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 go through phases too quickly.

replies: 5

I don't know whether everyone will be able to relate to this because I've tried talking to people but they don't really understand, but here goes... Basically, I go through phases. Not "I liked princesses for a year and now I'm emo", but "I spent a month obsessing over this and now I don't like it and have completely moved on". It means for a specific expanse of time (ranging from a month to a whole year), I can be obsessed with something and edit my life to accommodate for my new interests, often to a drastic extent. Last year I was utterly enthralled in astronomy. I loved Doctor Who so much, spending hundreds of dollars on merch. I also desperately wanted to be an astronaut, and started studying advanced physics and learning Russian (I wasn't up to learn physics in school). My life completely revolved around this future career, and I signed up for programs, paid for online classes and planned out my future after graduating high school; I would get a maths degree, join the Air Force for a year then travel to USA to train to become an astronaut. Then it all changed. At the start of this year I...just stopped. I stopped trying desperately and moved on to another dream. Problem is I had paid all that money and spent all that time for nothing. I haven't touched a Doctor Who episode since. I began to become obsessed with something else: Acting. Marvel was my favourite thing in the universe, I watched all the movies religiously and once again, spent hundreds on merch. I had giant goals to become an actor, and it became the one thing I wanted to do, forget about plan B. I followed casting websites, saved up money to pay for acting tuition and basically planned my future out again, never mind the fact that a career in the arts is nearly impossible. Right now, I have just "exited" that phase. Sure, I still would like to be an actor but not desperately, I have become entangled into kpop and even though I'm the incorrect ethnicity and can't dance or sing, becoming an idol is a dream. I know all these dreams are near impossible and would take so much work, and I pretend to be committed, but I'm not. So, I've fallen into a depressed state where I know I shouldn't commit to any dreams because I'll move on eventually and wreck my life for the umpteenth time. All my goals are so high and it breaks my heart every time I fall down to reality, realising that I'll never be so successful. I am not trying anymore and this is horrible. I don't know what to do. Please help.

feeling paranoid???

replies: 4

I just made an account and don't know where to put this so hopefully this is the right spot. I don't know if I'm just being dramatic but lately i have really been struggling with the fear of someone breaking into my house at night and murdering my family and then me. Maybe it is just because i am young (16) but ever since i was little i thought someone was going to get me while i slept so i would sleep with a stick under my bed and make traps with my toys (so i would have time to escape an murderer) as little as i can remember. At night i make up horrible scenarios in my head of different ways people could get into my house and the ways they would kill me and non stop thinking of places i could hide and can't shut it off. The past few months i have been having trouble sleeping because of it and have had to do strange things to be less afraid like i have to sleep with only the sound of my air conditioner and nothing else like no relaxing phone apps because I'm scared someone will hear and know I'm in my room. I think any noise is someone coming upstairs to kill me and i just freeze and my heartbeats very quickly. I have locked my door while i sleep ever since i moved to my new house with a lock and always have it locked even in the day. But i am not really scared when I'm with other people. I also have also always had an issue with someone possibly dying in my family (even though i know i shouldn't worry about the inevitable) and whenever I'm with them i try to take lots of videos and pictures just in case they die soon. I dread them dying all the time and it causes me quite a lot of stress and anxiety. I hate feeling this way and i just don't know what to do at this point or who to talk to since i never have spoken to anyone about these things and don't want to go to a professional. I just seem to be happy one moment and then extremely sad and imagine my family dead the next. Maybe this is normal but i would love some advice or some ways i could help myself. Thank you.

How can I help my mum?

replies: 4

My mum has been dealing with anxiety for most of her life, and its an anxiety that limits her to the bone. she can't go out otherwise she has panic attacks, All my life I've been sensitive about not being able to do the things you want to in your life, and seeing my mum (unlike like other women) not being able to go out or do stuff she as a child dreamed of, really hurts to think about. I want to help her but I really am unsure how to. I try my hardest to take the pressure off her all the time, but there is always something new to be concerned about (bills, stress) I don't know what I can do anymore? I am losing my mind. I am losing all of my options.

fear of failure going into year 11 and 12

replies: 1

Hi everyone, I'm a year 10 student from Queensland. It's the end of term 3 now, so it's approaching the time where we have to pick our senior subjects and make a plan for what we want to do for the next 2 years and how that will contribute to our future career plans. 2019 so far has been the worst year of my life. I've been pretty much forced to attend school via distance education (which I like a lot better, so far). Autism and depression make it very hard to get through the day and complete assessment at a mainstream school. For whatever reason, I was managing (barely, lol) at the mainstream school until year 10, when it all came crashing down and I had a big mental health crisis. So basically I'm scared of that happening again and 'ruining' my year 11 and 12 results (aka the results that actually matter, probably). Distance education has been a big help, but I feel the depression creeping up again. I'm scared that I will lose all motivation entirely; not that I have much anyways. It doesn't help that depression has took away what interests and purpose I had in life. This makes it very hard to choose subjects and start mapping out what I might want to do with my career. Sorry this post is long, I kind of just needed to vent.

It's just too much

replies: 2

The last 2 years have been a lot, you know when you feel it snowballing and you just can't get out. I've always struggled with it but life seems to be getting bigger and worse. At 21 years old my mum has just moved back overseas, which has left me feeling alone. I had to let her go so she could get better for herself, so she could get through her depression after a sexual assault. But it's pushed me into my own depression now, which I can't tell her about or she'll want to come home. I haven't spoken to my dad in years, since she's left i've been revisiting the idea of opening communication back up, but he's hurt me too much, they say forgive and forget but that must run out at some point right? I just feel like an orphan. I'm in a loving relationship which I am so grateful for. He is my rock, the love of my life, but he doesn't always understand which isn't his fault. I've lost my dog this year and have been made redundant from a job I love. I'm unemployed and just left with my thoughts all day long, there's only so much netflix a girl can watch. Lots of good things have also happened the last couple of years too, but there not pushing me through like they usually would. To add onto it all, a couple weeks ago I found out I had an early miscarriage which I didn't think upset me at the time. But since then a close friend has lost her brother, and her loss is making me think of my own. I'm not quiet sure if it's the miscarriage or the idea of losing something that could've potentially made me happy, or just having something else in my life be taken from me. I thought I had been through enough during my childhood, and thought the universe would be kind to me later on, it's now later on and my luck won't change. But I know we make our own luck in this world, I'm hoping each heart break makes me stronger, each tear makes me happier and each loss makes love harder. I hope anyone reading this can understand i'm in a bad place right now, i'm needing to vent, and just wanting someone to listen.

I feel I've lost the steering wheel

replies: 1

I seem to have a terrible procrastination problem, which is badly interfering with my exams/assignments (I am in year 11). I feel that all the life plans I have made for the future are dissolving under my own eyes as I bodge more and more ATAR points. I constantly catch myself going off task when working, try going back on task to find myself unable, and feel like banging my head on a brick wall. I do not know if my late diagnosis of ADHD (circa. age 11) is the cause of this, or if it's an issue that rooted from being raised in a particular way. I realise that it's wrong to shift the blame on psychologists or parents, but my scientific mindset tells me that all problems have a source, and I can't figure out where this crippling issue came from, how I can fix it or why it's happening. I've never been diagnosed with depression, anxiety or others, so I don't think that's the issue. This issue is stopping me from doing the things I enjoy (gaming, hanging out with friends), as I sit down to try do work but don't actually ever get to it, so I have to come back the next morning to sit down at the same spot, procrastinate more, repeat. I'm sick of not being able to work, and I can almost see my life falling apart in front of me, please help.

Failing TAFE and it's getting me down

replies: 1

Hi, i started a tourism course at tafe back in July and i'm failing everything like i'm pretty much getting unsatisfactory back on every assessment i get, even from when i missed one thing or didn't have the right information for the other. Even people i have made friends with are getting unsatisfactory results and even the smart guy of the class got unsatisfactory on his assessment because he got something wrong! It is that ridiculous! But this is all honestly getting me down. I went to TAFE because i'm struggling to get a job and i wanted to study something that interested me, now i don't feel like doing it anymore. I have spoken to the teacher a few times, saw a counselor at the tafe and disability support services as i'm also having untreated ADHD and which i got medication for today and got medication also for my anxiety/depression. I'm also going to be getting a study plan and tutor and probably will have the course extend for me into next year because there is also too many assessments. But i honestly don't want to keep failing assessments and having to keep re-doing the course. I didn't expect for it to be like this, i didn't expect pay all this money and enroll just to get unsatisfactory marks even on something minor. All i've done these past few years is work a small security job and be at home all day. I hated being at home all day doing nothing but now i feel worse from failing in this course, all i'm glad about is from going to tafe is getting out of the house and meeting new people.

My overwhelming depression

replies: 1

Hi, I'm Grace. and I have clinical depression. I'm writing here because I feel I have nobody to turn to. During my lunch and recess at school I run away from people as far as I can and during class, I sit at the back and I barely talk. I look at so many happy people and think "why can't I just be like those people" I cut my hair short because I thought I didn't deserve to be pretty and I think why haven't I gotten rid of myself already and whenever I ask myself I remember the guy I like and how I love trying my best to get him to notice me. Since starting kindergarten but I've been able to hide from almost anybody and cant be found until I want to be found and it's gotten harder for my loved ones to find me anymore. I told at school cause some people to see me and call me dead cause I always look like I've died and I've never smiled at anybody. People look at me like I'm going to kill them and sometimes I wish I had that power to but at the same time, I want to be noticed by others so they can help me. People always say I have to smile more and my teacher gave me something called the 'happy mask' its a mask with a happy face to hide my horrible, dead and depressed face. I look like I've been starved and nobody wants to look at me. I keep my mask on almost every day but as soon as I take it off I go back to look at my horrible self and hope I wish I wasn't like this. I don't understand the term 'broken' or 'unfixable' it's just what people call me, so that's what I tell myself. I've destroyed everything in my path just because I wanted it to be just like me destroyed, unfixable, broken and lifeless. I'm the only person in my family that can stare at horror movies because they relate to me all the villan are misunderstood or just 'broken' "I think of death like a holiday at the beach" that's what I tell myself and that what I believe everyday. Thanks for listening to me and i hope somebody could understand me.

Repressing Emotions

replies: 2

When I was younger, I was physically bullied a lot. I had the mindset that no one would believe me if I told them that a 12 year old was physically attacking a 6 year old, so I pretended everything was fine and forced out a lot of emotions, pretending to be happy. I told people that I had no idea where my bruises, scars and cuts came from, and they just shrugged and said, "ok then". Until one day when I was 9. I was in music, we were sitting in a circle so everyone could see everyone else, and this guy. He physically assaulted me. But what hurt most, was when I decided to tell mum what actually happened. She just chuckled, pegged it on my imagination and showed my (mind you, impressive) bump to her friend. So I started repressing everything. I lost my temper a lot, and didn't like interacting with people, apart from toxic friendships that I forced myself into thinking I would be safer like that. It also didn't help the whole repression thing when mum said I couldn't listen to Lady Gaga music just because she was part of the LGBT community. I'm lesbian, so it made me more scared to share things. Now, I'm pretty messed up. I still get blamed for my temper, and when I told mum the full truth about my bullying problems she yelled at me for "not trying to tell her sooner". I have several anxiety and depressive disorders now, as well as psychotic depression and almost PTSD. I don't think I can officially call it that though. I sometimes act like a psychopath, and all because no one ever believed me. So uhh yeah.

First timer in a crisis! - Anxiety, Depression and working in a toxic environment

replies: 2

First Timer here... I am 23 and was diagnosed with depression and anxiety 9 years ago. It comes in waves but was worse when I was younger, I will be okay for 2 months or so at a time before a breakdown, then I pull myself back up again and continue the cycle. I have worked since I was 14, finished year 11 and got a diploma in the travel industry that I quickly found that I didn't want to work in (crappy pay & no enjoyment traveling 1+hrs for work). When i was 18-19 I was employed into the local family business (my father never wanted me to work there as it's a toxic environment and ruined the relationship between my parents and grandparents over the years of stress and not to mention everybody has anger issues) 4.5 years later, i work 5 and a half days a week still and I am lost. I spend the days working ( i am great at my job can run the shop on my own for weeks at a time without supervision or help from others, but it is unfulfilling and we deal with aggressive customers constantly... which me a stress-head cannot handle) After work and on my 1 and a half days off all I want to do is relax and do nothing. My dad and I have big arguments, he has thrown chairs at walls within shop hours, screams in my face and hurls pure abuse at the worst of times. But is also the nicest man I have ever met, so giving and pays me generously and gives me days off. After running the store for 3 weeks no issue I had a question about a customer I needed resolved so asked him before work. He clicked it and ended up screaming through the bathroom door calling me useless, that i cant do my job etc when it was no big deal. I broke down sobbing and refused to go to work and have finally had enough as I am sick of being treated this way when all I do is help everyone else out (these arguments over nothing happen every 2 or so months in-line with my breakdowns). Have been hiding at my boyfriends for 4 days and dad has texted me saying he loves me but i wont reply, i am scared of him and i dont want to face confrontation which is inevitable as nothing has been discussed. A co-worker was supposed to take leave next week but now nobody to cover, do i offer to work for the week and pocket some extra cash? I told him I quit that day and I don't know what to do, i have minimal savings which will only cover my spending money for a 4 day trip already planned and payed for in 2 and a half weeks time. I have no interests, career goals, i want to study but don't know what. Any advice? Thanks

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

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

I go through phases too quickly. replies: 5

feeling paranoid??? replies: 4

How can I help my mum? replies: 4

fear of failure going into year 11 and 12 replies: 1

It's just too much replies: 2

I feel I've lost the steering wheel replies: 1

Failing TAFE and it's getting me down replies: 1

My overwhelming depression replies: 1

Repressing Emotions replies: 2

First timer in a crisis! - Anxiety, Depression and working in a toxic environment replies: 2