It took me a very long time to admit that my anxiety was as bad as it was. Once I did, though, and was able to get treatment for anxiety rather than all the things that it was causing (depression, odc, ed, etc) I started to see major progress.

I think what helped was deciding to trust my therapist enough that I slowly stopped hiding my extreme anxiety. For me, anxiety has always been more the physical reactions than mental, so it took a huge amount of trust to stop hiding those physical reactions. It helped that my T is super perceptive and noticed even the small signs of anxiety. When I felt I could be really honest about it, my T asked if I'd be willing to take a psychological assessment test - I did, and seeing that anxiety score sitting at the very top of the chart really finally hammered home to both of us how much I was suffering.

For me, that level of anxiety was normal! I honestly didn't know what it would feel like to not be anxious, and when I did start to see some relief, I was actually a little anxious about not being anxious. Just recently, my T commented on how much distance I have from my anxiety now, and what a huge improvement she's seen.

ETA: And, yes, I was picked on a lot as a child and am used to hiding anything that might be a weakness that could be used against me. Also, my feelings of anxiety were always dismissed (oh, everyone gets nervous, you'll be fine, etc) so I just didn't see any point in saying anything or displaying any physical symptoms...it wasn't going to do me any good anyways