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Something’s not right

What's wrong with me?

What's wrong with me?

Hi all. Sorry to jump straight into starting a thread, but I am feeling really overwhelmed and confused rn and was hoping for some advice.

Ever since I was a child I've known I was 'different.' I was, as my family said, 'sensitive' and 'quirky' which is a nice way of saying I couldn't connect with other children, lived with constant worry and anxiety, cried too much, and was too smart for my own good. Nobody considered my issues serious enough to get me help as a child/teen.
I started self harming at 14 and tried to end my life for the first time when I was 17. After that I got myself some help and have been on about ten different meds and in and out of therapy and hospital for the last few years. I'm currently diagnosed with major depression, borderline personality traits, and social anxiety disorder (although I disagree with that one). I also have symptoms of bulimia and OCD and generalised anxiety disorder but I guess not quite enough to be formally diagnosed or something.

Although I've always been 'high functioning' (getting high distinctions and 6.75 GPAs at university even when I was super suicidal) the last year I've felt increasingly disabled. I cannot focus on anything unless it's high, short term stimulation (e.g. doing multiple things at once, scrolling through tumblr, or doing something I'm super excited by like listening to my fave bands), am easily distracted, but other times I focus so intensely on something that I completely forget where I am and the things around me. My GPA has dropped to a 5.5 and I get credits. I cannot eat like a normal person, stay hydrated or fit. I cannot study anymore and I struggle to do the homework for my therapy (I'm in DBT atm). I want to do things, there are even days where I care about things and am motivated to do them, but I just can't. It's like my brain shuts down and I can't organise the tasks or figure out a way to do them.

I cannot connect with others and the two close friendships I had ages 14-18 and then 19-20 deteriorated for reasons I didn't understand. I'm depressed and want to sleep all the time, then sometimes have short bursts of being hyper and talking about off topic things, jumping from topic to topic, and finishing other people's sentences because I can't wait for them to finish.

I know these are common depressive symptoms but even with depression and anxiety I didn't used to be like this.

What's wrong with me?? I can't talk to anyone irl because my family is...difficult, my doctor doesn't take me seriously, and my therapist wants me to stop self harming before I worry about my grades. I hate everything else about myself; I just want to be high achieving again so I feel like I'm worth something.

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In response to: What's wrong with me?

Re: What's wrong with me?

Hi @fabulouskilljoy

I'm assuming you're still quite young as the ages you mention stop at 20. Your life seems an uphill climb with lots of issues all rolled into one big problem. I'm sorry life's like this at the moment.

Most times it's us who make life so much harder than it has to be. Too many expectations, to many goals and not enough time in a day to accomplish everything.

When I was your age, I didn't have anyone except famous people and my friends to compare my life to, but we didn't talk about our problems like these days. Technology has given young people the sky as their limit. Not having boundaries and guidelines must be daunting.

The other issue's about creating pathways in your brain. Habits are formed easily when you're not grounded. (In your head too much and not focused on daily life like cleaning the house or mowing the lawn) So if you're spending time worrying and not focused on your body for instance, and you do this for extended periods, you're training your brain to be this way all the time. When you try to stop and change behaviour, it's like dealing with an addiction. Your mind feels something's wrong, even if the changes are good for you.

People forget about chemical reactions and processes in the brain. 'It' doesn't have guilt or shame, it just works like a machine the way we program it to. Nobody teaches us this as part of phys Ed or science at school, so we carry on thinking we have no control...but we do @fab.

Everything you've mentioned goes on in your head; study, school, net surfing, (anything in front of a screen) listening to music etc. None of this is physically connecting you to your body and the world around you. All except that is, self harm. Do you think your body/mind is trying to tell you something? Your brain is tired and if you don't rest, it'll get worse and then damaged.

There are lots of physical activity to keep your mind calm, like swimming, walking, gym, going with friends to the beach. Balance is the key. I'm not saying to stop studying or going to school. I'm asking you to find a good 'medium' place for your long term mental health.

Sorry for the long rant. I do understand where you're at. I hope some of this has helped.

Hope

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