[natashap25]

I don't know why I am so emotional of late, till the point my mum says "Natasha! Learn how to control your own emotions!"

From anxiety to psychotherapy, CBT, medication, journaling I've tried everything. I also tried reaching out to people more, and made new friends when I moved away to university, however I don't see them often because of the long holidays I have.


I don't know how to be stronger emotionally, I'm turning 19 soon. Don't know if its just a teenage thing and what can I do to improve my situation.

[joypulv]

I looked back over your previous posts for a minute. You do have many of the anxieties most teens have, but a bit more. Who knows what that means? It could even mean you are taking too many medications, or the wrong ones, or you need a good therapist to talk to. I happen to believe that no one should take psychiatric drugs without talk therapy. It could mean that you will grow out of it, or it could mean that you will grow more anxious and emotional, and it might reveal itself to be something like bipolar, given that you have talked about being totally down one minute and all fine the next.

A GOOD sign is that you seem to have adjusted to school far from home, and made friends there, after all that fear of leaving your parents.

There are some very exciting new discoveries about 'synapse pruning' in the brain. When we are very young, our brains are allowed to be wildly imaginative and excited and curious - all that is good for learning. As we get into our late teens, proteins roam around the brain pruning out certain synapses. It's like they are doing the job of calming us down and helping us concentrate on the path to adulthood. But in some people, it doesn't happen, and we are over excited and go a bit nuts (or off the deep end). They think that Alzheimer's is a pruning 'not doing its job' situation too. I'm not saying that this is you by any means, but it may mean better medications in the future.

Hopefully you are just a late bloomer emotionally. You wonder why you are called a drama queen, or why a guy acts a certain way, or why friends judge you... all adding up to an unclear sense of who you are TO YOURSELF. I was that way, 60+ years ago... I thought everyone else knew what was going on, and I was the only one who didn't. I felt like a feather on the wind.

Good luck. There's no easy way to TELL someone how to be stronger. Therapy, even just 5 sessions. It took me a lifetime.

[talaniman]

Nothing wrong with you at all except you need to plan your time away from friends and school and have a routine that you enjoy without others. In addition to talking to whomever gives you meds, do some volunteer work for kids, old folks, or some program that helps people who need a bit of help. In this way you are getting out of your own comfort zone and learning to be grateful for what you have, and not have to freak out about what you don't, have or want badly (FRIENDS constantly).

Volunteering will help turn your focus from YOU and YOUR issues and teach you discipline and self control through confidence because for some reason you don't seem to like yourself without others being around. Holidays are so like that.

What are you afraid of? All this teen angst over not finding ways to be good to yourself, and enjoy who you are can be nothing else but a fear of being alone and BORED! So get busy and find ways to enjoy being just with YOU, as you enjoy being with others.

Hobbies, projects, and helping others will do that very nicely I think, so at least TRY IT! In short you need a better structure for your life than fretting about what to do away from your fun friends.

The other alternative is a part time job, or some strenuous physical activity to channel those feelings that you have allowed to overwhelm your senses.