Advice for mental health
hi all, i hope this ends up on the right discussion since i've seen similar situations like mine! i just want general advice for my mental health. i'm 17 years old and i'm diagnosed severe anxiety. during my gcses, i never felt anxious or anything but as soon as i started sixth form everything went downhill. i had no friends in the beginning of the year and i really struggled with this. i used to come home and cry everyday during my breaks because i felt like an outcast. i've always had social anxiety but it just went worse because of this situation, no matter how hard i tried to fit in or how much i spoke my anxiety just kept getting worse and worse. and now due to my anxiety, i spend most of my days lying down in bed because my body shakes all the time and i'm mentally and physically tired of sixth form. but i feel like no-one understands what i'm going through, i've been going through anxiety for almost a year but i have no coping mechanism and i have noone to talk to about it. i've told my sixth form and teachers about it, they referred me to a counsellor but i wasnt comfortable speaking with them incase they assume i'm in danger when i am not. i even told my doctors, i got a medical certificate for proof of my anxiety but none of my absences are authorised and according to my sixth form " it's a stretch " and it's not medical evidence that i am suffering. sometimes i feel like i'm on the urge of death or i'm getting closer to dying and i'm honestly scared. i don't know what to do with ny life. the doctors don't help me either, i've been going back and forth for appointments regarding my anxiety and i've been referred to a special anxiety clinic but have been at the bottom of the waiting list for almost a year and i can't push it forward. i told my parents about my anxiety and they just tell me to ' cope with it ', ' get a grip', 'it's not that deep'. i'm going to be logging off now since i have tears forming in my eyes now heh 
bye
bye
Hey, I’m so sorry that you’re going through a difficult time at 6th form. I’m 17 and just finished school up in Scotland and had a tough time all year because I had no idea where I was going to go or what I was going to end up doing due to university applications. I, like you, didn’t have any friends at all last year and I managed to make a few by just saying hi and talking to whoever sat next to me in class. Outside of that though, I don’t hang out with them which sucks but I did do a couple of volunteering programmes and I went to a couple of offer holder days and I was able to make friends. One of them happens to be this girl I met who had the same thing going on as me and we instantly hit it off. I was really happy I met her, we now work together and see each other almost every weekend. All because I volunteered at a vaccine centre and actually spoke to the person who I was standing next to.
Talking to a professional might be your first step in identifying why you may feel this way and what your triggers are that make you feel worse. Having no friends at our age is actually more common than you think and it’s entirely okay not to have many or any at all - you’re not expected to get along with random people just because you go to school with them. Do try and make a couple of online friends though! I know it may feel like no adult listens to you or understands you but I get how it feels to have this impending sense of what ifs and hopelessness tower over you while you try to do things. The only thing that’s really going to make that better is if you try to implement a few changes yourself, do one thing every week that’s outside of your comfort zone - like talk to a new person in your class or put your hand up during lesson. Nothing is truly embarrassing - in fact, no one tends to remember your embarrassing moments or mistakes you made, they tend to remember their own.
My private messages are always open if you want to talk I hope you get better so that you can experience what life has to offer and so you can say suck it to your anxiety and all the people who’ve been unsupportive over the years!
Talking to a professional might be your first step in identifying why you may feel this way and what your triggers are that make you feel worse. Having no friends at our age is actually more common than you think and it’s entirely okay not to have many or any at all - you’re not expected to get along with random people just because you go to school with them. Do try and make a couple of online friends though! I know it may feel like no adult listens to you or understands you but I get how it feels to have this impending sense of what ifs and hopelessness tower over you while you try to do things. The only thing that’s really going to make that better is if you try to implement a few changes yourself, do one thing every week that’s outside of your comfort zone - like talk to a new person in your class or put your hand up during lesson. Nothing is truly embarrassing - in fact, no one tends to remember your embarrassing moments or mistakes you made, they tend to remember their own.
My private messages are always open if you want to talk
I hope you get better so that you can experience what life has to offer and so you can say suck it to your anxiety and all the people who’ve been unsupportive over the years!
