Anxiety about school and the future

[olivia3]

Hi all,

I'm in grade 10 so I'm being faced with all these big decisions like what I'm doing when I'm older yadayada. Every night, my thoughts snowball to the point where I'm in a ball crying with the world spinning around me. "You're going to fail one class and then you're going to be on the streets, homeless" "You don't work hard enough" and so on. I have anxiety and panic attacks very frequently and no one I know can seem to understand what is really happening.

I'm so scared that in grade 11 and 12 I'll just be having panic attacks 24/7 due to the work load and the fact that if I don't excel I'm done for. People tell me there are different pathways to careers but that is the absolute last thing I want to do.

I can't be a senior at high school if I remain like this and it scares the living day lights out of me.

[Swan_13]

Hi Olivia,

Welcome to the BB forums... there is a lot of pressure put on students to decide what they want to do when they're older so I'm sure a lot of people can relate to the anxiety you're experiencing. I'm sorry to hear that you're constantly battling with these negative thoughts at night time. When you're having those kinds of thoughts maybe you could try and ask yourself things like "what if the opposite were true?", "what if everything works out?".

You mentioned that no one you know seems to understand what's happening... have you opened up to some people in your life about this?

The workload in year 11 and 12 does seem overwhelming when you look at it as a whole and I completely understand why you're scared given the anxiety you're experiencing at the moment. I always found it helpful to try and just get through one week at a time 🙂 it is a long road, but taking things step by step and breaking it into smaller chunks makes it a little more manageable.

Hope to hear back from you 🙂

[Nervybella]

Hi Olivia

Hope you’re doing ok. I can totally empathise with you, I remember feeling that exact way when I was in high school. I graduated year 12 five years ago now

You sound like a smart person, have you got any idea what you would like to do after year 12?

I was a very good student throughout high school but didn’t do so well on my final exams, meaning my ATAR was lower than I had hoped. I still got into the uni course I wanted though so that was great. You can never really tell what score you need as it changes year by year

I started uni and then decided it wasn’t for me so deferred and got a job. I haven’t gone back to uni since. I’m still trying to work out exactly what I want to do with my life, but I have found getting out of the schooling system and getting some “real life” experiences has helped me and put things into perspective

I’m sorry I can’t give you much advice but just know that you’re now alone in feeling this way. Does your school have a careers counseller you could speak to? Do you have supportive friends and family?

feel free to reply back here if you’d like to chat some more

best

Bella