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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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laniipops I can't go back to school.
  • replies: 4

Hi, I'm new to this forum, I'm new to posting things like this on the internet, but I need some advice. Let me give you some background first. I'm 16 years old and when I was in Year 8 I was diagnosed with suicidal depression and and anxiety. I went ... View more

Hi, I'm new to this forum, I'm new to posting things like this on the internet, but I need some advice. Let me give you some background first. I'm 16 years old and when I was in Year 8 I was diagnosed with suicidal depression and and anxiety. I went to a therapist and 6 months later I had stopped needing to go to sessions, all was good, well as good as it could really get. Late last year though old and new feelings started to return. I went back to therapy and was told I had severe depression and anxiety, and to be honest I was kind of expecting it. But although I went to therapy it kept getting worse, my grades fell, my friendship group fell apart and I found myself with no friends and so I started to not engage with anyone at school and I also started to miss a lot of days at school because I couldn't will myself to get out of the bed anymore. The summer holidays came and went, and for me they were surprisingly even harder then going to school, I struggled to keep on the mask that I was so good at putting on. Now it's today my first day back at school in Year 11, but I couldn't do it, I couldn't even get out of bed this morning. I had a complete freakout, I tried so hard to get out of bed but I felt paralysed, I just couldn't move. I'm still in bed now, I feel like I'm drowning with someone continuously pushing my head under. I can't move forwards or back, I'm stuck in limbo. But now for the real question, this time I've spent trying to make plans because its what I do. I've come up with two options, I either work really hard with my therapist to try and get to school everyday or I do distance education. I don't what to do and was hoping you could all give some suggestions. Thanks for reading.

Mikimouse Emotionally Numb or just strong?
  • replies: 1

Hello! This is my first thread on here so I'll give you some background info first then get into the main problem. I have generalised anxiety disorder and suffer from panic attacks. I've been in therapy for a year now and my panic attacks rarely occu... View more

Hello! This is my first thread on here so I'll give you some background info first then get into the main problem. I have generalised anxiety disorder and suffer from panic attacks. I've been in therapy for a year now and my panic attacks rarely occur anymore. About 3 years ago I had my heart absolutely destroyed by my best friend. I didn't know that one human could feel so much pain. I was in shambles for 2 and a half years, always sad, constantly anxious, having panic attacks every week.... it was bad. Last year I really started to realise that my situation was unhealthy so I started therapy and started learning how to cope. It's been a year and I don't feel any pain caused from my best friend... but I also don't feel any negative emotions either. I don't get sad, I don't cry anymore, I don't feel guilt or fear. I feel anger but only slightly. I can feel happiness and all the positive emotions but not the negative ones. I'm not sure why this is. I think it may be my bodies way to deal with stress around school, (I'm a high school student) but even after exams it takes me months to get slightly normal again, then in a weeks time I'm emotionally unavailable again (also the fact that I feel kinda empty inside when I get like this) . It's starting to put a strain on my relationships because I'm second guessing everything and everyone. Please help.

RuneCat17464 Impulsive??
  • replies: 1

I’m in Year 10 at the moment. My friends told me that I am impulsive in the way I act and speak. I feel bad about myself right now- I feel like I should correct it, but lately I’ve been trying to correct so many parts of myself I feel overwhelmed and... View more

I’m in Year 10 at the moment. My friends told me that I am impulsive in the way I act and speak. I feel bad about myself right now- I feel like I should correct it, but lately I’ve been trying to correct so many parts of myself I feel overwhelmed and that anything I ever do is never enough. Any advice about how not to be impulsive or what I just said? Appreciate it.

Gabbie01 SOCIAL ANXIETY HAS TOOK OVER MY LIFE!!
  • replies: 4

Hello everyone i am new to this platform and I would like to share with you the life of an anxious 20 years old... Even typing this makes me very anxious! I am a major introvert i like to keep things to myself because I don’t like being judged. I suf... View more

Hello everyone i am new to this platform and I would like to share with you the life of an anxious 20 years old... Even typing this makes me very anxious! I am a major introvert i like to keep things to myself because I don’t like being judged. I suffer from social anxiety i am so awkward I cannot flow a conversation. I usually find myself stuttering and feeling very uncomfortable, hence why I don’t have a job, the whole process makes me very anxious. I feel like most people in my age have it all together, any i am here not making any progress. I don’t have much friends, most of the time i feel very alone and find my self randomly crying, i just wish i had one good close friend that stuck by me when i need them. I’ll be 21 this year and ever since i was around the ages of 12 i would have this envision of myself having a huge 21st birthday party, with all my friends. Well it looks like that will never happen. i also have anxiety picking up calls/ making calls because I find my self stuttering and cannot explain what is going through my mind that i want to verbally recall. I struggle speaking my mind, I cannot put it into words what i want to say. So instead I don’t pick up any phone calls. I am currently in my first year of uni and i am too afraid to do any presentations in from of anyone as i am afraid of stuttering and making a fun of myself. Sometimes i feel like i would never complete my degree just for this reason, i know it’s silly but I truly don’t feel comfortable and I cannot speak my mind when i am under pressure and have everyone’s attention on me it just really daunts me. I honestly don’t know what to do? I really want to over come this. I tried my very best in explaining with some of the stuff i am struggling with everyday and if i could get some advice on how I could improve on these areas that would be amazing. Please don’t judge me. Everyone has battles they face in life and this happens to be mine.

anonymous7765 Went from having friends, a girlfriend and uni; to having nothing. I feel miserable
  • replies: 5

I'm not sure if this is worth posting but here it goes. I'm a introverted 23yr old male who has spent the past 5 yrs getting my engineering degree in Adelaide. I am from a rural area, so at uni I lived on campus. I met 2 very good friends in my first... View more

I'm not sure if this is worth posting but here it goes. I'm a introverted 23yr old male who has spent the past 5 yrs getting my engineering degree in Adelaide. I am from a rural area, so at uni I lived on campus. I met 2 very good friends in my first year, and they were my housemates for the my entire degree. It was a 5 bedroom house, so in 2017 one of the last 2 housemates I was put with was luckily an 18 year old girl who I got to know well, and at the start of the second semester we started dating. She was my first girlfriend and we both had an amazing time together. She was the first person I felt like I could confide in and really open up to. I lost many 'firsts' to her, and I was the happiest that I had been for many years. When university finished in Nov, we all went back to our own areas around Aus. My girlfriend and I decided that we would keep seeing each other (we were about 300kms away), so all through Dec we talked through snapchat everyday. Unfortunately, I live on a grain farm so I couldn't visit her through December because I was harvesting. She didn't have her license, but everyday she kept telling me how excited she was when I could finally come and visit. Then came NYE. I had organised to come and see her in the first week of Jan, but out of the blue she snapchats me and says that she has work and I can't visit (she did that a few times before when I tried to come and see her) and that she "hates the distance between us". She then suggested that we kept the relationship "casual" and then if I ended up getting a job in Adelaide we could pick things up from there when uni started again. This was a massive kick in the guts and I took it as "I want to see other guys and then come back to you later" I told her I didn't want to play games and she either wanted to be with me or not. She said no. Why would she lead me on all through Dec if she was planning on getting rid of me anyway? I felt (and still feel) betrayed and heatbroken. Later on that night I see her snapchat story of her at the club having the time of her life. The fact that she didn't seemed at all sad about the breakup makes me feel even worse. To make matters worse, I have no friends where I live because they have all moved to the city. So I've gone from having awesome friends at uni, an amazing girlfriend and a degree to work towards, to no friends, no girlfriend and no job. I'm applying for different jobs around aus but keep told no. The days go by and I just feel hopeless

ASkl Do I have a problem???
  • replies: 2

I’ve had serious anxiety for about 4 years now but in the past year I have been getting lower and lower and I don’t know what it means. I cry all the time - it can be triggered by anything, I have days where I am so down I just can’t do anything righ... View more

I’ve had serious anxiety for about 4 years now but in the past year I have been getting lower and lower and I don’t know what it means. I cry all the time - it can be triggered by anything, I have days where I am so down I just can’t do anything right or think properly, and I sometimes have this feeling in my stomach that just cancels everything else out. But I still go to school and do all of my normal activities most days. I just hide these really down feelings. But my friends keep asking my if I’m okay and I’m too scared to admit anything so I just keep saying I’m Fine. Ive slowly had really low days more and more often and I’m getting scared. I think it’s gettjng worse but I don’t know what to do - because I know there are kids who have it way worse than me so is it selfish to ask for help? Am I alright??

hahaha How do you get better?
  • replies: 4

Hi, Does anyone ever get sick of health professionals constantly throwing CBT in your face when you have anxiety/depression? I know it works for most people, but it doesn't work for me. I keep trying to tell the people around me that it doesn't work ... View more

Hi, Does anyone ever get sick of health professionals constantly throwing CBT in your face when you have anxiety/depression? I know it works for most people, but it doesn't work for me. I keep trying to tell the people around me that it doesn't work but they always just give you another mindfulness activity to do, and it's this whole waiting game. I feel like a ticking time bomb. I've looked for other alternatives but it's a whole lot of telling your story and waiting, and I don't know how much longer I can wait. If anyone is in the same boat I'd like to hear how other people are dealing with this? Right now I'm really struggling. Thanks.

L_j_ no one really cares
  • replies: 1

Ever since I can remember there's been someone toxic in my life, starting with my dad... Who was addicted to pot and abused my mum. My mum left him when I was four, then she started to get uncontrollably angry, took it out on me and my brother, then ... View more

Ever since I can remember there's been someone toxic in my life, starting with my dad... Who was addicted to pot and abused my mum. My mum left him when I was four, then she started to get uncontrollably angry, took it out on me and my brother, then by the time my brother was ten he started hitting me and yelling, calling me horrible things. Things have always been bad, I've always been scared to do anything, and I recently started trusting a boy who I'm in a relationship with, but I struggle to believe he cares, I worry he hates me and that he's cheating or going to turn out like everyone else in my life! I'm starting uni and I feel like I'm setting myself up to fail, I still have to live with my mum and brother, and they both still take their anger out on me! I've been depressed for many years, I feel like no one genuinely wants to help, or even just want me!

Savann Hi I'm 21 years old trying to live life & be free
  • replies: 4

I'm 21 years of age..... I just have this feeling, where I feel like I have so much weight to carry on my shoulders. Especially with my family & responsibility, like my grandparents they have 11 kids all up & out of all their kids it's just me & my m... View more

I'm 21 years of age..... I just have this feeling, where I feel like I have so much weight to carry on my shoulders. Especially with my family & responsibility, like my grandparents they have 11 kids all up & out of all their kids it's just me & my mom looking after them including my uncle . The problem is that since I was 11 years old I've always been a good girl always done chores & everything for them up until now. But now I'm in my adulthood you know I really should be living my life & going out & things like that but everytime I do my grandparents & uncle complains that I don't do chores for them anymore it seems like they only want me to stay home & do everything like thats just no life at all u know I'm sick N tired of doing everything like there are other grand kids that come over as well they old enough themselves they need 2 start doing & learning how to do things as well, I might not b around as much anymore to do things but they look at me like I'm the oldest so I have to do it. Other things as well I've been wanting to leave my whole family & cut ties with them for a very long time u know like I can't get along with any of my Aunties & uncles, including I'm not close to any of my cousins as well. Like they even give their kids 4 me to look after & if something happens to them I get the blame all the time even though I didn't do anything I'm sick of that as well. Especially I feel more sorry for my mother she has to put up with everyone N everything my grandparents, uncle & whole family are very ungrateful & disfunctional people like we all could never have a normal conversation it always turn into a argument. My grandparent always have said they love me & all but I don't believe them if they really did they would at least let me & my mother live our lives & do whatever we want like the rest of the families but we have to put up with everyone & everything. I mean my mother is about 50 years old she still gets treated like crap as well I'm tired of seeing her been treated that way especially by my grandfather. & myself as well the way my whole family is just such a handful & so stressful everytime. Because of all this me & my mother never can have time for ourselves especially I don't have time for myself I fear sometimes i might not be able 2 get married or have a family of my own because of all this problems I'm having. Cheers

Lolly11 Don't know what to do anymore
  • replies: 1

I really don't know what to do anymore. I used to have dreams and goals, but within the last 6 months my life has completely flipped upside down. My Grandfather died, he was my best friend and was the only person that stood up for me and didn't treat... View more

I really don't know what to do anymore. I used to have dreams and goals, but within the last 6 months my life has completely flipped upside down. My Grandfather died, he was my best friend and was the only person that stood up for me and didn't treat me different just because I'm adopted. Around about the same time my best friend started a rumor about me and ruined my relationship with my room mates. In spite of all that I met an amazing guy and fell head over heels in love. But he has recently left me and had broken my heart. At the same time I have gotten really sick and can't afford to live where I am so I have had to move back with my parents and 2 hours away from my whole life, back to a town in have spent my whole life dreaming about the day I can get away. I know this seems stupid, but I really don't feel like I have anything to live for anymore, I'm broken hearted, in constant pain become I'm sick, lost everything that I have worked so hard for, live in a place that I struggled in growing up, and surrounded by family who are stubborn, refuse to try and understand, and who always tell me to grow up and stop being so stupid. I am trying so hard but every time they put me down like that I get worse. I already hate myself enough, and I try and explain but they don't listen. I just feel like I have nothing at all to live for anymore.