Great idea for a thread ASSASSIN. I've had and still have plenty of anxiety related issues, so if you ever need to talk to someone you can always PM me for advice or just to voice out.
When I was 11, I began having early signs of having anxiety.
It wasn't until I was 16-17 that it finally changed my life completely. I went from being an extremely confident and what I thought happy teenager in High School to seriously one day waking up and finding everything just too hard. I know reading this it sounds more like laziness, but other people with anxiety will know what I mean. It all started with a fear of needing to do 'a number 2' in a situation where it wouldn't be possible (Ie. Bus stop, on bus, in classroom etc.). It got to the point where I'd completely shut myself from the world and was doing distance education from home. In the space of a matter of months, I had gone from being an outdoor social kid to being depressed and hidden from the world due to the simple fear that I'd need to go to the toilet. I know... it sounds silly, but you'll never know the full pain I went through in my worst years.
I'm 22 now and have tried my best at changing my life. I have been working in IT fulltime for almost 3 years now, I drive, I force myself to go to social events for work etc... 3 years ago I'd never thought I'd be able to do what I do today. It took years of effort to fight my demons and today consider myself mature beyond my years due to the tough times I had. One thing I hate myself most for however was missing out on doing the stupid-fun things your supposed to do with life-long friends when you're in that 16-20 year age group.
To everyone that sees me in real life whether it be professional or personal, they'd think I'm just your normal 22 year old single guy that's easy to get a long with. However on the inside I'm fighting really hard everyday to be "normal" and keep up with others who seems to do things so seamlessly in life without a second thought.
I still have my moments just like others with anxiety will always have, however you learn to ride the wave.
Funny story is at my highest anxiety levels, it was on my way to a Bulldogs game that taught me the biggest lesson in fighting my fears. My Dad was driving myself and my brothers to a Bulldogs/Eels game I think in 2007 when we got caught up in absolute terrible traffic on the M5. Anyone that has the same sort of anxiety as myself would know this is pretty much the ultimate panic attack moment; knowing that you're stuck in terrible traffic in the middle of a freeway in a car full of people fearing any minute you're going to crap yourself. I was so close to just collapsing from such high level anxiety that I'd just said to myself "**** it! What's the worst that can happen?... So what... I shit myself". At that moment, all of a sudden my anxiety level had dropped from about 100 right down to 10 and from that day on, I always use that moment going to that Bulldogs game as my "If I could survive that, I can survive anything".
I thankfully have never had to take medication for my anxiety (They bloody hell tried their best to get me on that shit). My fear always was that it would work, however as a result I'd either become a different person or worse I'd become dependent on the stuff.