Topic Title: I need some serious Help!
| |  "I need some Help desperately !"
, Wed 23 Apr 09:30:
My name is Chike and I am 16yrs old and finishing my last yr of high school. For the past three months, my life has been on a downward spiral. I stay up at night a lot longer than I usually do thinking about the past and having negative thoughts. I can't seem to stay awake and concentrate on my work at school during the daytime anymore which affected my grades terribly, I went from A's in my honors and AP classes to C's and D's which eventually forced me to drop out of them.This has totaly destroyed my confidence in my abilities.My relationship with my peers,my younger brother and sister including my parents has suffered severely because I really don't have any positive thing to say.I get up everyday feeling low on energy,tired and wishing I could just go back to sleep,my whole outlook on life has gone from optimism to pessimism.I only recently discovered through research that I was suffering from depression. I need some advice on how to get through this and get myself back to being energetic and passionate about life like I use to be. Sometimes I ask myself why this happened to me in the first place.!
[this message was edited by Chike4 on Wed 23 Apr 11:17]
Posts: 1 | | Registered: Wed 23 Apr 2003 9:4 |
| Replies:
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| | "Re(1):I need some Help desperately !" , Thu 24 Apr 19:32
Chike,
I'm sorry to hear that you're dealing with this at such a young age, but the silver lining - if you want to see it that way - is that you have recognised your depression early and can start treating it. Looking back, I can see the beginnings of my depression when I was about your age or even younger. I'm 26 now, and I only started to think that I might have depression a couple of years ago, and only started to do something about it five months ago. So I went untreated for 10 years - some people go even longer.
I can give you a few suggestions for things you can do right now:
1. Find someone you can trust to talk to about this. If you don't want to talk to your parents or teachers about it, there should be some form of confidential counselling service in your area - maybe even at your school. Forums like this are great for getting advice and sharing experiences, but I think you still need someone you can go and talk to in person.
2. If you can, get checked out by a doctor. They'll do some tests to rule out anything else it could be, before diagnosing depression.
3. You say you have a lot of negative thoughts, so you might want to read some self-help books on changing negative thought patterns. Feeling Good by David Burns is a popular one. In his view the negative thoughts are what ultimately causes the depression and all of the physical symptoms you feel, like tiredness, lack of energy and inability to concentrate.
4. I don't know what your attitude is to taking pills for depression, but St. John's Wort is an excellent herbal remedy for mild to moderate depression - have a look at the information on this site, or ask some questions in the forum. I believe it's safe to take it at your age but you may need slightly less than the recommended dose. Depression is caused by an imbalance in brain chemistry, which prescription drugs and herbal remedies can correct.
5. Do some exercise. Any kind of exercise, even walking for 30 minutes a day, will help to lift your mood and energise you. It can seem hard to do when depression is making you feel tired and low on energy, but if you force yourself to do it regularly you'll see the benefits.
6. Eating healthy, drinking lots of water and cutting down on caffeine and sugar will all help to increase your energy levels and ability to concentrate.
7. Reduce your stress levels - take time out from your studies to relax, maybe do some meditation or other relaxation techniques. Exercise will help with this too. People who inherit a tendency to suffer from depression often find it hard to cope with stress and this can trigger the depression.
I hope you find at least some of these suggestions helpful. Good luck, and let us know how you're doing.
Take care,
Dan
Posts: 161 | | Registered: Sat 14 Dec 2002 17:8 |
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