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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New Person, I need help (with my life)

replies: 4

Hi People of Beyond Blue Im going to start with a little bit about me. 3 years ago i was in an abusive relationship both phys and ment, i have divorced parents, and sometimes really bad anxiety. I’ve been working for 3 years now and only became full-time about 1.5 years ago as a hairdressing apprentice. My first workplace was disastrous to say the least. I am now at a fairly good salon, an hour drive from where i live. I am in a beautiful relationship with my Best Friend that i’ve been friends with since we were 11. I hate coming home as I just do not get along well with my Dad. This may be confusing to read, but i’ve found in the last year or so I’ve been quite sad and my mental health playing up like nothing else. As bad as it sounds I feel like I was happier with my abusive boyfriend more than i am now with my best friend. My ex and I, putting aside the bad stuff, used to do everything together, and I mean everything. We used to have a good friend group and be a little rebellious at school. We used to listen to music on the weekends and vibe through life. My current partner just came out of year 12 and this year has been hard on us both. I feel like i can’t get out of the “just be sad” mental state. it’s almost like i’m looking for things to go wrong and i don’t know why? My partner and i always said that once he’s done with school, things will get better. But it’s hard to know if it will. I feel crazy, one day i’ll be a mess and say things to mess us both up then for a split hour i’ll apologise and realise how crazy i’ve become. And that repeats over and over. I used to be so happy and grateful for everything in life despite my abuse and anxiety. I used to have fun but now I feel like i’m missing out while i’m full time working and everyone i know is on break until they begin only part-time uni next year. I don’t know if i’m really ready to be working and i dont know if i should be back on medication for my anxiety, which can become dangerous for me as i get sad also. I don’t know how to re-train my brain to be the way i used to be, so happy and grateful. i want to give my partner the love and kindness that he gives to me but i just spiral out of control and go against myself. I want to move out, can’t. I’m a mess. This probably makes no sense, it doesn’t flow, i’ve always been bad at that (English Class yikes) but if you do take your time to read this I love you for it and just wish for some second hand advice i suppose. Thankyou, DreamCatcher17

Can’t sleep

replies: 2

Hi, I’ve been having this problem for a while... but whenever I try to go to sleep, I start thinking of all the bad times in my life or memories I would like to forget forever. Sometimes I get so scared and stressed and I start crying and shaking, I ... View more

Career and mental health

replies: 3

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share my experience with work, and hopefully take out some advice. I'm 20 years old and working at fast food, and I absolutely hate it. The work is so fast-paced (as with everything, anyway. but more so in fast food.). I come to work and immediately uncover my incompetence in even the simplest of tasks. I'm never at ease, I do my best to conform to expectations; I feel like I'm trying to be someone else that i'm not. Coming to work also reminds me of my failures, the reason why I ended up working there in the first place. Also, everyone else there is evidently more intelligent than myself, they're all going to uni and/or working towards their grander ambition, while I'm there because I feel like its the least I can do with my lack of direction in life. I can't reiterate enough how much I hate working there. It's so depressing its not even funny. I really want to quit, and I think thats reasonable. I'm anxious going about it. I really don't want to come to work, honestly, I don't even know if I can take it anymore. I feel like I can't do anything but just not turn up, though I'm afraid of the repercussion that might occur i.e getting fired and the company putting in a bad word for me for my next employment. I guess what I'm trying to ask of you guys is- Has anyone ever been fired for the same reason or a reason alike or even had any issues with work because of mental illness(es). How do you overcome it? Or how would you even go about it? Thanks everyone, Alex

Career advice

replies: 1

Hi there everyone. I’m 24 and feeling anxious about my current career path, especially while feeling stressed out under my current living conditions. Currently I work retail part time and studying a masters of social work. I have always had a passion for mental health and wanting to help other. I have three years left in my course. However, I also live at home with a home life that often stresses me out and brings me down. I think moving out would be highly beneficial for me, but with my current employment it feels impossible to do so. I’m feeling at stalemate with myself. Do I quit my course to pursue a full time job so I can leave home sooner. Or do I just find another way to assist in dealing with it.

Sleep anxiety

replies: 6

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting in a beyond blue forum so I'm a little apprehensive about it all, but for the last week or so I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping. I get so worked up about getting enough sleep and being able to function properly the next day that I end up becoming incredibly anxious, which in turn prevents me from falling and staying asleep in the process, leaving me exhausted and miserable the next day. I've also been feeling quite depressed for a few months now and these feelings seem to be exacerbated by my sleep deprivation, and I feel like it's forming a really bad cycle. I've also noticed that when I'm trying to fall asleep I do this thing where I'm hyper conscious of my thoughts and I try to control them in order to fall asleep. I have began to monitor my thoughts meticulously throughout the day now and am conscious of everything I do as well, so much so that I don't even know how I normally think anymore. It's almost like I've lost the ability to go into auto-pilot mode and I am somehow too aware of being conscious if that makes sense. I just feel like lately everything has been getting on top of me to the point where I don't even feel like myself anymore. I tried organising an appointment to see a counsellor at uni and have been unable to get in until the 18th of May, so in the meantime I'm really just not sure what I can do...

Do I need help or am I just sad about my ex?

replies: 3

We broke up a couple of months ago and immediately after I felt relieved for the possibility of still being friends, I had only lost feelings. I was and still am really confidant in my feelings that I am not romantically attracted to this person at all. I felt way too overwhelmed in the relationship and felt like a counselor almost, always taking in negative thoughts but never able to express my own feelings mutually or without the same respect. We were weak in communication but strong in trust, building our relationship on pure emotions and physical attraction, which was pretty unhealthy looking back. This changed a week later after a confrontation that the 'messy' breakup was my fault. Having it said to your face that you're the reason for someone's unhappiness was bad and even though I knew it wasn't 100% my fault I still beat myself over it. My friends and mum told be not to bother and worry but I was very determined to rekindle the friendship. I gave them space for a couple of weeks until I got worried and texted again and things got worse. I've tried a few times to apologize but they've just made me feel worse about myself until it turned into self hate rather than feeling sorry. The trigger is the ex but it's never really about the ex when I get lost in my own thoughts. A month ago I gave up trying and my life started to get better. I didn't think about it as often as I did before. It was only when they texted me recently wanting to give me trash they didn't want, it came back. It somehow felt worse, as I had tried so hard to get this person to be my friend again but after all this time I just felt used. They gave me the trash and I drew the line from there. I felt relieved. For once I thought I was over it and my supposed depression(?). But I still feel sad right now, even though I don't care about my ex anymore. Depressive episodes come and go but I get distracted and unmotivated everyday, barely finishing things I need to do at home. I've talked to a few friends but I really don't want to bother them and bog them down like how I felt with the ex. Quizzes about depression help but how do I know its not basic hormonal teenage emotions? It just feels like my default emotion is blank+sad.

please help...

replies: 2

Okay. I’m this desperate and have no one to talk to about this so please be kind... I am 17 and am pretty independent now in the sense that I don’t live with my parents anymore. However I need a lot of support at the moment and am NOT the kind to go out and get the right help unfortunately Here goes nothing, I tried smoking ice for the first time in 2017 (I’m not proud of it) Someone who I trusted and shouldn’t have given it to me did but anyway didn’t touch it after that, fast forward to January I met a man who was a few years older than me and he was addicted to ice and for some stupid reason I packed a bag and told my dad I was at my friends. (I have no idea why I did this) I was usually not like this but I packed a bag went with him and smoked crack with him for what felt like weeks because I didn’t sleep for 6 days. I have never been more disappointed in myself in my life! I was a mess. Dry reaching because I wasn’t eating, seeing things that weren’t there because I needed sleep and what felt like my rock bottom. He ended up telling me he liked me right? I was like oh no no no, and said I can’t be with him because of the drugs. He then said he’d get off them to be with me. He did. I was his reason to go back to his old self and go back home and work and do the right thing. He was clean for 3 months cold turkey. Then it was here and there on weekends as he works. Sadly I’d also be in on that. my point is now I’m sitting here at 5am balling my eyes out feeling suicidal as hell. Because I am worried now I’ve either damaged my mental health worse that it already is, or am starting to get addicted I don’t have it every day or even once a week but when it’s there I can’t say no. please help me I don’t want to be like this

Feeling alone

replies: 1

Hello, I’m quite sure how ti start one of these our really sure how my words will turn out as this is the first step I’ve ever taken to speak out. I have recently discovered I have anxiety which wasn’t really a shock as I have thought I might be for quite some time. I’m an 18 year old who’s just finished my first year of uni and I can’t help but shake the feeling that I’m all alone I made friends through this year but they started telling other things about me that won’t and true and would put me down when I didn’t do what they wanted me too, I went to find help and I’m doing so discovered who much these people I called friends were actually hurting me and that’s why I’ve turn to this page because even though I should be happy I feel empty and I was hoping to find someone who to might be like me some who’s described as the happiest and bubbliest person in the room but on the inside feels very alone and closed of from others.

Just asked for my first job.

replies: 4

Hi all, I don't really know what help I need right now, but I want to write this down to get it out of my head. I'm a university student and just finished my second year. I've always been a good student, getting good grades. But I hate the uni student lifestyle, and the party lifestyle, and desperately want to start doing something where I feel useful and satisfied. I enjoyed manual arts in school, topped one of the classes in my final year and was on good terms with all the teachers in the department. I was well ahead in the course content and was one of the students they would go to for side projects and help with errands. I want to feel useful like that again, but any opportunities in university assume knowledge or people skills, and I have zero confidence in my ability to find even a basic job. On the other side of it, I have the skills and ability to be a good student and get myself into university to study science, and don't feel like I can ask for or make good use of any support programs for mental health/entering the workforce (Asperger's, anxiety and depression, can't remember which psychologists diagnosed what or how many years ago. Long story). In other words, I have 'potential' and people assume that I'm doing well. I managed to ask for one job at a small bike store (friendly people, technical work and I rely on a bike to get everywhere myself), was told they're full up and to leave a resume. And that's... wonderful, but I feel crushed even though that interaction went well. I feel like a failure. I feel like I'm slipping through the cracks, and I feel really alone.

life is just getting too much

replies: 18

i am just really struggling at the moment. the past 18 months have been hell. i feel like i can’t escape the constant voice in the back of my head telling me to feel how to feel. exams aren’t even what i am anxious about it’s my “friends” who make me feel like this. classes are the easy part. happiness just seems to be getting further and further away. i just can’t find a way to get out of the darkness. i want and need help but i just don’t know how to get to it.

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

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

New Person, I need help (with my life) replies: 4

Can’t sleep replies: 2

Career and mental health replies: 3

Career advice replies: 1

Sleep anxiety replies: 6

Do I need help or am I just sad about my ex? replies: 3

please help... replies: 2

Feeling alone replies: 1

Just asked for my first job. replies: 4

life is just getting too much replies: 18