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 just don't know

replies: 13

Hello all. I've been battling these feelings for a very, very long time. I don't like to show people emotions of any sort so it's been super hard for me to express myself to family or friends. I feel like I have no one to confide in around me and it makes things worse. On the exterior I'm this super happy, never sad chick. But I feel the complete opposite inside me and no one around me has a clue. I know that's my own fault for not telling anyone, but it's just too hard for me. I don't want anyone to know. That's why I'm reaching out on here, I need help, I need advice, I just need people to talk to that aren't going to judge me, laugh at me or shut me down. I'm always so tired and unenergised. I just want it all to change, I want to get better, I want to feel the way I used to, I want to be back to my old self, 3 years ago. I just want it all to stop, all the feelings of sadness, loneliness and depression. Thank You for listening, I appreciate it.

Post breakup anxiety coping mechanisms

replies: 4

I've had depression and anxiety since I was about 18. Particularly around the age of 19 it was really terrible, these days it's alright, fairly manageable, it's just when I get an attack that things get bad. It's usually relationships that bring on an attack. I met this girl at camp a few weeks ago, we went to a party recently and saw each other, liked each other quite a lot and so we started a short, open relationship. It was intense and affectionate, we instantly discussed dating. We spent a lot of time together over the next few days and then she told me it was over. No possibility of anything more. It was jarring news and I instantly got an anxiety attack, however the worst attack was today, I was distressed, in tears and angry. The only thing that my irrational mind could think to do was to message her, ask her what to do, hint at possibilities to see each other, be friends or whatever, and it was so stupid of me. When I get irrational, stupid, frantic, messaging girls saying stupid things, how do I cope? More accurately I'm asking how NOT to do those things, I need really solid techniques to stop myself from acting like a psychotic moron.

Sadness getting worse

replies: 2

Hi people I'm new to this but I'll try my best to be understandable. I'm 16 and I recently changed schools and everything has been going great. But lately I've been more anxious and stressed and have consistently felt a really strong sadness that consumes me for a while every day particularly when I'm alone. But the problem is that it comes and goes and each time it goes I feel like it's just a small problem but each time it returns it's worse and it's just getting stronger and stronger and I'm worried how worse it'll get. I think it's because I just feel so inadequate as a human being like I don't contribute anything of any worth to anyone. What doesn't help is that I sorta overthink everything everyone says to me. I just assume the worst most of the time and still I don't feel like talking to anyone because I'm too embarrassed about how mediocre my reason for being sad feels to me. And I just feel so lonely. I don't is this a normal thing for me to feel at my age? Thanks for reading this if you did

Anxiety and Depression relating to UNI

replies: 2

Hi all, I haven't been around the forums much recently. It's because I've been very busy. I've officially left high school and have begun my studies at University. Whilst it's mostly better than High School, I've noticed that I feel even more anxiety/depression. I was always an emotional person and didn't like to talk about myself much at all at High School, UNI certainly demands that I be more open about myself which I don't find easy or particularly enjoy. We have been giving a lot of creative story telling courses and we have to describe ourselves in fascinating ways as part of these stories, I find this extremely hard as I've never liked describing my hobbies, things about me etc. My lecturer noticed that I had sort of quietened down over the weeks and told me not to give up the energy (a lot of my course encourages class discussion which I had done), but it reminded of previous troubles I had with confidence and classwork at high school. Uni is really messing with my friends and I don't know how to cope with at all it either makes me really sad or really frustrated. Hope everyone else is doing well.

Sometimes, I hate myself.

replies: 11

I am filth. I am dirt. I am disgusting and lazy. I hate myself. For the better part of my life I have half-arsed my way through absolutely everything I could. I can’t even do the things I enjoy because of the amount of effort that I need to apply to complete these tasks. I never finish anything. Every project I’ve started is simply deserted sooner or later. I’ll never amount to anything in life, not with the way I half-arse everything and put off decision making. I can’t even decide on what to eat for dinner let alone make important life decisions. And forget ever having children. I can’t even discipline myself. I’m a twenty two year old child with no direction in life and no drive to find direction. I started a new job recently and I suck at it. I mean, not the work itself, but just communicating with my co-workers. I’m pretty certain the manager hates me and the rest of the staff think I’m weird. Why would they think I’m anything but? I say awkward stuff all the time because I’m not even sure how to hold a proper conversation. I’m so tired of everything – university especially. I’ve been there for five years now because I keep failing classes and need to repeat. It’s only a matter of time before the university finally kicks me out. Then that’ll be another thing on my list that I’ve started but never finished. I’m so pathetic. Concentrating in lectures is impossible. I don’t know how you’re supposed to do it. After five minutes my brain just wanders. I mean, I can’t even pay attention to a conversation. My brain just doesn’t take in information. Outside of class I never get work done. Inside of class I never get work done. I just never get anything done. At the moment it’s especially bad. I just can’t prioritize things. And work takes up all of my attention span at the moment, there’s just no room for me to worry about university or anything else. I never used to be like this. Once upon a time I was classified as a ‘gifted’ child, always aced every test, always got my homework in, etc. But now I’m a whole other person and this person is a failure who does and says stupid, brainless things all the time. I’ve become a lazy idiot. My mind feels like it’s constantly in a haze. It’s just all over the place. And even just trying to do like a simple assignment feels like agony. All this is why I hate myself. I’ve tried to change, I really have, but it’s just like everything else I’ve started: a project that I’ll never finish. How do I change?

Scared and confused

replies: 2

Hi everyone! This is my first time ever posting well actually my first time visiting this site. Basically throughout my entire life I've always thought seeking help from others was the easy way out and I think because of that a lot of my life keeps crashing down around me. I'm 20 and at Uni which is one of the main issues here I'd like to address. I've been at Uni for almost 3 years but recently changed my degree, I'm currently loving what I'm doing and I was under the impression I was doing so well but got my grades back and I'm currently failing 2 of my subjects. None of my family has attended Uni so trying to speak to them about it is pointless and to be quite honest trying to speak to my friends about it just makes me feel stupid. I'm usually the person people come to for help not the person people help which is why I'm so stuck, scared and confused with my life right now. The thought of telling people I'm failing is more stressful to me than the thought of actually failing...now that is surely a call for concern right? I keep saying to myself if I fail I'll just pick myself back up again and try again. But then in the back of my head I'm constantly thinking I can't tell people I failed they will think so little off me and I hate the thought of that. I think what also makes me really scared and upset about this entire situation is the fact I'm failing has nothing to do with me not trying I'm trying so hard but I'm clearly not smart enough and it makes me feel so worthless more than 90% of the time but I also try keep that too myself. Which leads me back to my point about asking for help, regardless of the situation I can't and I won't do it and I really want to change that I want to stop being so scared of what people will think of me and just start doing things but I'm so scared like words can't describe. I don't know what to do anymore. I cry and cry all the time but no one knows, not a single person and I don't know what to do about it. Uni is only one impact towards this but currently the most weight berring. I'm honestly so afraid and I don't know where to turn too. Please help me.

Where to go now?

replies: 4

I don't know where to start...The last few years have been riddled with mistakes and heart ache for me. But the last month has been absolute chaos.I was living in Sydney with my girlfriend, and things were good, however;I do weird shit behind her back, not to cheat, but just to talk to other girls, I get some kind of satisfaction from it. Its shit. I know.We probably fight too much.I have anger issues and can't control myself or calm down once I'm angry.I have adult separation anxiety and have had trouble cutting ties completely with my previous ex girlfriend.I have alot of debt and was working in a pretty low paying job, so my girlfriend would basically have to pay for all food etc.So things were good for a few months, until I got a call from a previous employer offering me more money, but the job was in Canberra.After taking a few days to think it over I decided it would be good to make the money, pay out my loans, and then move back to Sydney.It kind of worked at first, I guess it put a spark back in our relationship at first only getting to see each other on the weekends, but that quickly changed, I got a call from Carlie saying that she couldnt do it anymore and that she wanted to beak up. This is where everything falls apart.Almost every single day since that call I have been an anxious wreck. I feel like my life started to completely fall apart at that point.Trying to balance work with this weighing over me has been so difficult. I've been driving to a from sydney every couple of days for the last 3 weeks trying to sort things out. Everytime I feel like I make a bit of progress something holds me back.I started putting a plan in motion, I was going to see a psychologist once a week, go to meditation classes, and Carlie and I were going to figure this out and get back together.But last night, after Anzac day 2 up, I made the poor decision to drive home to canberra from wollongong. My reasoning was that I hadn't had a beer in about 5 hours, I felt pretty good, I thought I was okay. But I wasn't. I stuffed up and I looked down at my phone for a second and when I looked back up I was headed straight for the railing. I wrote off the company car I was driving and I got charged with Mid range drunk driving.Work wasn't happy, but they've decided not to sack me, but I don't really want the job anyway. The thought of being back in Canberra makes me feel physically sick. I can't go back there. I can't do it.

Recently diagnosed

replies: 6

Iv been recently diagnosed with depression and I have been diagnosed anxiety for about 2 years now. I'm not sure how to deal with it, I feel like some people around me don't understand and I don't know how to get them too. i also haven't told many people because I'm scared too, I also don't want to get attention from people because i myself don't know how to deal with this. How to I get other people to understand if I don't even understand?!!

Trust Issues

replies: 4

Hey Everyone, i was doing some thinking today. I discovered that I honestly have the hardest time getting close to people. My friends, family & the idea of a relationship scares me to my inner core. I don't trust anybody. I like & care about people a lot & tend to become the therapist (trying to stop this) but my main thing is, I have deep trust issues. If someone I knew who was very close to me asked me if I trusted them, my answer would be no. my trust issues stem from my childhood, where I wasn't accepted for who I was, I was guilted a lot and everything I did was never good enough. Along with many other things that stem from childhood. but my question is, how do I practice trusting people & letting them in? Without being afraid of being vulnerable or 'emotionally naked' because at this point, when someone hugs me I literally stand there and don't reciprocate. It's pretty bad, and I no longer want to keep people at arms length.

Am I Depressed?

replies: 3

Hi everyone I don't really know what to say but here goes I've always been the type of person who closes off their emotions and I hardly ever tell anyone how I'm feeling and sometimes I don't even know how to express what I'm feeling at all Im irritable and I always feel tired and I have a terrible immune system. My mum and my boyfriend both think that I'm depressed (on and off for a couple of years) and I've done a bunch of tests and they all say there's a chance and I should see a doctor but the thing is I don't know what I'd say Like if they asked me how I was feeling I wouldn't know what to say because I feel like nothing that bad has ever happened in my life and I have nothing to be sad about If anyone has been in this kind of situation it would be great to hear your experience because I don't know what to do

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

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

I just don't know replies: 13

Post breakup anxiety coping mechanisms replies: 4

Sadness getting worse replies: 2

Anxiety and Depression relating to UNI replies: 2

Sometimes, I hate myself. replies: 11

Scared and confused replies: 2

Where to go now? replies: 4

Recently diagnosed replies: 6

Trust Issues replies: 4

Am I Depressed? replies: 3