Hello, I am new here. I haven't ever done anything like this before, and typing this is scaring me, but not as much as the idea of College is scaring me so I decided I would introduce myself. I live in the UK. I suffer from Generalised Anxiety Disorder and from Social Anxiety. I have done so now for about a year and a half since I derailed. My life is a bit of a mess and I am very scared. I am only out to my parents, and although they are supportive, we don't really talk about it, which is partly I think because they do not know how to. When September begins, I will be starting a new College, and the idea is daunting to me. I want to be myself but I feel that I do not know who I am anymore. The past week or so, I have started to get worse, after I was actually recovering quite well from my severity last year. I know that some of my anxiety stems from being gay because I do not quite accept myself. I don't feel ready to come out to my friends and I am also very worried about making new friends when I start College. Hopefully, joining this site is a step in the right direction, but I am very uncertain. I'd very much like to talk.
Hello! I also suffer from social anxiety. One thing that has helped me is going to counseling. I don't know if this is a possibility for you, but I just wanted to mention it. A counselor could be a good nonjudgmental person to talk to about accepting yourself, especially if you're not ready to talk to your friends about it. I bet there will be quite a few other people just starting, so they'll probably be looking for friends, too. I hope you find EC helpful. It's nice to have you here!
Thank you for replying, I have been on the waiting list for counselling for quite some time, almost a year now. I was finally seen by a counselor the other day and it has been suggested that I attend group therapy. This is a new thing for the counselling service, and I was told this only exists because they were over-subscribed. This is also adding to my worries because I will have to open up to a group of people I don't know and I am not even ready to tell my friends yet. I'm worried that this counselling will just deal with the anxiety rather than the possible cause and it does not feel very personal to me. I struggle with trusting people and so the previous two counselors I have seen have not been that helpful to me, because I feel pressured to tell them everything but then I have no confidence to do so. Thank you for your advice.
Hello and welcome to EC! Good luck and I hope you find what you're looking for. Generally what I've found is that it helps to meet people you can trust online (either through the forums or other means, I found a few really good online friends through RPing) because when you do come out, they are not in front of you and you don't really feel like you are being judged by them, plus you have someone to talk to and they have no way of spreading rumors about you IRL. Good luck with college and managing your anxiety, and if you need someone to talk to/rant at then you can always talk to me or any of the other members here ^_^ Enjoy your stay at EC
Thank you, that's very kind. ---------- Post added 27th Aug 2015 at 07:22 PM ---------- Thank you, you too
Welcome to Empty Closets. I hope you will find this to be a nice, safe place where you can talk and learn more about your sexuality and maybe begin to deal with that part of your anxiety. Going to college is a very new experience for you and even the most confident of people will experience some anxiety about the prospect of starting all of those new courses. Do you have good, supportive friends who will be joining the college at the same time? I'm pleased you have begun to receive some support for the SA and GAD. It's not easy to play the waiting game for treatment and support, but you can get some good results once it begins if you are fully engaged with the process. I notice you are in the UK, so I'm wondering if you have heard of Young Minds? They have an excellent website that may answer some of your questions about SA/GAD and the treatment options that are available to you. Have a good look: Child & Adolescent Mental Health - YoungMinds It's great that you have joined EC and I hope you will stick around. We try to keep things nice and friendly here. If you would like any help or support, feel free to post on the forum or send me (or any advisor) a private message and we'll do our best for you.
Thank you for your advice, and for the welcome to the site. I do have a couple of friends going on to the same college as I am but the ones I was closest to are staying on at my previous school for the sixth form. Thank you also for the website link, I will make sure to check it out.
