Quote: SamiusYou're welcome. It's not going to be easy but it's going to be worth it. If you've lived with anxiety a long time, even smaller changes to how you see things will affect you a lot.
I was very anxious as a teenager myself. Around age 14-17 I was absolutely sure I would never amount to anything because of my awkwardness. I never considered myself dumb, just kind of inward and inexperienced, I guess. It all just changed with age and experience.
It's a huge cliché, but generally speaking, if you are still young things will get better in the future. Not only because you will change, but the people around you will also change. High school is especially crappy, but it's like the deepest part of a river: once you get past it you already know that you're going to get across.
Okay I'm sorry Samius but I'm not gonna let this misinformation and false hope stand. Anxiety is not a river it is a constant raincloud that follows you wherever you go. Clearly you have no idea what it's like dealing with diagnosed depression or anxiety. No. High School is not "The deepest part of the river" That's utter bull****, 100%. It's hard to come to terms but your anxiety will follow you your entire life, but it's like someone who's lost a limb, they learn how to live and survive and cope. Embrace that you have these issues, don't pretend they'll get better later on. My last relationship I was so happy, she loved me for me, told me how attractive and funny i was all the time, but I still felt like I was drowning, I was never good enough, I would NEVER be good enough for her, I pushed her away because how could someone like that ever love someone like me? I mean I'm untalented and hideous and a loser.....That's what my brain kept telling me. I hate everything about myself, and it's hard even when you do try to love yourself because your anxiety and depression try to tell you otherwise. You need to know that your issues are lying to you, you are NOT a loser, you belong. you matter. you are important. I know you are. Don't let it take over, don't let it win, it's going to be painful, it's going to be difficult, it's going to be impossible at times. But you need to believe in yourself, you need to at least acknowledge that you are not as worthless as you think you are. Your anxiety does not define you. Don't let it. Don't let it control you. I believe in you.
I get what you're trying to say, but you kinda took my words out of context there. The thing is this: there are two types of depression and anxiety: clinical and emotional.
Clinical depression and anxiety are mental disorders, the kinda stuff you take medication for. It's often genetic, and I can't help anybody there. It'd be kinda like me trying to talk away someone's type 2 diabetes.
Emotional depression and anxiety are feelings, moods, states of mind. You can have a bad day and feel depressed, and you can be socially awkward or fearful and feel anxious. You can also experience this over an extended period of time, but it is just a state of mind that you can get over and work yourself out of. This I can try to help people with, and I will gladly do it if I'm in the position to do so.
When people talk about feeling depressed or anxious, I don't automatically assume that they have a mental disorder. I also don't assume that they know what they're talking about when they diagnose themselves with clinical depression or anxiety (as in, without an actual diagnosis). I've already seen too much of that around, and generally speaking the actual disorders are pretty rare.
What I was trying to do there was to encourage TheToyNerd to not give up on a positive change. No harm was intended, as I'm sure you agree. The thing I said about high school was in relation to the cliché that I pointed out prior to it. Generally speaking, every teenager goes through hard times. Growing up and being faced with a lot of changes in a short amount of time is just a tough thing for everyone, and you don't need to be clinically depressed or anxious to feel down at times. Still, that time will come to pass, and later on you will gain a new perspective. High school takes place around the time when the biggest changes come to pass. You're growing up fast, you form a lot of new social connections, you have to try to fit in and establish a social role - It's the gutter, basically.
For someone who feels anxious because of all of that, the worst will come to pass when they've left high school. From thereon all the crap they went through will slowly start being a thing of the past, and they have a chance to get rid of the flawed way of thinking that was influenced by their perhaps not-so-great social experiences.