TeenHelp - I feel like my anxiety disorder is making my teenage years go by.

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I feel like my anxiety disorder is making my teenage years go by.

As i said in the title, I feel my anxiety disorder is making my teenage years go by. To clarify; the anxiety disorder I have is the social variety. I'm looking for any advice that pertains to my situation. To give you some insight about my situation, I will try to simplify it to the extent of ~2 paragraphs.

When I was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, (I was 14 at the time) I was encouraged to temporarily withdraw from attending school; although I was still doing the work from home. The reason I wasn't attending school is that I was so terrified of what other people were thinking about me, that I was unable to focus on my schoolwork, so my GPA dropped from an average of a 3.7 GPA to an average of a 2.1 GPA. After a few months, I was admitted into a local children's hospital once a week for approximately three hours. While there I was always given a basic checkup, and then I would talk to a therapist about my eating disorder (which is unrelated to this post), and another meeting with a therapist about my social anxiety.

During summer break, me and my parent's started looking into schools that I could transfer to. We eventually found a suitable school, but I had already missed one and a half terms (out of three), also, it was a small private school, and all my classmates had known each other since they were very young. And this brings me to today; where I have been at the school for a few months, and I feel that the phase where my classmates were attempting to 'get me out of my shell', so to speak, is behind me. I would really appreciate it if anyone could give me some advice on how best to handle the situation.

- Thanks for reading, and if it applies, commenting!

Re: I feel like my anxiety disorder is making my teenage years go by.

Hi there, first I want to welcome you to the site! :) I am glad you felt comfortable enough in reaching out for support or advice. I'm sorry you are struggling with anxiety and that it has impacted your experience as a student. I am glad, however, that the appropriate steps were taken to help you along the way. I understand that going through all this really put a damper on the experience as a high school student, and hopefully things will begin to improve.

I think a lot of us have struggled with, and a few of those still young enough to be in school continue to do so, anxiety during our teenage years. I know for me, it had a profound impact on my academic performance and social life. I think the best advice I have for you is to reach out to those around you, don't be afraid to speak up and ask for help whether that be with your classes or your mental health. At the same time, don't let anxiety take complete control; or else, you will miss out on some important milestones and years of your life.

If you need to reach out again, please don't hesitate to do so.

Re: I feel like my anxiety disorder is making my teenage years go by.

Hey there,

Sorry to hear that you have struggled a lot with social anxiety- to the point of it being recommended that you temporarily withdraw from school due to the affect the anxiety was having on your grades and wellbeing. It must've been awful dealing with an eating disorder too, although I'm glad that you were getting help from therapists to help with the eating disorder and social anxiety. I hope you found it helpful.

I'm glad to hear that you have found a suitable school, although I understanding that transferring already part way into the school term may make it more difficult to make friends when classmates already know each other. Is there anyone that you would like to get to know better, or anyone that you think you may have similar interests with? Or have you checked out what extra curricular activities the school might offer that you might be interested in? Identifying people and hobbies that you might be interested in can help as you can try to approach these things and not let your anxiety get in the way. I understand feeling anxious about what others think, but most of the time, people are wrapped up in their own worries and thoughts and may not be judging you at all. And even if there are those that judge, they shouldn't treat you differently- if they do, that's on them, not you.

If things aren't working out for you, then you could always try to talking to your teachers or school counsellor. You've done well getting back into education, don't let the anxiety prevent you from doings things that you want to do!