Lost and lonely
Just this year I've learned that I have high anxiety and depression. I'm 16 and my parents won't let me get medicated for either of them, despitethem being a struggle for me daily. Because of my anxiety, this past school year has really been a struggle and I just barely passed all my classes. My therapist said my anxiety was so bad, it caused me to mentally shut down and this has caused me to not be able to express my emotions well or communicate when I'm upset. All this has caused me to have to transfer schools for the next school year, and I'm terrified. All my doctors said this will be very hard for me socially and mentally, but overall very good for my academics. I just feel so alone and lost and I really want to be happier and mentally healthier but I don't know what to do...I'm trying very hard to be happy and fix myself, but I seem to just be falling deepernand deeper into depression. Please help
Hey there
Sorry to hear what you have been going through. I can very much relate.
At the moment you might feel alone, unsure and overwhelmed, but this can literally change overnight. Especially at this stage of your life. In probably two years you will go to university or enter the job market and meet loads of new people, learn loads of new things and grow through self exploration.
I am thinking of something to add what your therapist might have not discussed yet but i think you probably learned about most of the coping mechanisms.
At the moment do you have enough immersion, i.o.w a variety of things that keep your mind pleasantly occupied? If not consider setting up an action plan of things and schedule having fun into your daily routine. Be that gaming, exersizing,light reading, ....etc and try to keep at it in a regimented fashion since depression can make one quite lethargic.
At the moment moving to another school might be frightening, but how much more anxiety will thatcause that you don't already have. Maybe the move will usher in new friendships, maybe the study workload will be such that you have more time to relax. Sometimes we project the anxiety we have in a current situation to a future unknown situationbecause that is our only frame of reference. This does although often turn out to be a something quite different. You already show so much courage living with extreme anxiety and depression but still do what you have to do. You have the will to get better and seek solutions like the diligence with therapy and posting here. In other words there is a hunger in you to not give up. So much layahead of you, so much experiences and we live in wonderful times with so much progress and marvels like technology, medical and entertainmentthat i am very hopeful that immersion can help you in the battle against anxiety.
To end my post i want to allude to humble expectations.With life as it is now one will never be free of some sort of anxiety. Thus it is best to have reasonable expectations that anxiety is not really something that you beat once and for all. It's a process and with the years of self explorations and reaching out our coping mechanismsoften become better.
All the best to you and if you want keep us up to date on how things go.
Thank you so much, this was all very nice to hear, and yes i am sure that things will get better, life is just hard right now you know? But you where very helpful I cannot thank you enough
Its my pleasure friend. Yes, life is hard and especially on young people these days.
It seems that more and more younger people are getting depressed. And it's sad because I was always that super happy child that everyone loved and always turned to for laughs. And now I'm the complete opposite, and I'm the one looking to others for condolences.