Hi.. I live in las Vegas, and im 16 years old. This is something I have just started coming to terms with.. I think I have hyperactive stress disorder, or some other type of stress issue. Certain things, such as getting in fights with other kids at school, or people wanting to fight me, or getting in trouble with school administrators, cause me to stress out so much that it drives me into deep depression. I loose sleep, and its difficult to concentrate in school sometimes. Its not like Im a loner or have a bad life.. Im relativly popular in school, I play varsity football, I work out and run daily, Im on the varsity swim and track teams, I have a beautiful girlfriend, a lot of friends, loving parents, and a nice house. I love my life. But, occasionally, I feel myself slipping into that deep depression that I stated earlier. Sometimes, even some of my friends(that im not very close to), I will be affraid to talk to, because I dont want to anger them, or have them fight me or something. Im a pretty athletic guy, and I've been in a couple fights throughout school, all of which I've won- so I dont think there was a trumatic experiance causing this. Afterall, its not only the fighting thing that scares me. My parents have perscription drugs around the house, and sometimes(not more than once a month), I'll take a Hydrocodine or lortab(painkillers) to calm down. A lot of people I know take painkillers to get high, which im not doing at all- they just help me relax. Again, I've never taken more than 2 in a one month period, so its not like I have a pill addiction problem.. I just need some help. Should I see a psychiatrist? I've spoken with my parents about this, and apparently there is a slight history of depression in my family, tho neither have them have suffered from it.

Please, help me. Thank you
-WorriedGuy

Hi.. I live in las Vegas, and im 16 years old. This is something I have just started coming to terms with.. I think I have hyperactive stress disorder, or some other type of stress issue. Certain things, such as getting in fights with other kids at school, or people wanting to fight me, or getting in trouble with school administrators, cause me to stress out so much that it drives me into deep depression. I loose sleep, and its difficult to concentrate in school sometimes. Its not like Im a loner or have a bad life.. Im relativly popular in school, I play varsity football, I work out and run daily, Im on the varsity swim and track teams, I have a beautiful girlfriend, a lot of friends, loving parents, and a nice house. I love my life. But, occasionally, I feel myself slipping into that deep depression that I stated earlier. Sometimes, even some of my friends(that im not very close to), I will be affraid to talk to, because I dont want to anger them, or have them fight me or something. Im a pretty athletic guy, and I've been in a couple fights throughout school, all of which I've won- so I dont think there was a trumatic experiance causing this. Afterall, its not only the fighting thing that scares me. My parents have perscription drugs around the house, and sometimes(not more than once a month), I'll take a Hydrocodine or lortab(painkillers) to calm down. A lot of people I know take painkillers to get high, which im not doing at all- they just help me relax. Again, I've never taken more than 2 in a one month period, so its not like I have a pill addiction problem.. I just need some help. Should I see a psychiatrist? I've spoken with my parents about this, and apparently there is a slight history of depression in my family, tho neither have them have suffered from it.

Please, help me. Thank you
-WorriedGuy

Dear WorriedGuy,
I think you should see a Therapist first off to work with you on these issues to see if you need the assistance of a Psychratrist. Sometimes a situiation is created by others or in your mind that makes you paraniod after certain things happen in your life. Such as fighting, athletic, popular, beautiful girlfriend, etc. This can make you paraniod and effect your behaviour because now you sub-conciously believe that you have all of this to live up to. It may even be real in some instances because it is like being the fastest gun in the west. There is always someone that will challenge you. This is where you need to learn to control your fears and angers and learn to control a situiation only if you have to and not to expect it happening before it does. You should know that like football, defense is the best offense. You need to become a defensive person only, that has confidence and control of every given situiation. Use your brain to out wit an aledged opponent and resort to defense only when absolutely nessecary. You will find that mental strenght will keep you out of a lot more situiations then physical strenght and is your most valuable asset in survival. See a therapist, an outsider, to talk these things out. It is hard to be a teenager and you need to deal with this in the right way. Good luck

Sincerely,

Sickman :)

You sound very wise for a 16 year old & I'm also glad to hear that you do NOT abuse drugs. Too many posts on here say they are abusing street drugs & then wonder why they have panic attack symptoms.
With that said, yes I do think you may be showing signs of depression & dep. is a disease & the sooner it is treated the better the success rate of beating it.
I would start with your familly doc & let him suggest a professional for you to see. It sounds like you're parents are listening & will support your decision, so that is another plus. The anger you speak of is just another symptom of depression, so you are wise to have put those two together. Let us know how things go, but YES, definitely seek some help & just a word of advice, do not tell your friends. Believe it or not, people still put a stigma on someone who is taking dep. meds or seeing a psychiatrist. Unless you have very understanding friends, you may be sorry if you talk about it to them. Good luck.

Sound advice about telling others about your problems lori J.

that . Believe it or not, people still put a stigma on someone who is taking dep. meds or seeing a psychiatrist. Unless you have very understanding friends, you may be sorry if you talk about it to them. Good luck.

I learned that the hard way. I thought I was doing good by opening up but it just made things worse.

I don't want to start a fight or disagree with anyone, but I was just the opposite.
I felt better when I told people what was wrong with me...and that I was taking Xanax because I had a panic disorder.
To the credit of everyone of my friends and family members...all except one Sister...they all understood and were and still are extremely supportive of me.
The Sister who refuses to understand thought it was something I could just get over, and that I didn't have to be that way if I didn't want to be...as if anyone WANTS to have panic disorder!!!
Now that I no longer have panic attacks she now wants to be my best friend....I don't think so....I'm still the same person I was then, nothing has really changed other than the fact I no longer have panic attacks.
If I wasn't good enough for her then, well she's not good enough for me now.

That's just how I handled it, I agree that not everyone should tell people what's wrong with them, in my case I just felt better once they knew.

I've only really talked to my girlfriend and Best friend about it... and I have been very close to her for over a year, and my best friend for at least 8 or 9 years. But still tho, I didnt feel any better after telling them. I just got the impression that they were very uncomfortable talking about it. Im going to make an appointment next week to see my family doctor, and I will speak with her privatly(sp?) about seekin psycological care. Thank you all.. I cant tell you how much I appreciate your responces. You truley are loving, caring, helpful people, and the world can always use more people with those qualities.

I love you all, best of luck with any problems you may have, I'll do my best to return the favor sometime.

-WorriedGuy

It does make some people very uncomfortable to talk about it.
IMO, most if not all of these people want to understand and be supportive, but they just don't know how, because if you've never been through it it's a hard thing to grasp onto.

My Mom and Grandfather both suffered with panic disorder and in the case of my Grandfather he also had bouts of depression, that's probably why my family was so supportive, it wasn't anything they hadn't heard about before.
I think the reason my friends were so supportive is because they could see that something was wrong with me...I stopped doing things with them I even stopped going to school for a while...I was 16 when I first started to suffer with this.
Once I knew what was wrong and knew that I didn't have to feel this way, I was just so happy to know that I wasn't going crazy or dying that they saw that change in me too and when they asked what had changed I explained to them what was wrong with me.

Good luck to you at the Doctor's and I'm sure you're feel better once you get the help that you need.
Don't ever loss hope, there are millions of us out there and whenever you need to talk just come here, someone is almost always around to answer your questions or just read your post....just knowing I wasn't alone was a great help to me.

I don't want to start a fight or disagree with anyone, but I was just the opposite.
I felt better when I told people what was wrong with me...and that I was taking Xanax because I had a panic disorder.
To the credit of everyone of my friends and family members...all except one Sister...they all understood and were and still are extremely supportive of me.
The Sister who refuses to understand thought it was something I could just get over, and that I didn't have to be that way if I didn't want to be...as if anyone WANTS to have panic disorder!!!
Now that I no longer have panic attacks she now wants to be my best friend....I don't think so....I'm still the same person I was then, nothing has really changed other than the fact I no longer have panic attacks.
If I wasn't good enough for her then, well she's not good enough for me now.

That's just how I handled it, I agree that not everyone should tell people what's wrong with them, in my case I just felt better once they knew.

I am happy for you that your family listened and were supportive. Your one sister sounds like my whole family and my best friend. I opened up to them because I thought I would have felt better and I would have if they would have been supportive. People take a chance when they talk about something like this. That stigma will not go away. You are fortunate that they understood.

It's a real shame that more people don't take the time or make the effort to understand this disorder.
I wish more people would.