Since most people here are around half my age (I’m 30), I thought I might share a little wisdom about living with a chronic mental illness, as I’m sure most of you do.
First off, two things (Please read both comments before leaping to conclusions; I’m not trying to patronize you):
You are probably well aware of this, but it bears being said: you are most likely not going to kill yourself. You are more likely than not going to live another 60 to 70 years, if not longer.
Secondly:
If you don’t die early due to suicide or other causes, you are going to have to live with the consequences of mental illness for the duration of your life, whether you address your mental illness or not.
And the best time to address mental illness is now, when you’re young, and when it has impacted the fewest number of years of your life. Your problems are serious and deserve to be taken seriously. And there are resources out there to help you, if you only are willing to seek help.
I’m telling you this now because I wish so very badly that someone had told this to me, directly to my face, when I was a teenager. The effects of mental illness on my life have been absolutely devastating. I had aspirations to become a research scientist, and now I find myself leaving a PhD program after 8.5 years without my degree. I’ve had very few friends (in college I had ZERO friends), and I’ve done very little in my life outside of watching television and playing video games.
Anxiety has caused me to completely avoid my life, and depression has taken away any energy I could have spent to have fun or do my work, because both I and the people that cared about me allowed them to.
So I have no social life, no professional life, no hobbies, no bodily fitness, and neither the energy, nor the hope, nor the time to fix these problems. At this point, I don’t know what to do. I feel I have no future.
My point is:Â DON’T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN TO YOU.
Please use whatever resources you can to at least try to fix these problems. The responsibilities placed on you now are so small compared to those you will have that this is the absolute best time in your life to attempt to fix these issues. Not only that, but your brain is still maturing and thus is still flexible and changeable in a way that it just will not be when you are older.
I’ll be completely honest with you. I have been in treatment and therapy for roughly 5 years now. Obviously, it hasn’t worked well enough. But that may be in large part because of how late I started. The younger you start, the more of a fighting chance you have.
No, I can’t guarantee that your result won’t be better than mine. I can’t even guarantee that there won’t be complications from the treatment itself.
But trust me: if you can fix these problems now, it’ll be worth it in the long run. If you’re unhappy and dysfunctional now, it will probably only get worse if you don’t try to get help.
That’s all I have to say. Take care.
7 comments
This is really helpful, thank you!
slightly off topic / out of place, since i’m not a teenager –
but my point, as a mid 20’s person, is simple – i wish there weren’t so many teens here,,, or that it was like it used to be.
whenever i come to this blog it’s always love poems or school rants or teenagers talking about cutting themselves or how they have a crush or something.
seems to me that it’s getting worse and worse. it used to be maybe 1/3 posts were teens but now it seems like 4/5.
I used to find some solace here but now… it’s not the “Suicide Project” to me anymore. It’s more like “UK / Canada Teen Suicide Project’ – nothing wrong with that, but gosh.
there used to be posts with people who were actually … who actually had a suicide, project. That’s how i found it a few years ago when I was looking into the helium method.
But now,, oh and with the new ‘recent comments’ widget, boy o boy it’s just not a place where i can maintain a vibration consistent with the reason i came – I see the first post and just cringe “He’s Gone Again..” – written by 15 yr old someone who yes may cut her/himself but seriously? NOT serious!
I AM FUCKED UP and I AM NOT GIVING A DAMN about the day to day “he loves me he loves me not” or “they think I’m EMO at school” stuff – at this point, I Am a suicide project – i am commiting slow suicide – I want to relate to people in that boat. We Matter to eachother if no one else – but yet all here one feels able to do is not say the things we feel because it might impact the children… I don’t CARE!
Perhaps it’s not the same here since all the people/adults who used to post were succesful, or perhaps they got ‘better’… but there must be a link to this site on some teen blogs in the UK i swear.
Hey it takes all kinds. Misery is equal opportunity last I’d heard.
Stephans-Have you ever been jumped?Did you spend your whole teen years around quns?Do you hanq out with people that won’t hesitate to slap you If you come at them wronq?At twelve years old did you think you feel that you weren’t qonna see aqe eiqhteen?No?Then come and talk to me about qoinq threw shit when you’ve been threw what I’ve been threw.I’m eiqhteen and still qettinq older.Sure I’m younq I’ve seen shit that people In thier seventies have never seen.I’ve done some thinqs that I wish I didn’t do,I’m still puliinq stunts (not makinq qood decisions) and I still hanq out with a bad crowd.
So don’t talk me like I’m younq cause I’ve been threw It all and I’ll school your ass on life and If you think differently then honestly,I just don’t qive a damn.
Stephan,
“The Suicide Project is a website devoted to allowing people to share their stories of desperation and depression… and ultimately of hope. We hope that by allowing people to share their stories of despair with one another, they can find a reason to live, a reason to survive another minute. Another hour. Another day.”
Teenage problems may seem ‘NOT serious!’ to you, but they are very serious to them.
Also, not all teenagers are here for “‘he loves me he loves me not’ or ‘they think im EMO at school'” stuff.
And do you really think that ‘a child’ on SUICIDE PROJECT needs protecting? Say whatever you want, by all means.
Strongly agree with this post. Don’t ignore your issues… it will fuck up your life if you do.
Get help when you’re young or it’ll be too late eventually believe me!