I’m a teenage girl and I have a problem that makes me always angry and depressed. I feel that I’m always alone (not alone but alone in my mind that people can’t understand me).
I just discovered that suffer from a mental illness and I’m so afraid to tell anyone because I think they are. I to think I’m psychopath or anything, but lately I have a lot of problems in my life that I can’t get away with.
So, my mental illness is that I am daydreaming a lot and it can waste my whole day in it, daydreaming about having a perfect life and when I wake up and see posts on social media, people going out.
And having fun with their friends. It makes me realise that I’m wasting my time in some illusions that my mind makes and now I can’t get rid of it. Sorry my grammar is bad, I don’t speak English.
You’re not alone.
You’ll figure out quickly who to share that with and who not to. Only tell people who are supportive in your family at first, and of course a good friend who you can trust to keep it between you. The worst people to tell are coworkers. You’ll be judged by ignorant people who have power over your financial income and employment stability. Nobody who doesn’t know you very well or go through the same thing will understand. Don’t expect anyone to understand, when they do it’ll be rare.
You’ll have to fight to get better and you can’t give up on things if they don’t work out at first, whether it’s therapy or medication or whatever you need to help you. Keep trying until it works and be honest with professionals about what you want and don’t want and what you like.
Until you’re into your mid 20s it will be hard to grip your illness and be aware of what triggers it and how to control it. While you’re still a teenager and growing into adulthood and independence your brain and body will shoot to extremes.
Street drugs will not help you. They’re just a vacation you can’t afford.
If you feel isolated or left out, be the one who makes plans and not the one who waits to be invited.
Subscribe to something like EventBright or Stubhub/Ticketmaster near your home and go out and have fun.
I used to daydream a lot like you do, and see that other people lived rather than dreamt. So one day, when I 14, I decided to stop doing dreaming and start acting. This was a long time ago now and if I’m still a little bit of a daydreamer, I clearly am able to act too.
In psychology, nothing is static. Once you have identified your issue – which you have – and you accept it, one step further is try and understand why you have this issue, then you can determine how you can change your behaviour.
The problem with daydreaming is that it takes you far away from reality and you’re then never happy with what you have. In daydreams everything is always so easy to make happen. So when you start acting and you realise nothing is that easy, it seems so difficult it almost doesn’t feel worth it and you want to go back to daydreaming. Deciding to start acting may seem a long process because it involves a lot of time and efforts. But after a while, looking back, you will realise it’s so worth it. Because you will have made a print in the world with your own actions. You will gain confidence from your failures and successes. Also, the more you act, the more you realise that no one is perfect, nothing is perfect, everybody fails a million times before succeeding, a little bit like babies who learn to walk : they try a lot of times before they can walk. Everybody is just like you struggling to make their life better, struggling to be happy.
I think what I want to say is : don’t stop at an etiquette. React and fight it. We all put ourselves in situations, we can all out ourselves out of those situations. It’s worth it. You’re worth it.