I'm new here!

[lobstereyes]

Hi everyone!

Thought I'd give this a go because I'm a bit all over the place these days, I sometimes feel like my meds are actually laughing at me.

I'm from Scotland, I started off as a backpacker until I met someone in 2015 and I've been in Melbourne ever since. I've had episodes of depression since I was 13 when I was bullied at school. I saw a psychiatrist briefly under hospital orders and refused to cooperate and let myself get help (adults were the enemy!), and I've now been on various different medications since the age of 16. That's almost 10 years! It's 2017, has no one invented a magic wand yet?!

When I first got to Australia in early 2015 I started getting this weird, annoying, scared feeling whenever I left the house or had to speak to people I had never met yet. Going to the supermarket was a nightmare, having to walk somewhere in front of traffic was a nightmare, I had no idea what it was. Then BAM my friend who also suffers from depression suggested it might (probably, definitely) be anxiety. So now I have that too. It's great. I am loving life.

I honestly can't remember the last time I woke up and felt good. My joints ache throughout the day, I have headaches, I have no patience for rude customers (I work in a bar), I hate everything, and then when I get home my partner just doesn't get it. He suffers from anxiety too, but just lacks the whole "be there" thing that I so often crave. So I guess I'm here to get virtual hugs and reassurance that I'm not alone.

I would also mostly like to help other people, I think that's probably what I'm supposed to do. Yknow how we're all meant to have a "thing" in life? I'm now in my mid-twenties and don't have a career or "thing" so I think that's probably it. I'd like to study again and get some qualifications in counselling so that I can help kids going through the same shit I did, and young adults who haven't found their path in life yet while juggling mental illnesses. I'm rambling.

TL;DR I'm Laura, I'm here to offer help and advice and also use your help and advice when I'm having a dark period.

[kanga_brumby]

Lobstereyes welcome to BB forums you have come to a safe place. I have worked in hospitality myself, as a kitchen hand. The place I worked sometimes needed the kitchen hands to clear and set tables. Plus assist the host with meet and greet the customers. If it was one thing I hated most was the rude ones, but as we were taught the customer was always right. When they were wrong we just shut up, boy I could some of them a damage. (Never did.) If you need support a pat on the back, virtual hugs are free around here. Advice from all types is free some of it is good, some not, use it or don't we try to help.

Kanga