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

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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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One attachment to pet

replies: 2

Hey there. so tonight I spent about an hour crying over the fact that my dog is ageing ; I have always loved animals especially dogs and my dog Lola and I have always been really close. Im not sure why but her death / her getting sick / ageing has always been a huge huge fear for me. Im seeing a psychologist partly because of this later this year ( a waiting list ) and due to general anxiety. But losing my dog who is seven and showing signs of ageing really scares me. I was wondering if anyone else has this with anxiety ? I am an only child and my parents are divorced so the two of us have always been together a lot. both my dad and boyfriend find it hard to understand and I think I frustrate them with how often it worries me. Excuse the essay thanks for reading !

Is my relationship making me depressed, or is depression affecting my relationship?

replies: 3

Hi everyone, Lately I've been having intense episodes of depression but they aren't long-lasting, they only last like 30 minutes and then I'm ok again. I get them once every few days, sometimes once a day. When they come, I can't stop crying really hard, and feel my life is just doomed. Usually it's triggered when I'm around my boyfriend: when he does anything that remotely upsets me, or when I think of our past. He's a great boyfriend but in the past we've had several breakups, and because he has a cognitive disability from a car accident, he sometimes acts immature and doesn't think before saying things. It's really difficult. He doesn't EVER mean to upset me. I have major trust issues due to our past but thing is we both love each other and are trying to make it work and put our past behind us. I can't cope with these constant depression episodes though. I don't know if I'm depressed and throwing it onto the relationship or if my relationship is making me depressed. Also is this depression or is it in fact bipolar since the depression doesn't last long at each time? I'm absolutely fine when I'm not experiencing an episode. Thanks for any help.

How To Talk To Mother

replies: 3

Hey, Without going into copious detail about my self or my circumstances I will simply make some dot points. - Age: 17 - Father died when I was in year 4 (10yr). - Mother Suffers from Bipolar (medicated). - Was diagnosed with ADD (6 months ago) - Suffer from severe on going back injury. In short I feel that I'm struggling with everyday life, spending hours simply starring at my homework, assessments and general school work when I get home until I go to sleep. I lack motivation... Don't sleep well or at all. All of this has lead to a noticeable decline in school achievements. How would I discuss this with my mother, have tried before and was told I was just lazy or faking. How could I have a serious discussion to my mother about how I fell when she really doesn't seem to want to listen. Kind Regards...

Very treatment resistant depression/anxiety

replies: 5

Title says it all... How long do I have to keep living like this? I've tried 8 different antidepressant medications from the ssri/snri category. And about to start my 9th one which is from the TCA category which I also have no hope for... I don't know how I'm going to cope if this doesn't work. I've seen 2 different psychologists and psychiatrists, got nowhere with the first lot as they both recommended me to one another which isn't comforting at all.. The first psychiatrist saying I'd have to work together with a psychologist and the psychologist saying I'd need to work on finding the right medication first...( they were notes they left with my GP ) Leading no where and no wonder I've lost hope, that itself is depressing. Onto the 2nd lot and I just can't budge and also getting no where with the psychologist and he knows that himself I can tell.. Although I've just gotten a new medication from the psych but I don't know how I'll keep managing... I'm currently not working or studying, have never worked, and struggled studying and only had to do that because my job provider pushed me into it.. I want to apply for DSP because I'm sick of running on this hamster wheel.. I don't even want the extra money or whatever, I'm just sick of explaining my situation to different centrelink workers or job provider works all the time. Two psychiatrists have told me I wouldn't have a chance at DSP so do I continue living like this until I can't take it anymore? In saying that the first psychologist recommended DSP and the 2nd wasn't sure but he didn't say I'd have no hope he just said it'd be hard... It's embarassing enough to have to rely on that in the future but how can I go on like this? Been saying that for years but each day get slightly worse! I have a centrelink assessment coming up and who knows how that'll play out... Nervous just thinking about it.

Feeling alone

replies: 3

Since I was kid my family moved around a lot and I have been movingschools. I never stayed more than 4 years in one school. The only school that Iwas happy When I was in year 10 I moved to Australia. Since my transfer to thenew school I didn't have any friends. I missed my old friends and I started upmaking happy stories about my life to them. I started pretending to my parentsthat I was making great friends and was happy. I had a friends but only hungout with them during school hours. I though that if I make friends in highschool, it would be hard to leave them when I leave for uni. So I completed myhigh school with pretended stories about my happy life. Then I started uni. Uniwas so overwhelming I lost control of my life. I use to get good marks in highschool. But I lost interest in studying. Suddenly my life was empty withall the made up stories. So I moved to another course. But still I can’t makeany friends. I have friends that I hangout in class but no one close. I don’t knowhow to make friends. And lately I am feeling hopeless and aimless. I don’t knowwhat to do. My family thinks I am happy because of the mask that I wear. I waswondering if I ever will be to take off my mask

Nothing makes me happy

replies: 2

Hi Recently I landed my dream job everyone around me is so happy and excited for me but for some reason I can't be happy for myself I feel like I don't deserve it or something will come along and ruin it I don't know how to accept happiness for mysel... View more

Depression is eating away at my loved ones

replies: 1

We used to live a very family orientated life, however about a year and a half ago my dad was diagnosed with PTSD. A lot of stuff came up about his childhood upbringing, and how his parents treated him, and it caused him to break down completely. Even now we can see that he struggles to do the simplest of tasks, but since he had to quite his job, home life has been really stressful. And then, what seemed like completely out of the blue, the pressure began to hit mum. She began breaking down at work and would spend almost every night crying herself to sleep. And when she went to the doctors, they told her that she too has depression. Both of my parents are going to psychiatrists, but dad has been going for nearly 1.5 years, and he seems to be barely improving. Having both parents go through something that I feel like I can't help them with, hurts so much. It is tearing my family apart, and I feel like there is nothing I can do to make it better for them. All I want is for my family to go back to the way it was before, when everyone was happy and loved life. But now, nothing is the same. So I want to know if there is anything that I can do to help them! Anything at all!!! Cheers

Working is so hard. Please help

replies: 1

Hey guys new here so give me a chance to spit this all out. I have had depression and anxiety for years now and I usually manage okay but not lately. I am a manager at a place I rather not name and it makes me feel like shit! I apply for work daily and am getting no where. When at work I actually hide and cry in the office sometimes. The place of killing me but if I leave without another job I will not be able to support myself. I just don't know what to do? I have tried everything to be positive I try telling myself it's not forever but I wake up the days I have work feeling so sick. I do to bed after work and cry. Any tips?

Pressure

replies: 1

Hey, I'm new here so I'm not really sure how this works, but I thought I'd try it. I don't know what to do a lot of the time. I haven't been diagnosed with depression so sometimes I'm worried that I'm over reacting. But the things is, all the pressure builds up, and there are days when its hard to summon the strength to smile through it. The worst part is my parents. Every conversation we have turns into a lecture about me not thinking of others, not doing enough exercise, not trying enough at school. These topics are brought up no matter how the conversation begins. I can't talk to my friends either, sometimes they pressure me too... I'm not really sure what to do anymore. Every time I try to talk to my parents, or try to summon up the courage to talk to someone - anyone; fear of judgement and failure stop me. Whether its from my parents telling me that I'll be fine, I'm being dramatic, I'm not listening to them properly, or whether its just the idea that, if I do talk to them about it, they won't look at me the same. I don't want pity, just understanding. Sometimes, when the pressure gets too much at home I end up fighting with my family, and every time I try to explain how I'm feeling I'm shut down. I don't let myself do that at school. There, I hold on the shreds that people can believe that I'm okay, because I'm afraid that I'm not. What should I do? I don't have anyone to turn to, not that I really trust.

Depressed or just being dramatic??

replies: 3

Hi, I'm 16 for about the past 18 months i have been really down, and I think it is getting worse. You see, I am always comparing my self to my older sister who is really academic and hard working and always has a one up on me. I just feel like I am never going to be good enough, especially because she had this teacher last year who loved her, and she got a super good study score and now I have that same teacher for the same subject this year. I hate going to work because my sister works there and she is a great worker and I feel that there is an expectation that I have to be the same, and then we get comments on how cute and how similar we are and I just hate it. Lately I have been feeling distant from my friends, particularly because two of them (they ones whom I hang out with the most) have boyfriends and I don't... Which I don't care about, but I am always the odd one. My other friend, who I have been friends with since kinder sort of ditched me last year for this other girl, who turned out to be a b**ch, so then she came back to me and we sort of rekindled the relationship. Then, again this year she has just left me all together and hangs out with different people and the worst part is her mum and my mum are best friends and I feel like her mum is some how still trying to force us to be friends. I also play basketball and I am really bad but our team isn't really competitive, but I always get the sympathy vote and it makes me feel worthless, like I am a child. I have had quite bad acne and mum took me too the doctors last year because I was a bit self-conscious and I got some medication to clear my skin up, I am off it now but my skin has flared up again, mum wants to take me back to the doctors but I just don't care anymore. I have been feeling really hopeless, sad, frustrated and stressed (especially about school and after school) lately. Some days are good and I am happy for a bit, and then someone will say something or do something and it will put me into a 'bad' mood. Im too scared to tell anyone how I am feeling because I don't want to tell mum and dad because I don't want to disappoint them and I feel like my problems are pointless and irrelevant, especially because there are other people that have much bigger problems than mine and I don't want it to look attention seeking. am I depressed or just being dramatic? Sorry for lots of writing

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

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

One attachment to pet replies: 2

Is my relationship making me depressed, or is depression affecting my relationship? replies: 3

How To Talk To Mother replies: 3

Very treatment resistant depression/anxiety replies: 5

Feeling alone replies: 3

Nothing makes me happy replies: 2

Depression is eating away at my loved ones replies: 1

Working is so hard. Please help replies: 1

Pressure replies: 1

Depressed or just being dramatic?? replies: 3