Average Age Here

[Leorah]

I just turned 57, and yah, I'm one of the smallest percentage of old (relatively speaking) folk here.

My depression began at puberty, and I'd guess that's also when my anxiety began too.  It wasn't until I was about 32 that I had a kind of cumulative episode of anxiety gathering into a force and catching up with me for intense and unbearable moments, or then even days.  This was when I saw a general practitioner MD, and he prescribed and I began taking xanax, which was an immediate lifesaver and allowed me to go on.  I was still not willing to take an antidepressant, but the xanax worked so quickly and resolved my anxiety pretty completely.  It wasn't until I was 37 that I was willing to begin taking an antidepressant, which helped both my depression and anxiety once I found the right ones that worked for me.  Lexapro, and now cymbalta for it's help with my fibromyalgia, along with wellbutrin are the antidepressants I've found most helpful.

After a career as a librarian and archivist, and then as a college English instructor, I contracted lyme disease w/out it being detected for 1 1/2 yrs.  During that time it did a real number on me,  causing serious arthritis and leading to other permanent rheumatological conditions.  Even after a three-month treatment period of IV antibiotics, my symptoms have never seemed to subside.  I soon contracted fibromyalgia, though was able to continue to teach, with an understanding Dean, until I was finally diagnosed with lupus a few years ago. 

A lot of my physical illness has increasingly involved staying at home more than ever, and even in bed a lot, with chronic pain and some difficulty being mobile and doing all the backpacking/outdoors and politically activist things I used to.  This meant a lot of time being alone, when all my life I'd had many friends to do things with before.  Eventually, living so much like a hermit actually made it very difficult to be among groups of people I didn't know, which is now what I call my social phobia.  More recently, due to a immunelogical skin condition on my scalp that's caused me to lose most of my hair, and a newly crippling intensity of arthritis in one knee, I've found it not only self-conscisious-making and physically difficult, but scary at various levels to go out -- leave my apartment -- which is what I now call my agoraphobia, which has come and gone before, but has been pretty serious for the past year. 

I still have GAD, but at a much lower level since I don't usually face so many challenges if I stay home.  And I do have panic / anxiety "attacks" which I've been taking xanax all this time for, and which still works very well, though I take much less than ever and mostly take a low dose of to help me fall asleep.  This means I've been taking xanax for 25 years, and though I do of course have a dependency on it, it's not the same as having an addiction, and I don't have to increase my dosage at all.  I'll probably have to start taking my previously regular dosage of xanax, I'm sure, when  I begin taking on the challenge to go out more, be more mobile,  and be among people again, which I'm determined to do in the near future.  Yoga and exercise and mindfulness meditation all help me enormously these days. 

[cwilliams]

im 20, been having an anxiety problem for a while now 

[dan1006]

I am 28 years old and my fear of what comes after death started when I was 4  year old. It was a traumatic time for me between 4 and probably 10, it then disappeared for a while. Just in the last 4 years it has come back with a vengeance. I seem to spend more of my life worrying about me or people I love passing then actually enjoying my life. Last week a good friend of mine passed away in a car accident and this anxiety is on full force. It is actually causing physical pain now. I just learned today that this is an actual phobia and that there may be a way to over come it. I need to do something soon because I have a 4 year old and I do not want my fears to rub off on him. I just dint know what to do or where to start, so I figured a forum would be a starting point.

[jonnymorley]

lol, poll fail, im 21 so dont fit into any categories

[cbstephen]

I am 43 and i have only just experienced anxiety since last month but have been hit with it many times already.

[sparklet2379]

24, it's worse now than it ever was.

[twinkletoes]

eek jonny not good  ive just made it, im 20, 21 in september and dreading it 
my anxiety came 6 months after the start of my "physical" problems... a lot of people seem to forget that and tell me that the anxiety is what made me ill... because they know best  that was a pathetic rant, i must be in a good mood 

[rwhartist]

62 ....in a few months 63....so few Boomers with anxiety disorders? Mine began when I was 19....right in the middle of the Lincoln Tunnel, stalled traffic on a hot June day around noon. No wonder I hate the heat <G>..worse  yet, I was with my future bride and we were go to her parents for dinner that evening (first time I was to meet her family....boy, some people will do anthing to avoid future inlaws

Rich

[mskimjones07]

I'am 38 years old  . Mine begun 3 weeks ago.

[tara1133]

i am 27 and have had anxiety since I was 16 Hello everyone

[Lanie]

24 - I've been having anxiety and depression issues since I was 14 or 15, getting worse in my late teens/early twenties.

Been handling my issues well for the past year though...or at least, as well as I ever have lol

[Rginsa]

Hello, Im 32, male, living in South Africa. My first post.

[anxious song_m]

27,  i got some paranoia and some panic attacks.  fun times. 

[faith2]

Im 31 but i was diagnosed with GAD ten years ago.  It hasn't gotten any better the older ive gotten.  It makes you feel helpless and lost.

[s.porteous]

Im not Under 21. I am 21, not 22+. Youre poll will return inaccurate results.

[ravensong]

I'm 46 but I feel like I'm 90 sometimes when the fibro pain and depression get me down .
Be Blessed Ravensong

[riddiminblooz]

I am 53. 

I am fast approaching my sixth year of treatment with psychiatric drugs and therapy.  I went 'undiagnosed' (ignored) for over 40 years until I went to find out why I always felt different from everybody else, why my mood would change and I would not know why, why I had a 100% failure record of intimate relationships, etc.

[Anxietyspetproject]

I'm 29... 30 later this month. Always had a couple anxiety issues but nothing like I have now. I noticed some of the older posters said they think some of their anxiety is from hormones... when all this started for me I started taking hormones for "female Issues" and I also quit smoking... I think I really messed up my body chemistry.

[2panic2much]

I'm 15

  Just wanted to say to whoever posted this that I love it and Thanks!

[dkw]

I am 46 and my problems have actually been getting worse as I get older, not better, though I have always had problems. I was actually wondering if that was anyone else's experience.

[christina10778]

I'm 31 :) Have been suffering from mild anxiety off and on since I was a kid but it blew up out of control and turned severe when I was about 24. I think it had to do with me holding in a whole lot of stress for so many years......it had to come out sometime, somehow.

[stressedgal25]

I'm 25, my friend is 25 also and she suffers too.

[SM15]

Yep, i'm 16. Fun stuff having anxiety young, of course it stinks but at some points, while other times I do make it worth my while. :]

[novemberrain103]

My anxiety started as attacks here and there but I am in an unhappy marriage and am sure that contributes to alot of it.

[itsgot2bme]

I've been dealing with some form of depression and anxiety since I was about 13, but now I'm really starting to deal with the root causes. Only took 9 years...