How did it start for you? Here's my story...

[marnb77]

Mine started at the young age of 8, mind you i am now
27. When i was three and a half i had spinal
menengitis and almost didnt make it. Ever since then,
I have had horriblr seperation anxiety, severe panic
attacks, agoraphobia.. you name it, ive had it. I also
have terrible terrible hypochndria which comes and
goes. Right now i am having a bad flair up of anxiety
and these boards have been keeping me sane. I have
been in therapy since I was 9 (I still go) and have
tried every med under the sun. Paxill, Zoloft, Prozac,
Anafranil, Imipramine, Buspar, Xanax etc. A couple
years ago I found something callled neurontin coupled
with luvox for severe ocd. I take these at night and I
take one milligram of klonopin a day to help with my
daytime anxiety. For me, daytime is harder than the
night. I am currently taking half a klonopin before
bed because i havent been sleeping well. Sometimes I
have insomnia and am afraid to sleep for fear of
another day of panic.

For me anxiety and panic has been a battle i have had
to face my whole life. I never had the normal
childhood where i could sleep at a friends house
without having my mom or dad come pick me up. I know
it will continue to be a struggle for me-- I guess by
now I am used to it. My dad has struggled with the
same condition his entire life and has been begging me
to try nardil an mao inhibitor he is on but I am just
not ready to try something new. Plus there are soo
many food restrictions that come along with taking it
and I have enough on my plate right now. (no pun
intended)... So that is my story. Would love to read others..

[mjewell]

I am lucky to not have had to go through some of the stuff you guys have been through, its just awful. Like Allen Dave, Mine came out of nowhere. I have always been a little phobic about throwing up, so I remember when I was in 3rd grade and this kid in my class threw up, i think that was when I first experienced anxiety, although of course I didn't know what it was. So anyway, I've always had anxiety about throwing up, but all the sudden one day out of the blue when I was about 11, I started developing all sorts of fears, mostly agoraphobic type stuff, couldn't go to school, couldn't ride the bus, didn't want to go on vacation with my parents - and here I am today 16 years later still with it. it comes and goes and my symptoms change...for example, I only had my first full blown panic attack about 2 years ago - but I will never figure out where it came from. Nothing traumatic ever happend to me.

[junglemonkey]

I don't really know where it started to be honest.

When I was a kid I definitely suffered from anxiety but it was relatively infrequent and always passed off as being a "bug". I would wake up during the night thinking I was going to be sick, but as a young child that's all I could interpret it as.

When I was 11, they took me into hospital for testing because I couldn't eat. I had everything tested and probed and I left the doctors scratching their heads. It was on and off for 5 more years while I circulated doctors offices being misdiagnosed, scared out my wits, having panic attacks and feeling very ill every day. Finally I saw one doctor who saved me sooo much by recognising the problem and sending me to a psychologist after routine testing.

I have the NHS to thank for why it's this bad today, in a way, haha