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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Why do i feel like nothing is going to work?

replies: 2

Hey, so this is my first time on the site and really my first time sharing my feelings, I sound like a cliched movie character, but it's true and basically I came here because I think it might help to be able to talk without having to keep up the facade that is literally my entire personality and life, my question is a two parter 1: why do I feel like I'm drowning, on fire and stuck all at once? and 2: Why do I keep intentionally failing to replicate emotions I have been unable to experience for the better part of ten years? and 3: am I the only one who does/ feels like this? sorry, that ended up being a three parter, but anyway If anyone can share there own thoughts and experiences THAT WOULD BE A HUGE HELP!!!! also sorry if i did this wrong, I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing yet:).

I just wanna get this off my chest

replies: 3

I'm 21 turning 22 in January and I'm still living with my parents and I hate it I have no job still on my learner permit (got it when I was nearly 18) I have no job and I have never had one and I can't get any from centrelink due to a part my parents have to do and they refuse to do it even though I want it since I want to help my parents with bills. I live in the middle of nowhere an hour away from any big towns on a farm where I had no choice but to move to. I have bipolar depression and severe anxiety and I'm not getting any better and with my parents fighting all the time I don't know how I will get any better I am tired all the time and hungry my sleep patterns shift constantly and I have no ambition or goals for my life so everyday is a blur to me and I hate it but I can't fix it but I tell myself I want to fix it but have no reason/motivation to fix it I feel like I am wasting my life away everyday. Sorry for my ramblings but i needed to tell someone since I don't know how to cope with it on my own

Tired of being lonely and miserable

replies: 7

Hi everyone, I'm a 20 year old male, I don't have any friends and haven't had any real friends even through school/high school I was bullied and avoided through those years. I'm at a point where I am sick of being lonely, I have a job that I work from 7-4pm full time. I don't have any opportunities to make friends at work because I work with family. I am socially awkward and can't draw on past friends to be able to go out. I would really like to go clubbing and stuff like most guys my age. It gets me down seeing the good relationships and the amount of fun people have that I see on Facebook and such. How can I make friends and stop being so lonely? My social awkwardness comes from lack of experience, throughout my schooling years I chose video games over social activities mostly because I had no friends. The lonely feeling is killing me.

Unsure if I'm the 'right fit' for Uni

replies: 8

Hi all, Newbie here Long story short- I coasted through high school with great academic performance and have spent the last few years in and out of degrees, trying to find something that 'suits' me. I've settled on psychology and I can see myself in the mental health arena but I've gone from doing four subjects a semester and doing okay, to 2 subjects and barely scraping through. I have depression and anxiety, and I know for sure that has a huge imapact on my academic performance. Right now though, I really just feel like quitting. I don't like the education I'm receiving- I don't even feel like it's education. I'm not learning, just memorising. And the content does not feel relevant at all. There's no hands-on application for what we're studying and it frustrates me because I know all too well once I graduate, I'll have almost nothing useful to take with me into my career. I've been considering TAFE. I'm just worried I'll start that and it'll be the same as my experience with uni. Any guidance/advice is appreciated. Thank you!

Everytime i see my reflection or look in the mirror i feel ugly...

replies: 2

Hello, I am new to Bluebird and not sure how to start this. I just feel so ugly and can't help but critise myself, i'm not even sure why it matters to me as much as it does because, unlike many others, I know what I want to be and want to do. When the issue of self- depriciation first started for me, I was sated by the arguement of ' people on social media have spent hours trying to perfect their pictures' or 'that's not how they actually look', but now i'm just comparing myself to everyday people and as much as I've tried to stop, I just can't help it... Everytime I try to better my looks (skincare for example) and it works, I would feel happy and content for a miniscule amount of time before the back of my head reminds me, yet again, that I am unattractive. I have mentioned this to my parents, but you can probably guess their response. I'm too scared to talk to this with my friends as I believe that they'd judge me or brush the statement off by saying' you're not ugly' when it's quite clearly a lie. I don't think I've ever gotten a genuine compliment that wasn't from my parents and thinking about that just makes it all the worse. I don't even want to be undeniably beautiful, I just want to be average.

Worry about future career prospects

replies: 11

Hi all, I'm 20 and in my penultimate year of university. I am panicking intensely about my future career prospects since I would be graduating with two degrees in an ultimately useless fields since I don't have any skills or abilities that employers are looking for. I’ve never had a part time job in my life (was originally planning to get one this year, but COVID and moving back home has altered my plans and mental health significantly), and I’m honestly just been feeling defeated and anxious at home. The career I want to go into (museum work) is intensely competitive and rarely has any positions open. While I have volunteered at both galleries and museums for a little over a year I feel like it’s not enough and I don’t know if this would ever lead to full-time (or even part-time) employment. I’m honestly already feeling defeated before I begin. These thoughts been significantly distracting me from my studies, and the fact that my parents remain supportive of me studying my degree makes me feel even more guilty. Since I have no marketable skills and abilities, I feel like a failure who doesn’t deserve the privileges I’ve had. I constantly compare myself to other people my age even when I know that it’s unhealthy and pointless. I need to focus on the ‘now’ rather than anything else, but these thoughts run me in circles and it makes me anxious. I’ve tried to spin my thoughts into being productive, with a ’Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst,’ attitude by arranging a meeting with my university careers counsellor and by considering getting a few business/finance certificates from TAFE for the ‘hard’ skills, but I honestly still feel useless. I know that this stuff takes time, but I keep on returning to these thoughts and I feel like my brain is racing away from my body so all that happens is that I feel numb and distracted. I truly love my studies and degree (strongly considering postgraduate study - even if i do constantly stress about my grades), but I can’t help but feel like it’s completely and utterly useless in todays’ competitive job market where I can’t compete with post-graduates and active professionals with experience. Argh. Apologies if this isn’t in the correct thread, but thank you for reading.

So Should I open the text?

replies: 2

So I have never done anything like this before but I really need to get this off my chest. For reference I work as admin for the Sydney health district which before March was a pretty good job as it is flexible to do between my degree and it gave me weekends back. As well as that I earned good money without smelling like food or having to deal with money struggles of a failing business. I have a close friend that loss her job about 2 years ago and never looked for a new one as she moved to Melbourne but was living in a college so she had to move back up between semesters. We were quite close but last December, she started shaming me for "working too much". Things I suggested doing she would with other people claiming I was too busy. When I talked to her about it she said her mental health was not great so she couldn't be blamed for ignoring me and then moved back to melb and just stopped talking to all our friends in syd. Right before the border shut, I sent a message to her and another friend who lived in melb with the new restrictions cause I got emailed them. She came back to syd without telling anyone and then broken quarantine rules and was manipulating people saying it was fine. All while receiving from me in a group chat about how I getting abused at work and struggling with keeping my job to not get sent further out in the district. She sent me a message about two weeks later asking if I wanted to hang out. I said yes because I thought we could talk it out. When I brought up my issues what she had done and how it was affecting me she told me I was wrong that she knew more. She started making my pain into a competition of who has hurt more. I knew she didn't want to apologize or even admit that she had hurt me even when I had out right told her that she had. I tried putting that conversation back on to safe topics but her mood changed and just won't talk; only one word answers. Last week she texted me again. I haven't opened. I feel guilty but I just not okay at the moment. I'm struggling with my emotions and coping with the stress and loneliness of covid. I am struggling with anxiety, depression and paranoia but because of covid I cant get my usual help. I know the text isn't "Do you want to hang out?" it seems to be something long and critical of my behavior. I don't know how I would reply. So should I open the text?

Severe anxiety around exams

replies: 2

Hi! I'm doing my HSC currently and I get severe anxiety when it comes to exams. I more often than not get anxiety attacks when in exams and I cannot think straight in them and can't recall any information at all despite the fact that when not in the exam I can recall just about anything from my subjects. I feel so alone no one else I know experiences anxiety as bad as I do when it comes to exams except everyone tells me that they understand, but they don't. It would just be nice to know that I'm not the only one who feels this way and to see if anyone has any tips for controlling the anxiety when under exam conditions.

I dont know if I'm okay

replies: 3

I've recently started a part time job. I'm in university studying engineering. Although I understand that having a part time job is important, i don't know how to balance my work and study. I want to work but at the same time it takes me alot of hardwork to understand what my lectures are talking about. I want to do my best and achieve the best of what I can. Although it's normal to be working part time and studying at the same time, i dont knwo if I can handle it. My manager is kind and understanding but always asks if I can work more. Every body at my work place is a uni student, but they all work alot. I don't want to dissapoint them, I don't know if I do what others do. I've thought about quiting if I can't handle it, but my mum is very against it. She says she understands, but I don't think she really does. She always compares me, telling me that I don't actually study. But I do study, i don't even have a social life anymore. I don't have friends in uni. And i feel like compared to most uni students, I've already sacrificed alot of things just to stay home to study. I barely go out with the few friends i have, and I've never been the rebellious teenager who sneaks iut to meet friends. I've always put studying first. But it feels like im5never doing enough. I feel like I'm nlt doing anywhere near what others are doing. My mum tells me that this is life, that i have to learn hoe to manage my time, but i don't know. I feel very emoty. I feel like I'm doing what i can. I don't know if the reason I'm crying is because i can't handle the stress, or if I just feel sad and empty. I dont know how to express this in words, but I don't feel right. Thank you for listening.

Looking for help on undiagnosed mental health issues

replies: 2

Hey Everyone, It's my first time on a forum such as this, so I hope I'm doing the right thing and posting in the right place. I don't know if I'm using the wrong resources here, so if I am and my issues aren't serious enough to be seeking help on this platform, I'd like to apologise in advance. At the end of april/beginning of May, I found myself begin to loose a lot of energy and I was sad every day without reasoning. I felt so down in the dumps and I couldn't explain why. Everyone would tell me there has to be a reason, but I just wasn't all that interested in life anymore and I didn't know why. My boyfriend at the time would be constantly checking up it me, but it would make it really hard when I myself couldn't explain what was wrong or why I was sad. His own mental health issues made him feel useless. This went on for about a month, and at the end of may my boyfriend broke up with me. Here's my main issue - ever since we broke up (and I don't know if thats related, or just a coincidence), I've had a series of panic attacks (at school and work both). The first ever panic attack I had was the night we broke up. The second one, I was in tears for an entire two hours. After that, I lost count. They've sort of died down recently, however, over the past two or so months I've probably experienced a good 6-7 panic attacks. I'm not sure if this is normal or if there is something wrong with me. I guess I would just like to know, should I be taking this more seriously? Or is it just a stupid break up issue? I feel so stupid, I don't even know what is happening most of the time. My ex is my best friend still; I couldn't imagine my life without him. But he can't help me; and I can't even help myself.

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

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

Why do i feel like nothing is going to work? replies: 2

I just wanna get this off my chest replies: 3

Tired of being lonely and miserable replies: 7

Unsure if I'm the 'right fit' for Uni replies: 8

Everytime i see my reflection or look in the mirror i feel ugly... replies: 2

Worry about future career prospects replies: 11

So Should I open the text? replies: 2

Severe anxiety around exams replies: 2

I dont know if I'm okay replies: 3

Looking for help on undiagnosed mental health issues replies: 2