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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I dont feel i have a reason to feel kinda depressed.

replies: 1

I feel like i have a good life but im being negative, but for some reason, I'm not sure what, I feel unmotivated I don't really know what I want to do in life, and I'm a bit overweight. I'm only 14 but I'm not sure why I don't even feel like hanging out with my friends sometimes and just want to be alone. I am too scared to talk to my parents as my dad is a psychologist so I feel like a failure if I talk to him about it. I don't even feel motivated to do my work it feels like I'm just forcing myself to do everything. Lately I've been feeling kind of tired, I feel like if I talk to anyone about it it would just be awkward and I would be Like a burden. Idk if this makes sense its not like I have a shit life, I do have friends and family and pretty good relationship with all.

Struggling to find my people

replies: 1

I'm just about to finish my first year of university, and I have met a lot of new people this year. A lot of them are nice, and I do enjoy hanging out with them, but we are just quite different and I want to meet people who are more similar to me, and to be frank - who I like more. Is there anyone who has had success forming or joining long-lasting friend groups after the first year of uni? I'm worried that it'll be harder to make different friends going into second year when people already know each other. I also have friends from high school, but my group fell apart in year 12, so while I have my best friend and a couple of other people who I regularly catch up with, I don't have a big group of friends who I can regularly see. I am quite a sociable person (although I do struggle with anxiety which can make talking to new people hard), so this is something I really want. TLDR; I have friends but I want a friendship group. How can I make or join a group of friends in second year uni? I would really appreciate hearing someones experience with this!

I dont really Know

replies: 1

So, I don't really know what to say, people tell me I am selfish and ungrateful, but I work so hard for what i have I work to keep my home life away from me.I need some opinions-(Dot points of my Life)My mum drinks a lot- but i still love her My dad always says he is going to leave for the night and never dose and everyone has to pretend nothing has happened after their fights. My 2 brothers and sister are all younger than me and think nothing is happening. Oh and my mum did lose her license for being over the legal amount of acholic but not over mid rangeMy nan who is meant to be nice and loveing speaks down about my mum and that makes me sadI also go to school and hate it because its a waste of my time - I also do a school based apprenticship and I think I am pretty good at what I do. So sorry if this is too long.I just get so sad sometime I then feel its too much to get up and move and i dont know what to do

Struggling connecting with people in general

replies: 3

Hi My names Jim, I’ve just come to Australia on a WHV. On paper I should be over the moon with they way everything is going but I just can’t seem to connect with people on any level, I feel quite lost to be honest, and feel I can’t talk anyone with real any substance.I don’t feel I’ve got anything to say either. I’ve become a bit mute and quiet at time's, only speaking when I’m spoken to, not really having much in the way of a response a lot of the time. It’s getting worse and I’m struggling to stop it spiralling in to a bit of dispare, I know it’s down to my confidence and lack in there of, god knows i’m trying to get a hand on it too, not even sure that this is the correct place to be putting this out. I’m really not sure about anything anymore, constant indecision. There’s probably lots of things I should do but I can’t even get out of the gate with one. I suppose I wouldn’t mine knowing if anyone else feels this way, I’m sure people do. Maybe any tips of how to deal with it a bit better than I amcurrently. Thanks to anyone who does take the time to read this anyway and comment if they’ve got the time.

Losing friends right before graduation

replies: 1

I’m currently in grade 12, and I’m graduating from high school next week. My friend group has had some issues for a while and I’ve considered moving to a different group multiple times but I’ve always been worried about causing drama and making school worse for myself. There’s previously been a lot of arguments, and no one is really supportive. They all gossip about each other but continue to pretend to be best friends. As I got closer to graduating, I was happy to wait it out and then begin to distance myself from them after we all graduate. However, a few weeks ago, one of the girls told another girl that I hated her (which I discussed with the girl and assured her this was not the case). But the girl ended up telling everyone that I hated her and I’d been so awful to her. Ultimately I messaged the group chat explaining that I was uncomfortable going to schoolies because of the drama, so I wouldn’t be going. This was completely ignored and in school none of the group would talk to me, even when I tried talking to them. Now I’m on better terms with some of them but I ultimately do not feel comfortable with them at all. I have formal and graduation next week and I really don’t want to go. I’m so embarrassed that this is how I’m finishing school. I also know that for multiple people to have an issue with me I must’ve done something wrong but I really feel like I haven’t. I also have my 18th birthday coming up and I’m so ashamed that I’ll most likely spend it alone. I want to try and become closer with some other people that I’ve spoken to in school, but I honestly don’t know who to trust because I know they’ll probably tell the group that I’m desperate. I know this won’t matter in a year, but right now I’m just so ashamed.

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.

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

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

I dont feel i have a reason to feel kinda depressed. replies: 1

Struggling to find my people replies: 1

I dont really Know replies: 1

Struggling connecting with people in general replies: 3

Losing friends right before graduation replies: 1

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