To be honest, it's been an unconscious process for me and it's still continuing. About 7th grade, I started to gravitate away from the general population. I had and still maintain a select group of people who I enjoy being with for some odd reason. I've always disliked going outside, but I do attend some social functions that my friends drag me out to. Living at home with my grandparents and being underaged also forces me to go outside. If I truly where left alone by friends and family, I'd probably be full on hikikomori.

about 4-5 years, I think. There were times I enjoyed going outside and play with my friends, but somehow it ended not being appealing to me anymore.. If somebody asked me, I wouldn't even be able to say why it turned out this way
But I don't care anyways, I'm fine without all the society stuff..

Been a sunlight-fearing recluse for most of my life. Always had an ingrained fear of crowds and people, but in recent years it's gotten worse, with added fears of natural disasters and other stuff completely out of my control. Where I used to just be a shut-in often, now I just about never leave the house unless I absolutely need to leave for some thing.

I've spent most of the last 8 years indoors, but only for the most recent 4 would I say I was a recluse. The first 4 were spent inside because the place I lived in was so isolated, and backwards that I couldn't really go anywhere. The recent 4 were spent indoors, because my depression intensified and just kept getting worse and worse. This caused anxiety and other issues.

Have been introverted since I was a little kid.
Tried being 'social' never did work for me.
Past 6 years I just really gave up.
Only leave the house for work and food.

I've been introverted all my life, but I used to want to go out. I just had no one to go with. I started developing psychosis along with my depression when I was 23 and I really did quit going out except for work and grocery shopping then. I lost all the friends I did have after a suicide attempt. Symptoms have gotten worse over the years and I have no desire to leave the house, not even to work or go shopping. I have to almost be physically dragged out.

Over 3 years, more pronounced in the last two.

Long enough...
Long enough that I'm even a bit uncomfortable (or rather, just not used to it anymore) with posting around on here where there are like-minded people. .

Since I was about 14 or 15. I'm 23 now.

hikimori with first class training. Then it was a stage lightly, over the years became worse worse. Never once was 100% a social person. Hikimori very long, soon to be 17 years. I was not lucky with the environment of people in school, high school, some native. It was a beast from which it all started. It haunted me from the old and new school. People have found many like him who destroyed the chance of a lifetime.

About 5 years now, ever since I got an excuse to stay away from my parents.
They don't know. . .

I think it's been more than a year already.. or more.. I don't know.. I barely look at the calendar.. or the clock.. I pretend that the world is still.. I've actually been a recluse ever since I was kid.. I used to stay in my parents room which looked better than every other place that existed near me.. I wasn't that playful..

Trying to arrange to be full on recluse by the end of next year.
Or go live in a cave somewhere and try my hand at survival.

Ever since I dropped out of college and was diagnosed with schizophrenia I've been reclusive, I am medicated now and don't have any psychotic symptoms. It's been about 2 years of recluse more or less and I like it that way.

I picked 4 years, because since the 7th class of Gymnasium here in Germany I'm not really interested to do things outside like playing football or go to the disco or things that other people around my age do every weekend. I'm happy when I'm at home, watching anime or reading manga or just wasting time on the internet. I leave the house just when I have to go to school or sometimes also when I wanna go to the supermarket, but in general I just leave the house for school.

3 years. I rarely go out and meet anyone these days. I could, but I just don't want to. I'm not afraid of people anymore (I'm quite the opposite of who I was some ten years ago in this respect). On the contrary I find most people quite likeable on a superficial level. Nevertheless I'm very reserved and ultra-picky when it comes to selecting new friends in real life. It's nothing I'm particularly proud of, but I have to admit that I find most people incredibly boring. Furthermore, I don't like to let real life people know things about me (not even trivial things) and I don't talk much about myself. In real life I let other people do the talking, because I often get the feeling that they are not really interested in getting to know someone (including me) anyway - and I hate the games. I play my own games. For instance I usually keep my birthday a secret, because I want to be unrecognised. That's some kind of denial theme in my life, I guess. So that's probably the reason why I'm here now, to talk about what's going in my head a bit, because I wouldn't do that in real life. Most of all I'd really like to find people I can relate to. There are a few people here I already like a lot.

Not sure, maybe 3 + years... I live on my own, don't currently work. I was a carer for my mum then she died. She had agoraphobia and I to an extent do also. How's an agoraphobe supposed to work? I've lived in a flat for 13 years surrounded by people. Mostly I'll get ready to go out, then have an anxiety attack just at the very thought of people seeing me...this cycles, music keeps me (in)sane.

I've been a recluse since March 2008 at age 19 yrs. old (turning 20 on Dec.) so that's 4 years and counting being stuck in the house now age 23.

I have been pretty reclusive my whole life. I really don't remember ever going outside to play by myself, only when someone was taking me or I was invited by a friend. I have moved around a lot so the anxiousness of being the new kid in school pretty much kept me in my shell. And when my family finally settled down I would always get anxious when I would have to go back to school on Monday mornings, worrying over my friends/classmates forgetting about me during the weekend. But my actual reclusive behavior started senior year in high school, my friends chose to spend their lunch time in their auto shop classroom while I ate lunch by myself. I did not take auto shop like all my friends so maybe that was the price for my individuality. So yeah at that point I just walked straight home from school and stayed home whenever possible.

It's been two years so far. I was always indoors looking at my facebook being depressed and feeding my intense agoraphobia wishing I had a friend to go somehwere do things with.

Whoa, sounds like me.

I didn't know there's a difference between recluse and hikikomori. I guess I justed voted i the wrong thread, hehe.
However, I could say that I was a recluse since probably 4 or 5 until I dropped out of college. When I was a little kid, we had a playmate who got run over in the streets and since then my mom couldn't allow us to go far from our house, usually my brother and I stay indoors most of the time.
But now I'm already a hikikomori. Fantastic.

I think hikikomori is just the more serious version of a recluse. Unlike reclusive people hikikomori people live in their room and rarely ever leave. That's how I am. The only time I leave is to go to the bathroom, or if I have an appointment.

2, probably 2.5 years now. I've always had to stay in most of the time since my parents were paranoid before and i mean, they had every right to be, so i was more used to being around not that many people or being alone but officially speaking, i became a lot worse two years ago on my own accord. I plan on getting a job sometime in the following month(s) though, and try to get rid of these sorts of feelings that i have, asjklffgkl.