Please can I have your advice?

[Teacup_]

 Hi there,

I am 18 years old, and I moved to Australia from the UK with my family when I was 16. I started school a few weeks into year 12, and I struggled to make friends, and had a few issues and tiffs with some of the groups I had associated myself with. I started to suffer social anxiety and panic attacks. Straight after school, I started a full-time job because I cant get a uni loan as I am not a citizen.

After a few months of working at my current job, I started to suffer with fatigue and really bad stomach aches, which would cause me to leave work early. When I went to the doctor, I was told I had ibs, at the same time I had started to take the pill. Within weeks, my stomach aches were getting worse, but a gluten free diet helped but I also noticed a change in my mood. I went back to the doctor, and she suggested going off the pill to control my emotions but It has just gotten worse.

I had always been a shy type, but it has now got to the point where I limit and avoid social interaction with my friends which has caused some arguments e.g cancelling plans at the last minute because I didn't want to

get out of bed, avoid social events i.e. bbq and parties,I call in sick to work, Im often bored, I cry a lot and it doesn't take a lot to make me upset (I often over react), I always have headaches, and negative thoughts (i.e about self harming myself), and I always get stressed about work and worry about it a lot. I work in retail and deal with returns, and many customers can be rude, abusive and aggressive which makes me stressed and worried about going in, since I've had some bad experiences with it all. 

 I would just like some advice on how to deal with my out of control emotions as it is affecting me socially and with my job. At my last appointment my doctor questioned whether I felt depressed (may be the cause of my ibs) but I couldn't admit it because my mum was there and she is unaware of how I feel and what I'm going through. I have booked another appointment for next week to talk to my doctor about how I've been feeling etc, and would also like some advice on what to say because I'm really nervous!

 Thanks

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[Neil_1]

Dear teacup;

Welcome to Beyond Blue and thank you for providing your post.

Some advice with regard to seeing your GP next week would be, say, over the weekend it might be a good idea to type down a list of dot points of the things that upset you and things that you feel you have issues about.  You could certainly use items from your post here as examples – and just do them as dot points, as when in the appointment, you should be able to expand on them;   or the doctor may try to do that with you, so you don’t feel so daunted by it.

For information, I too (as I know others on here have as well) have many times cancelled plans with friends or family, because I just couldn’t face up to going to ‘an occasion’ as it was going to stress me out too much.  Just wanted to let you know that, so you don’t feel you are on your own with those kinds of feelings.  With what you’ve written, I can sure relate to a lot of it;   and others would too.

Would love to hear back from you – and if you have further thoughts, questions, then also please write back again.

Kind regards

Neil