Young people

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Eeep! When study is overwhelming! - Tips, ideas and coping strategies

replies: 51

Hi! Just thought I’d make a post with some tips for study. I know this is something we can all struggle with. These are all suggestions so feel free to take them or leave them! Hope they help! If you only remember one thing, let it be this: You are important. Your grades don’t define you. (support) Studying can feel isolating but know you’re not alone! Reach out – and find or make friends that can support you along the way. If you’re having trouble finding some friends, join some local communities or clubs! They have lots at Uni’s and even stuff like open days are great ways to meet new people and find out what’s happening. Study groups can also be a great way to meet people and stay motivated. Also remind yourself why you’re doing this; inspirational wallpapers or quotes can be super inspiring. Remember the saying about the oxygen mask? If you can’t take care of yourself first studying will be harder. You are important. You know the drill - water, food, exercise, sleep. Try to stay calm. Stuff that might be able to help include mindfulness, breathing exercises, colouring in, going for walks, journaling, listening to music… If you’re struggling – reach out. See a therapist. Talk to your student counsellor. If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it. Also lots of Universities and TAFE offer disability services – which includes conditions like Depression and Anxiety. (study) Find the right study space for you. Maybe that’s in your room, or a coffee shop, or the library. Some people find that noise helps; other people not so much. If you like particular kinds of noise, you can find ‘coffee shop’ noise or ‘rain sounds’ to help concentrate. Make a plan. It helps to do it often so it becomes a habit. Anytime you get a due date, write it down. Maybe you could use a diary, planner, bullet journal or an app. I find the 30/30 App helpful - study for a bit and then break for a bit. You can also get add-on’s for your computer to block sites like Facebook if you find them too distracting. Find out what study technique works for you. Do you like cue cards? Mind maps? Colour coding? Does highlighting stuff help you remember? Charts, maps, diagrams? Recorded lectures? Goals! These are so important – not just writing down deadlines but rewarding yourself for meeting them. Even making smaller goals like ‘read two pages from a textbook’ can help. Break it down into bite size pieces, and don’t forget to reward yourself after!

NEW TO THIS FORUM? Please read this first

replies: 0

The Young People space is a sub-forum within the wider Beyond Blue forum community. 1. Its purpose is to provide members aged 25 and under a space to discuss anxiety, depression and other related life issues. If you are aged over 25, please be mindful that this forum is a space for younger people to connect and provide peer support for each other. 2. Content from this sub-forum is displayed on both the beyondblue and youthbeyondblue websites. 3. Please bear in mind that some members find content relating to suicide and/or self-harm distressing or triggering. If you would like to post on these topics, please do so in our Suicidal Thoughts and Self Harm section. Please see also our guidelines for making posts on this topic. Posts made here in the Young People sub-forum containing content relating to suicide and/or self-harm will be moved. 4. These forums are moderated, so your posts may not appear straightaway. Information on how our system works can be found here. Being familiar with our community rules can help ensure that your posts appear online as quickly as possible. 5. This is a peer support community, and to get the best out of being here we recommend that you 'give support to receive support'. More on how that works here.

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Healing my relationship with my body

replies: 8

tw: weight/eatingI've struggled a long time with my body image. I come from a family of overweight people, and so I was always surrounded by discussions of diets and "we need to lose weight" and comments about looking big and gross and ugly. I've pretty much always been a healthy weight my whole life, so there weren't ever directed at me, but I sure think as a child I definitely internalised them. And then of course social media and the internet love promoting small bodies and yeah its hard being a human being and looking like a normal human being. I've definitely had disordered eating habits and gone through phases of restriction and bingeing. I won't go to crazy into the details but ive been a lot smaller than I am now, and a lot bigger too. No matter what size I am im just never comfortable or happy. I definitely think my eating is linked to emotions in other aspects of my life as well. I eat when I'm bored, when I'm sad, when I'm stressed. I also basically always think about food. When I wake up I'm like "omg what am I going to eat today". I feel guilty about what I eat, I feel out of control sometimes when it comes to eating, and I know I do not have balanced/healthy habits. It just generally not fun, and I think put so much brain power and energy into hating my body and thinking about food, that I could use instead towards my uni or friends, etc. I guess I don't really know what I'm looking for here to be honest... I guess I'm just hoping someone out there has cracked the code on self-acceptance because I want so badly to be happy with my body just the way it is. Those sneaky thoughts just always creep in and tell me I'm too fat.

Looking for a support/accountability partner

replies: 3

Hey so I'm a 22 year old guy living in Sydney whose been working through mental health stuff (depression, anxiety, potential ADHD) for the past year. I've recently wanted to start working on rebuilding my life by working on academic, fitness and general health goals. While I think there's a lot of merit in getting support through online spaces I think in person support will always be the gold standard. So I've been looking for a support/accountability partner who also lives in Sydney where we can support each other with mental health, chatting about life stuff, holding each other accountable, gyming together etc. If anyone is also interested in finding a support partner and lives in Sydney feel free to reach out!

Worried About a Friend and Their New Friend

replies: 4

Dug up my old account to post here, but I felt like it was necessary, considering I just had the biggest panic attack of my life over what is probably nothing.The story is that I went out with a few friends a couple of days ago to celebrate finishing Year 12 classes and moving into the exam periods. This group included my ex partner, who I'll call Mio. While we were out we met with a guy in his mid 20s who was very friendly to us, I'll call him N.From the start, I got incredibly bad vibes from N, I can't explain why but something about him was just... off. Nothing I could put a name to, but he made me feel really weird. He stuck with us for a few hours and acted generally friendly to the rest of the group, but I noticed that he was sticking around Mio the most out of everyone. Mio, being the friendly person they are, really took a liking to N, and they kept getting pulled away from the rest of the group to spend more time with him than the rest of us did.That was the first red flag, but then I mentioned in passing conversation that Mio was the only person in the group that was yet to turn 18, and Noah specifically asked to clarify whether I meant they were 17 or 19. I asked if they found N creepy, but they didn't seem to notice anything.The panic set in tonight, however, when I found out that N had found Mio's social accounts, since they had mentioned their username that they use for their socials in conversation. Not only did this creep me out, since he didn't get anybody else's socials, but it also caused immediate concern. I don't know what it is but basically every survival instinct I have kicked in and was telling me to run. I was shaking severely, struggling to breathe, and had a sick feeling purely because Mio was talking to N this late at night (it currently being 3:13AM as I'm writing this).My problem is that I'm very protective of my friends, and I'm worried that I'm just being overprotective, or a jealous ex-boyfriend, but I find it weird that a 24-26 year old man would go out of his way to hunt down and talk to a 17 y/o AFAB NB person. I don't know what it was, but something set off a trigger and every alarm bell in my body is going off at once, am I insane? Overprotective? Jealous? Rational? A combination of the other 4? I really don't know. I can't even ask about him or about what's going on because I risk sounding creepy or jealous to my ex, but I can't stand by and do nothing. What do I do next?Thanks for the help in advance, YesandNo.

University

replies: 1

Hi everyone, I had an acute illness during high school. I went to school on average two days a week until year 11 when I had to drop out. My health is fine but I’m uneducated. I’m 25 and I want to go back to study but every time I try I fall behind or simply can’t complete the work. I’ve never sat an exam. Is there anyway to ‘catch up’? Has anyone else have a similar experience? What advice do you have? I am genuinely struggling, it’s not just a lack of confidence.

I don't want a job or jobseeker

replies: 19

I've been trying to force myself to want a job, but I just don't want one. Jobseeker is basically a job, so I don't want that either. Its just not worth going through all that that for such a tiny amount of money. Its not even worth it. I know money is important, but honestly being homeless, broke, starving, destitute, sick, dead etc as a consequence isn't scary enough. There's things that will happen to me that are 100x scarier then that. Like climate change. I genuinely from the bottom of my heart dont see a point in working for money. It just doesn't make any logical sense. Money isn't even rewarding, it just means you get to live a bit longer. To work longer. Why would I just waste my time pretending like I will live until retirement age? That's just not realistic. I just want to spend time with my family and walk in the park while I can, before bad things happen. I don't want to waste any moment because this time of my life will probably be the happiest. I have severe ADHD and I can tell that if I went the jobseeker route that I would get so many demerits and stress and appointments for years... its just not worth it. I don't want a job, its not even important. I know people do things even though they don't like it. But I struggle to do things that I like too. I struggle a lot to do very basic activities of daily living. Absolute necessities. I think to do something and my body doesn't respond. It doesn't matter what it is or how severe it is. I had an allergic reaction to food earlier today and my airway was closing up fast. I should have been rushing to the doctor, but my body just wanted to sit, I struggled to care about it even though it was getting harder to breathe. It all happened passively. I'm fine now, but yeah idk that experince just left thoughts in my head. I don't understand how people just do things whenever they want to. I literally have never been able to do what I want or what I need. I can move but I'm not doing what I want/need. Its like being paralysed in a moving body. You could say typing here is 'moving' but if I could choose I would not post this info here as its too personal. Also, I want and need to be doing other more important things.. But its not like I have much control over what my body chooses to do, so. Anyway if you have thoughts, please share. I'm just lost here. Things don't really feel real and I've been acting super out of character (like really mean) recently. Don't really understand why I'm like this.

Overwhelmed with friends and school

replies: 1

Hey guys I'm kinda new to this so if I'm doing anything wrong please lmk Lately I've been feeling really unhappy in general and overwhelmed and I feel like it might be because of my friends. I've known my friends were 1-2 years now, and we also know how to have a good laugh - but it gets really horrible when it comes to schoolwork. Whenever we do projects together, I always end up doing all of their work the night before its due date, even after repeatedly asking them to contribute. When I ask them to do their part of the project, they always reply saying "Yep, sure I'll get on it." But they never even join the google document, and I see them just chatting on instagram. On top of this, because everyone has their own friend groups at school in their respective classes, it's really hard to try get into another group of people who would actually help and try do the work. My friends repeatedly apologise for not doing the work after every project and when I bring the issue up, saying that I 'carry them all the time'. This just makes me feel more horrible about myself, because it's like my only value as their friend is to do the work for them. For a few weeks now, I've just felt such a hatred towards them - and I've also just been randomly crying from places like my desk at home, to cafes during the weekend. And in general, I've been feeling really unhappy, stressed, lost and unmotivated. I've also just felt like I have no one to talk to. I always have to come to school with a smile because that's what everyone knows me as. The person who always knows what to do and the person who is always free of stress. I guess all I'm asking is for any advice on how to handle this? I know this might not really be relevant to this forum, but any help on how to handle this problem to being able to conquer these feelings of stress will be appreciated :).

Online grooming?

replies: 5

I am currently a 19 yo girl, first year of uni and I recently graduated from highschool last year. When I was about 16/17 yo in highschool, I sent explicit images of myself to three people that I randomly met online as they had wanted and requested for it. One of about my age, the other was about 4 years older, and the third was about 10 years older than me. I have since that incident, I have been feeling extremely ashamed, guilty and anxious pretty much on a daily basis. I keep on feeling like I did something illegal, and although some people have told me that I got groomed, I can't seem to believe this to be true. Would really love some words of advice and support.

Isolated and upset

replies: 1

I am a 20 year old guy who has been trying to move to Brisbane for 2 years now, but always found saving a bit hard.I have recently had to extend my moving date to 8 months from now when it was originally January 2025 and I’m so just tired and sad at this point. Quite frankly I don’t think it’ll end up being just 8 months either considering my money situation. I am so sick of remote Queensland, it’s an utterly miserable nothing place. Anyone my age has already moved away but I’m still stuck here 2 years later. I want nothing more than to be in the city where things actually happen and evolve. I have no resources to help with my mental health which is steadily declining. I can’t date, can’t study, can’t just have friends even out here because there isn’t anyone like me out here. It’s just upsetting to see people out in more populated areas who are starting their careers, their relationships and their lives while I’m still stuck in this boring ditch. I’m done waiting and being lonely, I just wanna BE SOMEWHERE. just don’t really know what I can do at this point, all I really CAN do is wait, and that is disappointing.

Graduating Year 12

replies: 1

Hey everyone, I’m currently in year 12 and have been struggling with diagnosed PTSD, anxiety, and depression for several years now and it has only gotten worse as I’ve started college. Year 11 started off great but 6 months in, a lot of horrible things happened and my mental health started to decline again. I stopped going to school and started abusing things to distract myself from everything to the point I barely have any recollection of that year because I was never sober. I didn’t care about any consequences at the time because I wasn’t planning on even being here for any longer. A year has passed and I’m very glad I’m still here but all of the consequences are catching up to me. My student advisor has recently told me that I won’t be able to graduate year 12 because I’m 2 points short. Does anyone know any way I can get a medical certificate or letter from a psychologist to help me graduate? I understand that what’s done has been done but ever since I’ve started to feel better, I’ve put in so much effort to try and make up for everything and I really don’t want to give up. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you

Emotional abuse

replies: 2

Who and how do I talk about being the safe one/teacher/more than an uncle a FARTHER(his words) to my nefu because his mother is mentally not there there for extreme emotional abuse and neglect makes me........ it's to much who do I involve without damaging him even though he his clearly traumatised. He is not aloud to be with me the only person he has we are best friends and he is now in hospital, I know it's the stress he's going through but my sister is obviously narrsaasitic and enjoying the attention, last week she was in hospital.....

Eeep! When study is overwhelming! - Tips, ideas and coping strategies replies: 51

NEW TO THIS FORUM? Please read this first replies: 0

Healing my relationship with my body replies: 8

Looking for a support/accountability partner replies: 3

Worried About a Friend and *Their* New Friend replies: 4

University replies: 1

I don't want a job or jobseeker replies: 19

Overwhelmed with friends and school replies: 1

Online grooming? replies: 5

Isolated and upset replies: 1

Graduating Year 12 replies: 1

Emotional abuse replies: 2