly nasty form that causes my mandible (lower jawbone) to change shape constantly, if slowly. It messes with my balance, forces the cartilage in my ears to change shape, is destroying my hearing, and does bad things to my teeth...and there is no therapy to stop the bone changes along with no way to scare up a more positive prognosis than mine that I know of. And anxiety appears to run in my maternal family quite strongly, so I suspect I'm the same way about anxiety--never knew any different.