Young people

A space for people aged 12-25 to discuss life. If you’re over 25, please be mindful that this is a space for younger people to connect.

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romantic_thi3f 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 i... View more

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!

Sophie_M 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 mindfu... View more

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.

All discussions

littlegoat my anxiety/depression has affected me and my relationships and i don't know what to do anymore
  • replies: 4

Hi there, i'm sorry if i'm being overdramatic but i just really needed to get some help/advice. Recently, it's come to my attention that my negativity/stressed nature has affected so many parts of my life. I once thought and was seen as a very optimi... View more

Hi there, i'm sorry if i'm being overdramatic but i just really needed to get some help/advice. Recently, it's come to my attention that my negativity/stressed nature has affected so many parts of my life. I once thought and was seen as a very optimistic person and some people (those i'm not close too) still think that way. I don't know what happened to myself in the past few years but i became very stressed about literally everything, especially my studies as my hsc was approaching. i think one of the triggers might have been that i did not know what i wanted to do in the future. I wanted to get the highest atar i could to broaden my options for uni courses. So i was always tense and stressed out about studying while also wanting to balance out my social life as well.i had a boyfriend at the time who was very supportive and rather the opposite of me. He didn't really understand stress but tried to be understanding and calm me down when i was stressing out. the issue was that i was fixated on the idea of achieving a high atar and my parents were against dating so i didn't tell them about him and he knew. my aim was to get a high atar for them to understand that the relationship i had didn't impact my studies. And i stand by that today because he was supportive of me and i loved him for that. He waited for me and knew we couldn't properly date because the view of my parents. After hsc and atar results, my parents now knew about him but they were still against it, believing i am too young. But we continued to be together. I was still stressing a lot. He was still there for me still but about 5 months ago, he seemed very cold and distant to me. I mentioned how i was feeling about it to him several times and he'd say he's sorry then seem normal again but then back to being distant a few days after. That made me feel guilty, maybe i wasn't giving him enough attention, we weren't going out much so i tried harder, seeing him more often before uni but it wasn't helping and my stress levels were just getting too much to handle because i overthink so much. My closest friends were worried about me because i was so stressed cause my feelings weren't reciprocated and he wasn't treating me like a girlfriend anymore. Feeling so hurt, i knew i needed to break up with him although i still liked him very much till this day. (i went over the character limit, sorry)

Lachy3130 My self-fulfilling prophecy
  • replies: 2

I have been more or less unemployed my entire short life. I have only had roughly 5 months which was in 2013, and about 2 months worth of work days last year. I enjoy working, that's no lie, however I can not see the point in looking for any. I am in... View more

I have been more or less unemployed my entire short life. I have only had roughly 5 months which was in 2013, and about 2 months worth of work days last year. I enjoy working, that's no lie, however I can not see the point in looking for any. I am in a cycle that I can clearly see but it has no way out of it. I will first find myself without money to feed or transport myself with, so I will hype myself up to find work. When I put a lying smile on my face and tell those who turn me away that I would love to work for them, that I am keen to start whenever they are ready, that I am happy to do whatever job no matter how small, I go into them trying to believe that I can get the job. Then I either get a generic email saying that I am not eligible for the job, that someone more worthy has taking it. If I hear from them at all that is. So whatever small amount of self worth I have is snuffed out, so I give up on looking for work. That is until I find myself broke with little food and fuel until my next payment and I look again. This has happened so many times that I truly think that I will never work again in my life. I know that this means that thinking this just means that it will keep happening again and again. At times I just want to tell those who interview that I know that they think I'm hopeless. That I won't get the job. That I'm wasting their time, along with everyone else who's going for the job. While I sometimes think about removing myself from this cycle, I won't. It would hurt the people I love far too much So I'll lie again about looking for work, that I care about my studies, that I want to smile and laugh. It's what's expected of me.

sunbear74 I'm not really sure what is going on. I'm drowning.
  • replies: 7

I'm not sure if this qualifies for the seriousness of this website but I'm running out of people to talk to. I've hit a point in my life where I feel like I'm drowning or being smothered and I can't breathe. I've tried telling my parents, but my feel... View more

I'm not sure if this qualifies for the seriousness of this website but I'm running out of people to talk to. I've hit a point in my life where I feel like I'm drowning or being smothered and I can't breathe. I've tried telling my parents, but my feelings are shrugged off as stress at uni. But in all honesty it feels like so much more than that. I'm the girl who people come to for advice and support, I try to be strong and happy for others so that they don't have to be. The minute I get home though I collapse. I don't feel like doing anything but lie in bed. I don't go out with my friends anymore because I don't want them to see me like this. My dad keeps constantly getting mad at me for things I do, and refuses to see things from my perspective when I try to explain. We go for days without talking sometimes and he thinks I'm trying to control his life and doesn't see how upset it makes me. The little aspects of my life are starting to crack and I try to compensate by distracting others with a facade of a bright and bubbly personality. I want to try and feel better before my life shatters completely. I've tried just about everything, excersise, healthy eating, meditation and above all the hardest thing for me to do was tell my parents. None of that worked and I'm here as a last resort. I know I don't have any serious problems but all the little things going wrong in my life are starting to add up, and soon I'm not going to be able to bear it anymore. Please offer some advice as to what you think I should do going forward, and how I can get back on track.

beyond_happy I don't want to leave but..
  • replies: 5

Im currently a high school student, who has in the past suffered from severe depression. I no longer associate myself with the negative thoughts that I previously did but I tend to struggle a lot with issues and I just came here today in hope for adv... View more

Im currently a high school student, who has in the past suffered from severe depression. I no longer associate myself with the negative thoughts that I previously did but I tend to struggle a lot with issues and I just came here today in hope for advice. My friends, the people I've spent my whole high school experience with, are continuously ignoring me, not inviting me anywhere, talking behind my back and pushing me out. I keep blaming myself for this but i know that i have done nothing wrong. I haven't confronted any issues with them because knowing them, so well, they will not have a mature conversation with me. I know this will potentially be the end of our friendships, leaving me with no body. I know many people will tell me to leave the group, find new friends but i have booked several holidays with them which causes an issue. I know this doesn't seem like much but I have never really felt this alone. Please help.

JustNotMeantToBe Hello I have decided to post here.
  • replies: 1

Hello I have decided to post here because I really dont have anyone else to talk to in Australia. Ever since high school Alot if not most of my friends have moved onto uni in another city and haven't bothered to talk to me since. Im in the same town ... View more

Hello I have decided to post here because I really dont have anyone else to talk to in Australia. Ever since high school Alot if not most of my friends have moved onto uni in another city and haven't bothered to talk to me since. Im in the same town doing a second year apprenticeship in plumbing with a very abusive boss. My boss Im pretty sure is a drug addict and will come to work to just abuse me 90% of the time. Yesterday I accidental cross threaded a brass nut and he went on a thirty minute rant about how im useless and he wishes he picked another apprentice to work with him because "he would rather of hired a dog to keep him company than me". Yes he actually said that. I really don't know what else to do Im just not seeing the point in anything. Life is really boring to me and Im too socially awkward to make new friends outside of the people I already work with. There just really isn't any point to any of this.

Kamh I don't know how I feel anymore.
  • replies: 6

I'm sorry if this is all over the place, it's my first time posting in these forums. I just recently got diagnosed with depression after struggling with severe anxiety for a few years. Everything has kinda changed the last few weeks though. I can't r... View more

I'm sorry if this is all over the place, it's my first time posting in these forums. I just recently got diagnosed with depression after struggling with severe anxiety for a few years. Everything has kinda changed the last few weeks though. I can't really feel anything but anxious. I feel numb, and I have no idea how I am. I really hate it, it's scary. My sister said that feeling numb means you are getting better? Is that true? I feel like I'm going to explode, kind of like I have all of this pentup emotion that can't come out. Is this a symptom of anxiety/depression? My mum thinks I don't need counselling anymore because she thinks I'm getting better, but I really don't feel like I'm better. I just feel different. But not in a good way. I still feel like I'm drowning in sadness, but it's not the type of sadness that makes you cry (though I feel like I'm going to, but I can't cry). I'm sorry if I'm not describing it very well. Please tell me if you know what's wrong, or have any idea how to help. thanks so much!

Liza_O12 I think I'm in denial about being depressed and my friends dont care.
  • replies: 19

I struggle to get out of bed every day, I feel sad almost ALL the time and I have Lots of symptoms of a depressed person but I am very good at hiding it. I get to school and I'm a bubbly, funny and happy person who's kind to everyone. That's why I'm ... View more

I struggle to get out of bed every day, I feel sad almost ALL the time and I have Lots of symptoms of a depressed person but I am very good at hiding it. I get to school and I'm a bubbly, funny and happy person who's kind to everyone. That's why I'm still debating whether or not I'm depressed, because I can 'snap out of it' so easily. It's still there, in the back of my mind, but I can push it away. i don't think it's healthy to hide it the whole time. Recently I had an argument with my friends at school which somehow ended up in me telling them that I have been struggling with feelings of anxiety and depression, which I had never told anyone. It resulted in them saying 'they wish they knew so they could help' but since then, no one has talked to me about it. I'm not even sure they're my real friends anymore. That's why I miss so many days of school, because I don't think I fit in. sorry if my writing is all over the place, I'm just trying to write how I feel and any advice would be greatly appreciated. Basically, high school sucks and feeling anxious and depressed sucks even more. Writing on this forum is a big step for me, because for a long time I've been debating whether or not how I'm feeling is hormones or something more.

_Piper_ Questioning sexuality
  • replies: 5

I'm fifteen and am in year nine at high school. I have been questioning my sexuality for a few years now but only recently have actually accepted that I like girls as well as boys. I'm too scared to tell anyone as I know what people will think and th... View more

I'm fifteen and am in year nine at high school. I have been questioning my sexuality for a few years now but only recently have actually accepted that I like girls as well as boys. I'm too scared to tell anyone as I know what people will think and the stereotypes they will attach to me. I'm not quite sure how my parents will react either. They're not homophobic but we've never really discussed their opinion in the matter. I don't even feel as if I can tell my friends as I know how rumours and gossip spread as I go to a school where half the students are incredibly homophobic and half are te complete opposite. I guess I just need some advice as to what to do. I feel like I need to tell someone but I don't know who.

waynetrain I feel nothing i dont know what to do ,im 14
  • replies: 2

Ive been feeling like this for a while i used to have comforts when i was a kid but now theres nothing im starting to think ive got some sort of mental illness or ive got PTSD but its so hard to explain to someone its like im on cruise control just g... View more

Ive been feeling like this for a while i used to have comforts when i was a kid but now theres nothing im starting to think ive got some sort of mental illness or ive got PTSD but its so hard to explain to someone its like im on cruise control just going through life can someone help

Josh101 LOST
  • replies: 2

Hey guys, I'm 21 and this is the first time i've ever reached out to anybody for help with my mental health. Lately i've been feeling strange and I wouldn't call this feeling new i'd just say that I don't like it. So far in my life i've had a lot of ... View more

Hey guys, I'm 21 and this is the first time i've ever reached out to anybody for help with my mental health. Lately i've been feeling strange and I wouldn't call this feeling new i'd just say that I don't like it. So far in my life i've had a lot of ups and downs. As i'm sure everyone has and so far i've known how to deal with these emotions and life. However lately i've felt very alone. This feeling comes from: 1. Past relationships ending 2. Social anxiety (not being able to talk to people the same as I could before 3.University and the workload that comes with it 4. Not having any time for myself I know these are common issues for somebody my age however I find i'm constantly thinking about them and cannot no matter how hard I try STOP! I also feel lost in life so far i've done a lot of travel and met a lot of friends, however even if i'm in a room surrounded by people I still feel alone. This is me putting my heart on a plate and this isn't a common occurence however i've come to the conclusion that I need help even if it's just from random people on a forum. If you can give me any advice/ideas that'd be great because anything that could help would be very appreciated. Thankyou and Peace and Love