Urgent Anxiety Advice??

[jelli1224]

Hi guys,

I am in need of some advice here. You see, I have Huge anxiety problems. Like I am afraid of almost anything. But I found a huge thing I am afraid of is...people. Like, people in person. I just hate it! Now, If I know you really well and have spent time talking to you online or on the phone first then we should be cool after the first few minutes. But other then that, I hate being around people I don't know. Mainly teenagers. It scares me to no end. So then I hang around my mom. (I am really close to her) and the teens usually don't go near me then because its odd to see a teen hanging around her mom so much. But it makes me really nervous. Well I am explaining all of this for future reference, and so you can hopefully help me with a problem I have to deal with tomorrow. I am going to this all day thing with a TON of other kids, and teens. Not to mention it's at a college campus...so there is going to be college aged kids there too. I am going to be doing these different tests and things I have studied for. But my mom is not going to be there. My Dad is taking me, and I am not as close to him as I would like to be. Not at all. So....what do I do? I tend to freak out almost to the point of hyperventilating when I am around teens, and without my mom. But guys....that's another story. I like FREAK OUT when around teenage guys. Like I am not too sure why, but they tend to scare the crap out of me. I have made about one good friendship with a guy before only to be rejected like 3 times by him and 1 of those times were to my face. I had a crush on him at the time, and over a few months had gotten close to him. I just hate being seperated from my mom, and seem to have this huge fear that she will leave and never come back. I know it seems really irrational, and it feels that way too. But like i am so dang nervous about this tomorrow. Any advice, tips or encouragement would be greatly appreciated. Thank you guys.



jelli1224

[Katrina]

Hi there!

Firstly, I'm glad you've decided to reach out to us. I encourage you to not back down from going to this college campus to take your exam, as backing down from this will most certainly perpetuate your anxiety the next time an obligation that you must do arises. If its anytime before about 1PM on the weekends, chances are you're not going to see many college students out and about. We don't really hang out on campus during the weekends, and surely not in the mornings. If there are students there, they'll probably be in their dorms/in Greek housing/on the quad...but probably not in any of the academic buildings you'll be going to to take your exams (except for perhaps a few!).

PubMed Health recommends the following lifestyle changes (in addition to some different professional help options that they list alongside these):

• Get regular exercise, adequate sleep, and regularly scheduled meals.
• Reduce or avoid the use of caffeine, some over-the-counter cold medicines, and other stimulants.

Otherwise, I just want to let you know that I'm rooting for you and that I know you can do it. Try to keep yourself grounded and focused on the task at hand--taking your exam. You're likely to be put in a room where the other students don't really know each other either, so I doubt there will be a whole lot of opportunity for people to talk to each other. If its a nationally distributed exam, there's probably a whole lot of people in the same boat as you in terms of feeling anxious on the day of the test.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

[jelli1224]

Hello Katrina! Thank you so much for taking the time to post in the thread and help me out. Thanks for the tips! I did actually survive and it all went really well. I actually was just really excited to go and take these little tests(they were for an event, but the tests were not that big of a deal). Because of that, I was not really stressed. When I got to our "home base" for the day I noticed that instead of the Elementary school that was supposed to be in the same room, there was a high school. Although that made me a little uneasy I actually ended the day with talking to some other teenagers that I did not know and feeling quite confident about it. As well as that, I also spoke to some acquaintances today at church. So I am starting to communicate with other teens a little bit more and things are going really well. I will continue to keep you updated with PM's if you want, you sound like a really nice person(and the only one to respond so far) Thanks for your help!

jelli1224