Good questions. Apparently BP is often accompanied by anxiety. For me, the anxiety showed up when I was a child...about 8 years of age. I worried about being diagnosed with a severe illness/about being kidnapped to the point of becoming physically sick . At the same time I developed moderate OCD symptoms. Early teen years were hell. During my middle teen years I was very busy and socially active and, interestingly, my anxiety lessened some. In my late teens-early 20's the anxiety seemed connected with extreme stress and that was also when the BP seemed to become really apparent.

Nowadays (I'm 51) the BP has taken on a form of mixed-state depression/agitation/anxiety/"negative" hypomania. These days the anxiety manifests as crippling fear, dread, worry. I worry obsessively about loved ones getting sick - family, friends, pets. I connect the severity of my anxiety with mid-life issues, including hormonal changes. For me, the anxiety is completely purposeless. It wants to ruin my life and I battle it constantly.