The Cause of Anxiety Disorders: How They Start As a Child

Research shows that over 50% of anxiety disorders start before the age of fourteen and many people with long-term anxiety disorders, when asked what they remember most about the start of their problem, reply "being really nervous for a long time".

As you know, we don't simply wake up one day with these problems. They start off slowly and get stronger and stronger over time. Few of us, if any, had an anxiety disorder as a small child; it's usually just the opposite. Yet something happens that turns the confidence we had as children into anxiety. Something happens to us that takes away our confidence and fills us with insecurity, so much insecurity that anxiety (our self-protection system) kicks in. And it isn't a defective gene, or an imbalance of chemicals in the brain (the neurotransmitters Serotonin and Dopamine are usually the ones blamed) or that our brains are somehow different from other people.

 ... It's a whole series of experiences, learning, feelings, thoughts and behaviours that set the ball rolling towards insecurity and fear. And for most of us this all starts in late childhood and adolescence.