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Tuesday, March 31, 2009 boardingstudent asks

Q: Teen Depression

Im 16 years old and i go to a boarding school. Boarding causes me so much stress that im forced to take 4 majors instead of 5 and my mom has to drive up once a week after school and i go home every weekend.  My school had a bulliton up about depression and the symptoms and i think i fit most of them: except i dont want to die i just want to not move and not think. I know that i work to avoid realizing that i am sad. When i should get mad i end up becoming extremely sad. I have bad loss of intrest (ex. i recently went on my dream vacation which had been planned 1.5yrs ago and i didnt even care that i was going and sometimes i didnt want to go any more). I am not scared to get diagnosed but i am scared to ask my parents to bring me to c if i really have depression. If i do i think my school is the cause. My question is: i am leaving my school next year for a day school, when i do will i still feel depressed?

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Answers (2)
4/ 1/09 6:03pm

Hi there

 

This is a good question.  I do wonder if a change in environment will help you.  What is it about your present school situation which is the most depressing?  Do you think that you are just so stressed and run down that it is manifesting as depression?  And do you feel it is more depression or anxiety?  Sometimes when we feel so stressed it is hard to relax even when you are on vacation.

 

Is there any way for you to ease your current stressors?  What things make you feel more calm and relaxed?  Does it make you feel better to know that you will not be at boarding school forever?

 

It may be good to talk to your parents about this.  You sound like you are ready to make a change and perhaps your parents can help.

 

Please let us know what happens and thank you for your question!

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4/ 2/09 12:54am

hey, I'm also 16 years old also so I feel like i can kind of relate to your situation. I started feeling extremely stressed about school and considered very seriously about dropping out, but then I realized maybe it's not really even school that is bothering me. I realized that I just was not happy within myself. And it will probably be hard to tell your parents how you're feeling because you might feel like you're letting them down in some way, but it's not your fault AT ALL, being a sad or a little depressed is completely out of your control. By telling your parents about it is being really strong because that means you realize that you're not yourself and you want to get help and honestly it will only get better from there because then you may or may not get some medicine which can do wonders. and will put you in the right frame of mind to get your life back in order. but also if you feel like your class load is way too much you should go talk to your school counselor about it because they can really be of a lot of help. I was taken out of one of my stressful classes and was re- scheduled so that I could have a study hall in place of it while I'm trying to get myself in a better place.

 

It took me a while to realize that I was unhappy but now that i've accepted it, i can forgive myself, and start working on getting to a happier place, because everyone deserves to be happy, never blame yourself for your unhappiness and try not to be afraid of letting your parents know because you're not alone. and by ignoring it you leave it there to grow into something bigger. you've got to learn how to fall before you learn to fly.  hope this helped  , best of luck.

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