How quick can GERD manifest?

Hi, new to the forum here. I was diagnosed with GERD about 3 months ago. It has been a little rough. I am a 40 year old male, not overweight, exercise regularly, and live and eat healthy. I had an endoscopy 6 weeks ago. Result was irritation in the stomach and lower esophagus. I have been trying to control it with diet and some herbal remedies. I have tried Prilosec and Pepcid, both of them I can't take. They both interacted with the Dilantin( seizure 20 years ago) medication I take.


My diet is quite spartan, but I can handle it fine since I had already quit eating junk food and most processed food years ago. Things I can't touch are Coffee, tea, alcohol, any tomato products, any dairy product, anything high in fat, anything greasy, anything fried. I also have to watch the amount of food I eat at one sitting. I eat 6-8 small meals a day now.


The most troubling aspect would probably be the anxiety. I never had anxiety issues before( this is coming from some one that went through NHL cancer and a month stay in the hospital with 5 DVT's in his leg). The anxiety at times in the beginning was debilitating, I am coping better now.


Now to my question How quick can GERD manifest in an individual. I'm not talking about each episode, I am referring to the first incident. I went from being fine one weekend, to the ER the next. I had no clue what was going on. This wasn't heartburn. this was constant burping, pain in pectoral muscles, and an overwhelming feeling of dread. I had ate similar things on weekend before and the weekend that it started. I just can't understand how I went from totally fine , to a total wreck in one week. It has been the same since. is this unusual to others experiences? Thank you.

I woke up one morning in December and had terrible post-nasal drip. I kept clearing my throat and had trouble swallowing. I was barely eating soup and a few crackers the whole day. My GP thought I had a sinus infection and gave me an antibiotic. When it didn't clear up, I went to an ENT who diagnosed my acid reflux and then onto a GI who diagnosed GERD.

So in answer to your question, yes. I woke up one day and just had it. All the hospital techs running the tests found it hard to believe I never had any symptoms of heartburn, but I never once had heartburn my entire life.

I had a propension to have gerd since my divorce a 5 years ago but never been bothered so much
After I moved to the two years ago and started to have regrets, my gerd went to the roof
The stress and emotional negative feelings make surely more than 50% of it but somwhere I must have a weakness in the stomach and the sphincter so it is not only stress