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Sophie_M How are you feeling about the social media restrictions in Australia for under 16s?
  • replies: 14

Hey everyone With the upcoming Australian social media restriction for under 16-year-olds coming up we want to know what this means for you and maybe even the young people in your life. This conversation is a place for all of us to share how we are f... View more

Hey everyone With the upcoming Australian social media restriction for under 16-year-olds coming up we want to know what this means for you and maybe even the young people in your life. This conversation is a place for all of us to share how we are feeling and what we think the challenges and benefits might be for you or the wonderful young people in our community. Have you thought about how to stay connected with friends you’ve met online? Are you focused mostly on the positives, or the negatives? What do your parents think, and what could they do to support you? Importantly the Beyond Blue Forums are not impacted by these restrictions, we're here for anyone under 16. In short, from December 10 Social Media companies will need to ensure that only people over 16 actively engage with their platforms. There is a lot of information out there which can make it tricky to know what to expect on when it comes into effect. To learn more we think these are a helpful place to start eSafety commissioner + Headspace FAQs. We know this change will impact some more than others, QLife provide anonymous and free LGBTIQ+ support and 13YARN are here for all Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people. We want to hear your thoughts on how this might impact the mental health of under 16s in both a positive and negative way. The Beyond Blue Forums are a place for constructive and helpful conversation and the regular moderation rules apply which means we look forward to a kind and understanding discussion. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings Sophie M

BeyondBlue New to this Forum? Please read this first!
  • replies: 0

Hey there! Welcome to the Young People section of the Beyond Blue Forums. The purpose of this section is to provide members aged 25 and under a space to discuss life issues, tricky situations and the difficult emotions and feelings that come with tho... View more

Hey there! Welcome to the Young People section of the Beyond Blue Forums. The purpose of this section is to provide members aged 25 and under a space to discuss life issues, tricky situations and the difficult emotions and feelings that come with those. If you are aged over 25, please be mindful that this is a space for younger people to connect and provide support for each other. These forums are moderated, so your posts may not appear straight away. Information on moderation on the Forums can be found here. Being familiar with our Community Guidelines can help ensure that your posts appear online as quickly as possible. If we have concerns about your wellbeing, one of our friendly moderators will check in with you privately to make sure you get the support you need. If you need more immediate support, we recommend reaching out to the following: Beyond Blue Support Service – any time, chat online to a counsellor or call 1300 22 4636 Headspace – between 9am and 1am (AEST), chat online to a mental health clinician or call 1800 650 890 Kids Helpline – any time, chat online to a counsellor or call 1800 55 1800 Thank you for being here. We’re glad you’ve found us here and hope this can be a supportive space for you Beyond Blue

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anon2005 Nothing is helping
  • replies: 1

Hi, I'm 14 and I think I might have depression, but my psychologist, who is good in all other ways, refuses to use the 'd-word' and instead refers to it as a 'mood thing', which isn't helping at all. I don't want to kill myself or wish myself dead, b... View more

Hi, I'm 14 and I think I might have depression, but my psychologist, who is good in all other ways, refuses to use the 'd-word' and instead refers to it as a 'mood thing', which isn't helping at all. I don't want to kill myself or wish myself dead, but I quite often wish that I just didn't exist. I've lost interest in most things that I used to enjoy, and the feeling of everyone hating me has come true because someone who was supposed to be my best friend accused me of something I didn't even do and talked to all my other friends about it, so they are all ignoring me and giving me the cold shoulder. Because of this, I've lashed out and just made the situation worse. I don't know what to do can someone please help?

Kiki207 Feelin like a fako | Why am I so caught up in my own worthless issues?
  • replies: 13

I feel like a fako attention seeker... Hey everyone, im Kiki and im 12 yo. I feel like a fako because my little tiny first world issues look dumb next to real depression. Im probably just a lonely drama queen in need of sympathy. I go to a friend for... View more

I feel like a fako attention seeker... Hey everyone, im Kiki and im 12 yo. I feel like a fako because my little tiny first world issues look dumb next to real depression. Im probably just a lonely drama queen in need of sympathy. I go to a friend for help and shes all sympathetic and says stuff like 'feeling for you' or 'omg poor you'. After she says stuff like that I feel... comforted. Like i got what i wanted. Thats what my inner voice says anyways. I post one of my small issues like "Are my friends jealous of me?!?!?!" Then i read posts about people who have actually hit rock bottom and have it way worse than me. I feel stupid. Am i just looking for attention or am i really depressed? I feel empty, like Im lying to everyone about who i am. I dont feel anything, just emptiness. I feel like im just sorry for myself. Some days im happy and perfectly fine, but the next i hate everything in the mirror and every little thing i do. Im in a love hate relationship with the mirror, and i dont know how to make it better. Youre probably wasting your time if youve read up to here. But thank you, really. If you have time, replies would be very much appreciated. xox Kiki

Sunny9804 I can't make friends, what's wrong with me?
  • replies: 9

I don't really know what to do anymore. i used to have a lot of friends in highschool, a massive group of girl and guy friends, it was great, I was out every weekend and always doing stuff. Then one day it just changed, I started to get picked on, la... View more

I don't really know what to do anymore. i used to have a lot of friends in highschool, a massive group of girl and guy friends, it was great, I was out every weekend and always doing stuff. Then one day it just changed, I started to get picked on, laughed at and left out. Fast forward 3 years and I don't have any friends. I've tried so hard but people just don't like me or don't include me. I've tried traveling on my own, joining sport teams, joined uni clubs and groups and gone on camps. I meet a lot of people, but no that wants to stick around. People don't like me. My parents have always brushed it off as a 'phase' or 'jealousy' but Im so tired of crying, and feeling alone and always wondering what's wrong with me. Why can't i make friends? I'm nice, I've always gone out of my way for people. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I don't want to feel so alone anymore, I hate it.

IndigoMultiversity Life is really hard sometimes.
  • replies: 1

It's been a while since I last posted. By nature, I find it hard to share my feelings and thoughts outside of counselling. I'm honestly feeling that I've made some big mistakes in the past. I've just finished my Uni degree recently and I've been look... View more

It's been a while since I last posted. By nature, I find it hard to share my feelings and thoughts outside of counselling. I'm honestly feeling that I've made some big mistakes in the past. I've just finished my Uni degree recently and I've been looking for any work. Nothing at all is happening, in 8 months, I've had two interviews and countless rejections. I should have gotten even part time work while I was studying. Now I'm over qualified for simple stuff and I don't have enough experience for my degree field of work. I want to be able to provide more income at home so that we won't be so broke all the time. I feel like I can't do anything right at the moment. I'm feeling like I've screwed up. I want to feel like I'm doing something that matters too. The worst part is, I am now realising that all the hard work I'm putting in means nothing. Because no matter how hard I'm trying, it's not going to get me anywhere because no-one realises or notices. Gonna have to keep trying and hope I get lucky. Maybe. Someday. I just wanted to vent a bit. Things just suck.

continuousventer I feel sad and it seems like there's no way out
  • replies: 7

Hi all I'm supposed to go to sleep soon, but I feel sad. I have been feeling sad almost everyday now. I see a psychologist though but, I don't really have anyone to talk to when things get tough. I grew up really poor and I have been living in a dysf... View more

Hi all I'm supposed to go to sleep soon, but I feel sad. I have been feeling sad almost everyday now. I see a psychologist though but, I don't really have anyone to talk to when things get tough. I grew up really poor and I have been living in a dysfunctional home for all of my life. I study full time at uni and I can't afford to move out. My mum calls me a demon and makes me feel terrible about myself. My mum is never there for me and watches the tv. She never lifts me up, she tells all of her friends and relatives that I'm weak and she tells me that I am weak and that I can't do her job. My psychologist made me realise that I have been abused for all of my life. But I am just so confused because everyone always pushes me to my mum. And my view of the world is complex, I don't have anyone but myself. Since my mum and dad spilt, my mum tells me she doesn't make enough money to support me so I get money from the government to survive. It's tough. I currently do occupational therapy and it has made me realise how wrong I am for OT. I've had sleepless nights. When I study, I need a blanket wrapped around me. I feel like I am not smart enough. I don't even have my car license because when I first started driving, I drove with my mum and I got into a car accident. Feels like other people come from good families and have enough money to survive. I have this pressure to be at uni or to have a job because I know in 5 or 10 years time, my mum will probably no longer work and I might not have a roof or even food to eat. My mum makes me so ill. I used to see mental health services, but it always seemed like I was the problem. When I had my mental breakdown and got a manic episode, she made me seem like I was the problem. I was the problematic daughter. But she never let me into her life. Whenever I said that I was tired or sad, she would say "you think you're the only one who's sad" I am getting really sick. I can feel it because I cannot seem to accept the people in my life who care for me. I am worried about them leaving me when they graduate from uni and I am still poor. I feel like people use that victim mentality against you. I also feel like people use things against me a lot. Feels like I have to be normal, but I am dying on the inside.

Sky_Smith stress and choosing between two things that are really important to me
  • replies: 2

so basically i'm a very spiritual person who has this one religious teacher who is coming to Australia next year. this is quite rare and only happens every 2-3 years. they're staying for 4 weeks in town but there are two problems: - the time i want t... View more

so basically i'm a very spiritual person who has this one religious teacher who is coming to Australia next year. this is quite rare and only happens every 2-3 years. they're staying for 4 weeks in town but there are two problems: - the time i want to go is overlapping by a week with schooltime (during the last week of school) and my family thinks i won't be able to handle it because i'd get too stressed, etc. - on the 2-week holidays the day after I'd come back from these teachings, we're going to Japan to see my grandparents but i'm worried it's going to be way too much for me to handle. mainly because my dad doesn't want to take off a day from our holiday for me to re-pack and recuperate once i come back. so i suggested doing it the holidays after that, except he thinks my grandparents are getting 'old,' which is a politically correct term for 'really unhealthy and frail,' and he doesn't want to risk it. of course i don't either and this adds an entirely new level of stress and pain to my situation. i'm so sad because i know they probably don't have a long time left, so i should visit them ASAP, except how am i when i need to go to these teachings, but don't even have a day to repack and everything? i hate travelling and it's going to be awful for me if i have to come back from a flight one day, then leave on another in the next, without having any time to pack or do anything. i know that sounds like a weak reason for getting so stressed out but honestly i hate, hate planes and flying. absolutely can't stand it. it's a 9-hour flight to Japan and that in itself is really hard for me. when i fly i always have to take heavy medication to calm me down. so yes, it's going to be almost impossible for me, let alone the fact that i would have just finished doing truckloads of schoolwork. and that's the other thing. my school is Christian. i'm Buddhist. if i take a week off school for religious reasons, they probably won't give me an extension. no, i'm SURE they won't give me an extension because it's a private school and they don't allow these things. i've heard that once my friend took a week off school for a holiday and the school gave them so much crap for it. it's so hard for me because i know this religious teacher is also quite old and who knows, he may never come back to Australia before he dies. i have no idea. so basically i'm choosing between two sets of people that i both love so much. freaking out over here.

Last_Yazi Me and my problems
  • replies: 2

Hi. I am just a kid and I know this is an adult website but I don't care. Please help me none of my friends like me. I just saw one of them who shall not named to protect thier privacy (even they wouldnt for me) and he told me to shut up because he w... View more

Hi. I am just a kid and I know this is an adult website but I don't care. Please help me none of my friends like me. I just saw one of them who shall not named to protect thier privacy (even they wouldnt for me) and he told me to shut up because he was watching youtube. I am ten years old, have a super high I Q rating and am in the gifted and talented program at my school. Another is really fickle. One minute shes giving you money to buy cookies from the canteen the next all she does is step on my feet and complain about my tie. its part of the uniform at my school and she was wearing one just like mine! Please tell me how to make new friends and how to get rid of my old ones. The only friend who has stayed true to me is one who isnt currently at my school yet (he will be in two years). We're practicly brothers. Yes please exuse some of my spelling typing and holding back tears is hard. Should I bring this up with my BFF/Brother from another mother? Uncertainty is a big part of it too. I just don't know what to do.

Cecece I feel like I’ve hit rock bottom but I’ve only got myself to blame
  • replies: 1

I’ve never had a place where I could talk completely openly and anonymously. I’m scared even now that people will work out who I am, I don’t open up to people usually and I like to keep my problems my problems. I don’t even talk about half of these t... View more

I’ve never had a place where I could talk completely openly and anonymously. I’m scared even now that people will work out who I am, I don’t open up to people usually and I like to keep my problems my problems. I don’t even talk about half of these things with my partner. I have tried but I don’t think he really understands as he is from what I would call a perfect childhood and family. To be brief my early days growing up my dad was abusive and in and out of jail and my mum spent a lot of time in hospital with severe PTSD. We spent a lot of my childhood running from one womens asylum to another running away. I then (with my little brother) spent a lot of my childhood and teenage hood in and out of child and family services when dad decided he wanted to until he would go back to jail. Me and my little brother had severe separation anxiety when we were young as a result. Mum never really worked or couldn’t hold a job because of her PTSD so growing up we lived well below the poverty line. We relied on the Salvos to bring us food a lot of the time. Fast forward to early teenage hood and I was one of 2 girls chosen each year to attend a private girls school free of charge due to family circumstances. This was both a blessing and a curse. It was hard to fit in and I learnt there to pretend I was someone I was not. I saw the lives they lived and the families they came from and became so envious. I also however developed and was diagnosed with Trichotilimania, depression, anxiety disorder and Hyper Vigilance during this time. As soon as I started working at age 14 and 9 months I had to help support my family and with whatever money I had left I would spend on clothes and anything that could make me fit in. This is where my money problems began. I never saved. All I wanted to do was fit in with everyone else. My mum didn’t even have a car so I disassociated myself with her and created myself a new identity with my friends and anyone I met. Fast forward to today and I have put myself in so much debt. I don’t know how to overcome it. Sometimes I wonder why my boyfriend even loves me, he could do so much better. Im holding him back. He is perfect with money has had 3 houses by age 27 (he is older). I don’t know how to get myself out of it but most of all treat my spending addiction. I don’t ever talk about this out of fear of judgement. I recently got prescribed a benzodiazepine because my breathing is so out of control from anxiety due to this. I don’t know what to do.

DearDerek Everything Angers Me
  • replies: 3

Not to sound like your typical angsty, testosterone-filled ball of suppressed teenage emotion, but everything angers me. I didn't think it'd be appropriate for me to add onto a different forum and I'm hoping that this forum gives me as much insight o... View more

Not to sound like your typical angsty, testosterone-filled ball of suppressed teenage emotion, but everything angers me. I didn't think it'd be appropriate for me to add onto a different forum and I'm hoping that this forum gives me as much insight on why I'm angry. I understand that my thought processes are a bit off thanks to my underdeveloped frontal lobe but I'm being 100% honest. Somehow, it was so easy for me to change from this person so crippled by despair that daily necessities became null into a person debilitated by anger. Anything can, and probably will piss me off. Something as small as 2 minutes of my time wasted feels like the biggest inconvenience of my life. Anyone slightly attacking me or disagreeing with me does peeve me, but nowadays I get more and more annoyed for the smallest reasons. For example, anyone touchy with me or more comfortable with me than they should make me angry. Now my thought process is, (and as irrational as it may sound), "they're comfortable with me but I'm not comfortable with them, who gave them the right?" So usually I tell the person off. "Don't touch me please." And they still continue to do it, everyone in my friend group says stuff like "They're just a touchy person." And it makes me feel like I'm in the wrong when clearly he's just not respecting my boundaries. That was just one of many examples that I do not feel are relevant telling, all I know is that I reach a boiling point of anger daily and I don't know how to release any of it. There is no underlying stress (other than the fact that I have homework to catch up on, which doesn't stress me a lot of the time), so I don't know what's wrong with me. I want to go to a therapist about this but I'm not familiar or comfortable with the whole opening up thing. As far as I know, my family doesn't know much about me, only the surface stuff like "he's sarcastic all the time," and it'd be weird if they ask why I need to see a therapist. My sister already sees a psychologist and my parents are blowing a lot of money on her. Once again, my problems do not exist to anyone except me, because of my sister.

cripjay15 The only way i could write about this was in song
  • replies: 1

I need some help please reply, here you go: not long ago if u would like to know, i got a stress fracture in my foot, crutches hurt like hell each step i wanted to scream and yell. everyday i wanted to quit, but that wasn’t even the worst bit. most d... View more

I need some help please reply, here you go: not long ago if u would like to know, i got a stress fracture in my foot, crutches hurt like hell each step i wanted to scream and yell. everyday i wanted to quit, but that wasn’t even the worst bit. most days at lunch you would leave me alone, the best part of the day is when i went home. i spent 7 months of that damn sideline. once i was back there wasn’t any pain but i had to learn how to use my foot again. i worked so hard to get to where i wanted, for a while i felt like i was haunted, like no one wanted to be around me, like you locked the door and threw away the key. what was stopping me from ending it all? i just needed something small, i had something to look forward to, something that got me away from you, i achieved my goal. it was the best week of my life, a week away from all of the strife. i had finally got over all the shit, i had shoved it deep down in a pit. but as you know life isn’t fair i had done my knee just at the point when i felt like i was free. i don’t expect you to know what’s going on, just all my hopes of playing finals had gone, what i needed were some friends and that’s all, just something to distract me from going to ball but then u cut me out, i’ve been feeling shit for a while but i still go that mile to make myself smile i do it for you guys the ones who i thought were a friend but i guess u put those days to a end everything that you do all the shit you put me through i put that behind me but eventually i crack maybe when u stab me in the back i spent a whole day alone but u wouldn’t of known we had a plan all it takes is a phone, i never wanted to fight, i was on the edge and had a bad day so what did want me to say then u have a couple shit days too, and oh shit it didn’t have a clue. it’s only because you made a scene, but i couldn’t done it too i was keen once you are sad everyone comes your way, i am so sorry she feels like that hey? i feel that way too like people aren’t letting you be you i feel shit most of the time but what’s that going to gain just use ur brain, i know you probably are still in pain, but what about me that’s right you forgot i only takes one little thought, i always do that for you, but i just get pushed to the back of the queue, made me fell like i’m useless like i’m the one who is a dofus but even then u don’t even care u don’t even acknowledge that i’m even there u ignore the fact that u done something wrong and i’m the one who has to act strong