Feeling depressed, anxious and a little "crazy?"

[Emily_Anne]

Hello 🙂

So for the last few months I have started feeling a little more down than usual. I had become more tired and I started completely isolating myself from people. In the last 4-6 months, I've started feeling really anxious about things. Especially school. I used to be fine with standing in front of the class and speaking but now I absolutely loathe it. I'm starting to get a lot more panic attacks lately. They usually consist of me crying, feeling a little ill, shaking and rapid breathing. Most days I can't even get out of bed and my friends don't really understand my situation. Therefore resulting in me losing my friends. I absolutely hate the thought of being alone in public or even starting a conversation myself. I've found myself to be a little more anti-social lately and I would choose to be alone in my room doing whatever than going out with a friend and being social. I've also been notified that I am changing schools and I really don't want to go due to the fact that that means I have to make friends on my own. Lately I've found that I lose all interest or motivation to do absolutely anything and it's now gotten to the point where I am failing my classes at school because I don't do my work or hand in my assignments on time. I've talked to my school counsellor about it and she suggested maybe it was because I was stressed or overwhelmed. But this wasn't just at exam/assignment time, it was happening a lot and not only over school. The bare thought of seeing my Grandma or going to the beach to see family stresses me out and I don't know what to do. My family thinks I'm a crybaby or "fragile" because I'm always on the brink of tears. But only because I always have my guard up, scared something is going to happen. And I always overthink things and think of the worst outcome from the smallest thing. I feel very tired if I am at school all day or being social all day to the point where I will sleep from the moment I get home to the morning. My family don't believe me or take me seriously and I don't know what to do. They think I'm being the typical teenager who is always on their phone 24/7. I don't really know what to do and I feel a little crazy (I don't know if that's the correct usage or word). I feel like I just want to stay at home all day, blast music and just sit there and just try not to think. I have very few days when I feel really confident or happy with myself but I can't remember the last time that happened.

Thank you in advance.

[Narniakid]

Hey Emily Anne, welcome to the forums and thank you for reaching out to us.

Reading this, I felt like I'm looking back at myself when I was at school - I remember feeling the same way. I am sorry to hear about what you're going through. School and friends are hard enough without having anxiety and stress mixed in.

It's great that you've already approached your school counsellor for some advice - was this at your current school? Perhaps if they weren't very helpful, you could try talking to the counsellor at your new school. There's also places like Headspace available to school students who are struggling, which are worth considering.

It's a real shame that your parents seem to have ignored the fact you're feeling like this. Is there another family member you could approach, an aunt or a cousin? Having someone to support you, particularly a family member, is important. We always have our 24/7 hotline available to contact too.

Hope to hear from you soon, stay strong.

Crystal

[ahw309]

Hi Emily Anne!

Crystal has already given great advice but I just wanted to say welcome too, and offer my support 🙂

Every single sentence you've written really resonates with me. As someone still in school as well and going through a lot of similar feelings, I congraulate you on reaching out here, and to your counsellor (even if they weren't that helpful)!

School and just being young can be really stressful and confusing at times, and it's so important to have people there to talk to when you feel you're struggling. Knowing that I have a support system of family, friends, teachers, my school counsellor, etc. that I can fall back on when I need to gives me a lot of comfort!