Anxiety Through the Years
How Anxiety Evolves Through Your Life (Because Apparently She Likes to Grow With Us)
If you’ve had anxiety since childhood, you already know one thing: she does not stay the same. Anxiety evolves. She reinvents herself. Here’s how she might show up in every stage of your life:
Stage 1: Baby Anxiety — The Separation Anxiety Era
Picture tiny you, clutching your mom’s leg like it’s a life raft. She tries to leave the room for 30 seconds? Instant meltdown. Immediate emotional crisis. Separation anxiety is anxiety in her baby form. She’s dramatic, loud, and genuinely believes being left at daycare is the end. Classic lines from baby-you include:
· “If my mom leaves, I might spontaneously combust.”
· “Daycare is betrayal.”
· “Sleepovers? Absolutely not, thanks.”
You were basically born with a built-in threat detector. Honestly? Kind of impressive.
Stage 2: Tween/Teen Anxiety — The Overthinking Olympics
Then puberty hits and everything becomes a problem. Suddenly every move you make feels like it’s being recorded for future humiliation. Your anxiety levels? Elite gymnast. Competitive. Acrobatic. Teen anxiety says things like:
· “Everyone is staring at me.”
· “If I answer this question wrong, I have to move to another country.”
· “My crush made eye contact. I am now deceased.”
This era is chaotic and unhinged, but also where you first learn: Oh. My brain does… this.
Stage 3: Early Twenties — When Anxiety Gets a Job and a Personality
Welcome to the stage where you’re technically an adult but also googling “how to boil an egg.” Your early twenties are full of new responsibilities that anxiety eats for breakfast:
· Paying rent
· Job interviews
· Feeling behind for absolutely no reason
· Socializing when you’d rather just not
This is when anxiety gets creative:
Generalized Anxiety: You can now worry about anything at any time. Vibes. Texts. Emails. Weather. The economy. Why your stomach hurts. The fact your stomach always hurts.
Social Anxiety: You RSVP “yes” to an event and instantly regret it. Classic.
Career Anxiety: Staring at LinkedIn like it holds the answers to life.
Your anxiety did not come to play. She’s building a portfolio.
Stage 4: Mid-to-Late Twenties — Anxiety Learns New Tricks
This is where your anxiety becomes… more patterned. More situational. Less “WHAT IS HAPPENING” and more “Oh yeah, this tracks.” This era looks like:
· Recognizing your triggers before they blow up
· Feeling anxious around adult stuff (leases, relationships, job changes)
· Having moments of, “Okay… am I spiraling or is this actually a problem?”
· Becoming oddly self-aware
· Catching emotional waves early instead of being swept away
Your anxiety hasn’t vanished — but you’ve learned how to read her. She’s less of a haunted house jump scare and more of a roommate who knocks before entering. Progress!
Stage 5: The Awareness Era — You Start Seeing the Pattern
This stage has nothing to do with being older — it’s about being wiser. It’s when you finally realize:
· Anxiety didn’t stay in childhood.
· It didn’t stay in high school.
· It didn’t stay in early adulthood.
It shifts as you shift and you’ve gained enough insight to start calling her out. This is when you find yourself doing things like:
· Labeling your spirals
· Understanding your stressors
· Actually listening to your body (sometimes)
· Building coping tools
· Knowing what makes things better… and what makes them worse
It’s the stage where you stop thinking anxiety is some separate monster and start seeing it as a part of your wiring — one you can manage with awareness, humor, boundaries, iced coffee, and group chat support.
Final Thoughts
Your anxiety has grown with you: from daycare tears → to high school panic → to work emails → to “am I spiraling or just hungry?”
But the biggest plot twist? You’ve grown too. You’ve gotten more thoughtful, more self-aware, more emotionally fluent — even if it doesn’t always feel like it.
Anxiety may evolve, but so do you. And honestly? You’re doing way better than past-you ever imagined.
Journal Prompt
What is the earliest version of my anxiety that I can remember? How did it show up back then?
Which version of my anxiety is the loudest today — and why might that be?
6. If I could tell my younger self something about anxiety, what would it be?