Anxiety?

[HomerCat]

Hi, I think I have anxiety but I don’t know how to tell my mum. 
I’m in my early teenage years and for a couple years I’ve had symptoms of anxiety, mostly in the form of social anxiety and stress about school. I moved from a tiny primary school to a big secondary school with none of my friends, and it hit me so hard. I had to get up much earlier in the morning, and I was up late worrying so I didn’t get enough sleep. It’s still like that now. 
I've been researching anxiety symptoms, and I relate to almost every single one. I freak out a lot, and I haven’t had a panic attack but I have a lot of small anxiety attacks, usually at least two a week. I have this thing where I bite the skin around my fingers, sometimes they bleed, but if isn’t self harm because it doesn’t hurt, and I do it absent minded-ly all the time, and I do it more when I’m stressed or scared. 
I have exams in two weeks and I’m absolutely terrified. I have a stupid imagination that puts me out of reality a lot, and I have it in my head that if I don’t pass these exams, my entire life will be ruined and I won’t achieve anything. They don’t even mean much, they’re just end of years. 
If you can tell by my profile picture, I’m also bisexual. I’m planning to come out to my mum at the end of summer, and I’m terrified for that as well. 
That’s the problem. My mum. She’s a GP, so she doesn’t really trust me when I think somethings wrong with me. After teachers at my parents evening all said I was shy in class, my mum said “I’ll get you some help”. 
The next morning there were papers on positive mindset on my bed. I’m sick of it. 
I think something that triggered this all to get worse was a family tragedy last year, at the start of the summer. My cousin took his like on a navy boat at the age of 23. We still haven’t recovered as a family from that, me included. 
I think I have anxiety but I don’t know how or who to tell. 

[Blondie]

12 hours ago, HomerCat said:

Hi, I think I have anxiety but I don’t know how to tell my mum. 
I’m in my early teenage years and for a couple years I’ve had symptoms of anxiety, mostly in the form of social anxiety and stress about school. I moved from a tiny primary school to a big secondary school with none of my friends, and it hit me so hard. I had to get up much earlier in the morning, and I was up late worrying so I didn’t get enough sleep. It’s still like that now. 
I've been researching anxiety symptoms, and I relate to almost every single one. I freak out a lot, and I haven’t had a panic attack but I have a lot of small anxiety attacks, usually at least two a week. I have this thing where I bite the skin around my fingers, sometimes they bleed, but if isn’t self harm because it doesn’t hurt, and I do it absent minded-ly all the time, and I do it more when I’m stressed or scared. 
I have exams in two weeks and I’m absolutely terrified. I have a stupid imagination that puts me out of reality a lot, and I have it in my head that if I don’t pass these exams, my entire life will be ruined and I won’t achieve anything. They don’t even mean much, they’re just end of years. 
If you can tell by my profile picture, I’m also bisexual. I’m planning to come out to my mum at the end of summer, and I’m terrified for that as well. 
That’s the problem. My mum. She’s a GP, so she doesn’t really trust me when I think somethings wrong with me. After teachers at my parents evening all said I was shy in class, my mum said “I’ll get you some help”. 
The next morning there were papers on positive mindset on my bed. I’m sick of it. 
I think something that triggered this all to get worse was a family tragedy last year, at the start of the summer. My cousin took his like on a navy boat at the age of 23. We still haven’t recovered as a family from that, me included. 
I think I have anxiety but I don’t know how or who to tell. 

Hi there, this does sound like anxiety and it's useful to remember that anxiety comes in so many ways and levels of severity. Considering everything that has happened, the tragedy and the school changes and that you are planning to tell your mum, it's completely understandable.

With your mum, often the best way is to find time when she's not working and you are alone with her. Ask her if you can talk to her about something that's troubling you. You might say that you are looking for support around feeling anxious and wanting to find way to deal with it. It might be worth saying that you do appreciate the papers she left for you but actually, you'd really appreciate talking it out (and depending on how you feel about this) - that maybe you could speak to someone like a counsellor to work through things.

Sometimes parents (usually with the best of intentions) go straight into 'solution mode' when you might just want to talk and share your feelings.

Recovering from a bereavement by suicide can be a long road and external help from a counsellor / therapist can be key in moving forward.

How does this sound as a starting point?

[HomerCat]

14 minutes ago, Blondie said:

Hi there, this does sound like anxiety and it's useful to remember that anxiety comes in so many ways and levels of severity. Considering everything that has happened, the tragedy and the school changes and that you are planning to tell your mum, it's completely understandable.

With your mum, often the best way is to find time when she's not working and you are alone with her. Ask her if you can talk to her about something that's troubling you. You might say that you are looking for support around feeling anxious and wanting to find way to deal with it. It might be worth saying that you do appreciate the papers she left for you but actually, you'd really appreciate talking it out (and depending on how you feel about this) - that maybe you could speak to someone like a counsellor to work through things.

Sometimes parents (usually with the best of intentions) go straight into 'solution mode' when you might just want to talk and share your feelings.

Recovering from a bereavement by suicide can be a long road and external help from a counsellor / therapist can be key in moving forward.

How does this sound as a starting point?

That sounds like a good idea, thank you x

[Blondie]

3 hours ago, HomerCat said:

That sounds like a good idea, thank you x

If you would like to, let us know how you get on.

We’re here for you.

[HomerCat]

19 hours ago, Blondie said:

If you would like to, let us know how you get on.

We’re here for you.

Thank you so much

Edited May 29, 2022 by HomerCat
I replied to the wrong post