Little is known about the prevalence of having been bullied in adults with versus adults without an anxiety disorder, so a pilot comparison was undertaken. A questionnaire on recall of having been bullied was completed by 81 attenders of a behavioural psychotherapy unit for anxiety disorders and by 81 attenders of a dental clinic who had no psychiatric problems but who were similar to the anxiety disorder group in gender, marital and employment characteristics. Recall of being bullied was significantly more common in the anxiety disorder referrals than in the dental patients. Results warrant testing of whether being bullied as a child increases the likelihood of developing an anxiety disorder in later life, controlling for demographic, personality and ethnic variables.