What age did you start getting full blown panic attacks?

[jasonibs9]

I started getting them bad at age 31

[anxiousamaryllis]

Good question.....I've had anxiety my whole life and I also have specific phobias which cause me panic attack type symptoms. But it's been relatively recently that I started getting full-blown panic attacks out of the blue, for no obvious reason. The first one was about 4 years ago when I was 41......I woke up from sleep having a panic attack. At the time I had no idea that's what it was. I thought I was dying!!

[Krisse]

I have always had anxiety, but I got full-blown attacks the end of my freshman year of college when I turned 19.  I'm 30 years old now, so that's 11 years of dealing with this.  It's hard to believe it's been that long.

[abeja_reina_1989]

I've had mine as far back as I can remember. I mean, there were months.. maybe even years, where it wasn't as bad. Recently, things got worse than they ever had been and that's when I decided I needed to find a therapist and meds was the best idea for me. It's hard, but I feel a LOT better and am thankful every day that I decided to get help.

It's funny how people can tell you things over and over, but until you're ready.. you can just think that everything will work itself out.

I've learned.. it's ok to need help

[aec711]

I got my first one when I was 19. I am 28 now.  Does anyone else have parents with panic attacks? My dad had panic attacks starting around 25 that lasted until he was about 40. He still gets them from time to time and is constanly anxious.  My mom thinks we are crazy lol. Also, my oldest brother has them, but none of my other brothers and sisters get them. I really think there is a genetics link with mine.

[abeja_reina_1989]

Both my parents have panic attacks also

[oboyrosie]

Always had anxiety since being a little girl.  The first panic attack was probably around 16 (after a horrible nightmare) that lasted months.  The second one was 26 after a divorce (actually I had a bit of  break down too) that lasted many months and the last one was a few months ago at age 38 (due to my brothers illness) the lasted a couple months.  Again those are like the Mount St. Helen's of Panic Attacks - I have daily GAD and numerous attacks per week (depending on my stress level).
XO

[whiskeytits]

I would become hysterically agitated at (seemingly) nothing when I was as young as eight years old. It wasn't until many years later- but before I was diagnosed- I realized I had been having panic attacks.

They became more frequent after I moved to Portland, OR from Michigan when I was 19 years old. Probably has something to do with the fact that suddenly, my very sheltered and naive young self was in a strange place, meeting strange people, and smoking a lot of pot (which I very soon became allergic to, along with anything from the cannabis sativa plant- hemp, hemp oil, marijuana, hash, you name it). Interestingly, smoking pot, for me, will trigger an instantaneous and full-blown panic attack.

When I was 22, my (then) fiancé's mother died. He was 21, his sister was 14. He was living in Portland with me, and his mom and sister lived in Texas. It was a very unexpected death, and she was only 46. No will. Needless to say, this was devastating to my fiancé and, to a lesser extent, myself. Della and I were great friends, she was an amazing human being, gods rest her soul.

I stayed strong for him, to the point that I didn't even let him see me cry at first. In my mind, what he needed was a "rock". He needed someone to forget about their own well-being and be there for him, and him alone. And I was- I took care of everything. I spent all my time with him. He didn't want to see people except me. I quit my job to fly down to Texas, we handled the situation.I wasn't worried about anything but my fiancé and his comfort for a long time. I hadn't had a full-blown in a couple of years.

When it hit me, it was the worst I'd ever had. Involuntary muscle spasms, tunnel vision, hyperventilation, tremors, and a near-total loss of coordination that lasted hours, and recurred. I couldn't walk or drink from a cup. This panic attack lasted two weeks before I sought help (I'd never been treated for anything related to mental health before), and was accompanied by severe derealization. I didn't eat for days at a time. When I did eat, it was mechanical- I had no appetite... I forced myself to eat because I hadn't been. I couldn't sleep for days sometimes, and when I did, it was in fits and starts- 20 minutes here, half an hour there. Wake up, panic. Lather, rinse, repeat.

My fiancé, although on friendly terms, still refers to it as my "overnight anxiety disorder", and feels that I made it all up. He maintains that I "wasn't there for him" after his mother passed and that, because I had been irritable and lashed out in the weeks leading up to The Big One (dun-dun-DUNNNN), that I made up the Panic Disorder, G.A.D, and depression I had been diagnosed with to conveniently explain it away. I'm still suffering, learning, trying. I know I have this thing for the rest of my life. It changed me. I'm not the person I used to be. I'm so much angrier, short-fused. I'm not the bubbly, joyful dissenter I used to be. I worry too much. I've gained 60 lbs.

But I'm taking care of my sh*t!

[frustrated_2]

i remember being anxious as a child, but my first panic attack didn't happen until i was 22.  i have been panic attack free for 17 years...however, about a month ago, anxiety/panic/agoraphobia all reared their ugly heads again.  i am miserable, probably in denial.  it is harder this time around because i have done so well -- med free -- for so many years.  now i am to the point that i know i need meds, just reluctant to take them again.

[Belly]

they really kicked in at 21, and ever since then. So I am at 9 years

[ocdengineer]

I was in the second grade.

[Chadster]

I was always shy and anxious as a child, but I had my first panic attack at 16.

Does anyone else have parents with panic attacks? My dad had panic attacks starting around 25 that lasted until he was about 40. He still gets them from time to time and is constanly anxious.  My mom thinks we are crazy lol.

Most of my Dad's side of the family has anxiety problems. I don't know of anyone on my Mom's side that has ever had a panic attack.

[vienna]

I was in the 10th grade, and I had a few of them over about a year and a half. Then I got into a car accident before my senior year of high school, and since then it's been terrible. I am a senior in college now. I have good periods and bad periods...right now I am going through one of the worst.

[CoolCalmAndCollected]

About 11 years old.  We were on a class field trip to Washington, D.C. (about one hour away by bus) and we were told while sitting on the bus getting ready to leave, that there would be no stopping for the bathroom on the way home.  We were told that if we hadn't used the bathroom, we were out of luck so we should take our last chance.  I didn't have to go but the world started closing in and I got that sick, hot, unreal feeling where everything looked like a movie of real life and sounded faraway and strange.

I got up and told the driver I had to go and everyone had to wait while I went inside the museum or whatever big building we were parked outside.  I think I was OK for the ride after that, but to this day I am anxious about riding with others and long trips, but that was only the start of my long panic-disorder career (and traveling is now only about 1/100 of my panic attack trigger subject matter) which has landed me in the E.R. a few times an as an inpatient once, and yes, my father suffered from related disorders.  

Unfortunately, to some degree it rules my life because while I later went on to do a lot of traveling, I've gone back to being pretty phobic about it.  In addition to, like I said, panic attacks for reasons unrelated to travel.

[Knightsaber]

19, am 33 now, so I like to call myself an anxiety professional

[pathfind]

25 years old.  After I got out of the army.  Then the fun began.  They only lasted a year - haven't had one in 13 years.

[leobaby]

Wow, 31?
I'm a teenager who suffers from full blown anxiety almost every day
i've had them since i was 11 or 12
everytime i have one i feel certain that i'm going to die
theyre really annoying and i wish i didnt have them :/

[Elfi]

I've only began getting full-blown attacks this week. I guess they had to start eventually. I am in hell on earth right now.

[Elfi]

Since I am not able to edit my post, I forgot to mention I am twenty-one.

[Rudyray75]

I was 43 and starting my second family when my anxiety attacks got bad!

[charlie1]

I've always been anxious and shy but self medicated with alcohol and marijuana for years which masked those symptoms until I was 30 years old. For the past 15 years I've avoided marijuana as that definitely doesn't work for me anymore. From others replies I tend to believe that I'll have these symptoms for life to varying degrees depending on what coping and distraction techniques I can develop to reduce the problem to an extent. I definitely reckon it's genetic as there's a massive pattern of neurotic and weird avoidance behaviour on both sides of my family in my opinion, yet none of them have ever been diagnosed with any neurotic illness, except me.

[shrublet]

Apparently I was six years old. There have been many, many times where I had unexplained bouts of "asthma," "croup" or "hysteria" that, looking back on it now, I can clearly identify as panic attacks. I had intermittent panic attacks throughout my childhood, but it started getting very frequent at around age 10, when my parents split up and I developed an eating disorder.

[laa43]

I was always a nervous and anxious person from early child hood  but did not have my first full blown panic attack til i was 27!

[itspaige]

17... and i'm 25 now but i haven't had them the whole time.

the only one in my family who i know has anxiety problems is my grandma. weird right? a grandma who worries...

[gloomy328]

29...I am 34 now...so 5 yrs of anxiety hell for me