Have you always been a 'natural worrier'

[ZMan]

Way before I'd even heard of anxiety or had attacks or the like I can always remember myself being a natural worrier, a person who worrys about anything and everything... is anyone else the same ?

[debs71]

OMG YES!! I'm a giant worrier and always have been.

I've always wished I could be one of those people who don't dwell on things and over-analyse everything looking for potential problems.

I think you are totally right about there being some relation to anxiety ZMan.

[DavidJ85]

Nope I was quite grounded, never really overly worried about anything. Hence I hate it so much now.

[sammi]

Yes me always worried about everything not as bad as I do now tho x

[Gemini74]

Yep, I was always a worrier too! I've got better as I've got older, because I can often recognise when I'm worrying unnecessarily about something (e.g. a work problem) and talk myself down from it.

The anxiety is a whole other kettle of fish though. That comes on even when there's nothing I'm aware of worrying about so it's harder to reason with!

[skin]

I was a worrier since I was a kid. There's a cute story that my mom tells everybody she talks to about me... I was 5 y/o and out with my mom & 8 y/o sister at a playground... My sister was playing, hanging upside down, swinging like a crazy monkey and my mom asked me why I'm not doing that... And I answered her that "I'm not scared, I'm only being precautious" (that's a big word for a 5 y/o :D.

Even in my teen years I've been a worrier. Ofc, I didn't worry about my health or thought about the meaning of life, but for example, even then I couldn't eat anything if I did something bad at school/highschool, until I solved the problem.

If I think about myself 7-8 years ago I could say I didn't care about anything... But that was just a "shield" or someone who I wanted others to see in me.

After reading about anxiety&panic, I really think that there are people prone to developing them, given the right (or wrong) opportunities.

[StoneMonkey]

Hey Zman,
I was/am trying not to be a natural worrier.
I have also mellowed somewhat with age. I wouldn't have known at the time but think it was part of not being able to switch the mind off. (Over thinking/planning).
If something bad or scary was going on I would worry but even when good things were going on i would be over thinking them. All really part of what is quite hard to do. Being in the moment.

I think i too had a predisposition to develop an anxiety disorder but wouldn't have had the knowledge to see it coming.
Interestingly like skin said late teens early 20's i had developed such a front that i looked like i didn't give a monkies about anything. This probably was something i developed to protect myself.
Simon.

[MidnightCalm]

Always, every day of my life, never got that many bad symptoms though apart form shakes or upset stomach, I guess years of it left me with the rough end of the stick!
I'm 21 and I got bullied all the way through school up until around year 10 when I'd had enough, but all those years obviously had a bad effect on me, I was always anxious and worried about going to school and even leaving the house.
In year 10 I flipped and became the opposite, I became a horrible person and that lasted until I was 19, I may have been angry and people may have avoided confrontation with me and I wasn't easily bullied any more but the internal anxiety was still there, getting myself into stupid situations that just fuelled more anxiety, fighting and running away from home, living in horrible places with horrible people.

[jada]

Yep. Ever since nearly choking on a tomato skin during school dinner in the infants! :scared15:

[ZMan]

In my opinion there is definitely a link between that and my anxiety. I'm still quite young at 19 but I've always worried and analysed and thought of the worst possible scenario's to everything, sometimes some such scenario's were highly highly unlikely if not impossible but I could still think of them.

It's something I definitely need to learn how to control but I have no idea how to or where to start?

[paulst]

I think I have always been a worrier, I always seem to have something to worry about, just wish it didnt happen so often:mad:

[b0]

Not only have I always worried, I feel guilty about things that don't even involve me. If I see a news story about some sort of animal abuse, I feel guilty that I couldn't be there to stop it from happening.