Average age on here?

[Hypomania]

34. Had some form of anxiety ever since I was a kid, but it started to really manifest as HA predominantly in my teens. That said, I've had severe HA episodes far more frequently as I've gotten older, unfortunately.

[bingjam]

29 here ( 30 this year) had anxiety in all forms since I was a young teenager.... can happily say I have been health anxiety clean for approx 6 month.... my new motto was lifes to short to worry about things I cant possibly change, so why spend my 1 life full of worry... don't know how but it worked, and finally feel like I can actually live my life!

[Limeslime]

I’m 36.
In the past I had anxiety about natural disasters. Then i started suffering panic attacks when I was a student nurse.
I learned to control them, and found some peace for a few years.
Then I had a baby, left my nursing career, my mother-in-law died from cancer and BAM, Health Anxiety hit me hard! Really hard!
It’s been 2 years now....

[Scaredtoo]

I’m 45 and have had it since I was 5. I can remember being 5 and running to my mom in the middle of the night because I was afraid I’d stop breathing. For me, I believe it started as I was horribly abused by my father as a child for many years. Then as a teenager my mom was dx with breast cancer and lived 18 years. She died when I was 34, 24 days before my 6th child was born. After my mom died I just lost myself. I’m in therapy and on meds and still have episodes regularly.

[bin tenn]

32 here, anxiety as I know it now began around 16 or 17. But like others here, I now recognize that I exhibited signs of anxiety much earlier. I'd sometimes lie awake late at night afraid that I was close to death, or trying to figure out how many years my parents had left. I also used to watch the Tom Green show on MTV, and in 2000 (when I was 13) he announced he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer, and I was quite sure I'd get it.

These days I still experience some mild to moderate general anxiety, but only miniscule health anxiety. I can deal with that, general anxiety - for me - is very tolerable and doesn't bother me. I sometimes have intrusive thoughts about death, but I no longer self check, poke, prod, convince myself I have X or Y disease, etc. If I have a legitimate concern I talk to my doc about it when I have a routine appointment, and I'm fine if she says all is well.

[Adam1987]

32 here, seems to be a common age, I had what I now know was anxiety as a kid and it developed in to health anxiety around 10 years ago. At first I thought this was because my Dad died which obviously had an effect but looking back now I think this was around the time I had more access to Google etc so might have been the 2. HA has been through the roof past 6 months, might have coincided with having children in last couple of years. There are recurring themes with others I've noticed.

[Pkstracy]

46 got it when I had my first panic attack 8 years ago and after I started googling.

[WiseMonkey]

I'm 63 and have had HA since I was a young teenager. I don't have it all the time, it comes and goes in flares and is affected by my physical health.

I grew up the eldest child in a very dysfunctional family. My mother had NPD , she used to say she was dying of all sorts of cancers to get our attention but she wasn't ill. I was a very anxious, fearful child with low confidence, there was lots of drama and stress in our home.

Sometime in my early 30's I was diagnosed with CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) and was quite unwell for several months. CFS brings it's own chronic symptoms, which have increased with age. Some of the symptoms can mimic more serious conditions, so I sometimes have to get tests to rule things out.

I'm learning not to worry so much when I feel unwell and when my bloods aren't always normal as it's usually just my autoimmune stuff

[KaylaHowe]

I am 27 and have had if for as long as I can remember!
I remember waking up in the night as a small child with a numb arm and freaking out that it was a blood clot. I ran to my mum holding my arm tight so the clot wouldn't move to my heart.

I also used to see things of tv like a story about someone with meningococcal and i use to have panic attacks over it at primary school.

We also had a paramedic come to my class when i was in grade 2 and i had to sit in another room because I was to scared to hear anything health related.

As a child I use to think I couldn't wait to grow up so i wouldn't have to worry about any child illnesses anymore. As I grew up I realised adult concerns were worse!

[carriewriting]

I'm 48 and have had health anxiety for about 15 years. I fear being a burden on my kids or leaving them behind. Ironically I've lost so much time obsessing about my health that I could have better spent with them! Also my therapist recently asked me how many of my health fears had come true in the past 15 years and I was genuinely surprised to realise it was zero. Peri/menopause has made my anxiety in general a thousand times worse this past year.