I just moved into college yesterday and I’m super anxious and already want to go home. I want to enjoy myself but this anxiety and my family not being here is killing me. I already am thinking of other colleges to go to and I just don’t know what to do. I am here a week early for cross country and idk how I’m ever going to last. Any advice is appreciated!
Try and do things that make you happy and do fun things, your family are only a phone call away
Oh wow!!!! Congrats on running cross country in college!!!!! That is impressive!! In my family, we know something about cross country and track. And you should be proud of yourself for getting where you are!! I think you should stick it out. You are going to have anxiety wherever you go. It's a big step and a big change when you go to college. And it takes time. But you are strong!! You can get over this initial hurdle. It will get better with time. I have a strategy that you might consider. It's all about embracing the anxiety symptoms. It is a way of training your brain that you just don't care. You are going to welcome it. You are going to tell your anxiety to "bring it on!" When the anxiety comes, you are going to move closer to it instead of farther away. For example, let's say your heart is racing. Then you can say, "Yay!! My heart is racing! I hope it goes even faster! Let me do some jumping jacks to see if I can go even faster!" Or let's say that you have a feeling of dread. Then you can say, "Hello, feeling of dread. I'm glad you are here. I hope you stick around all day!" The point is to shift your focus from "fear" to "observation." So instead of thinking, "I hate how I feel right now", you are just OBSERVING that you feel icky inside. There's no judgement. You don't need to fix anything. You are just noticing that you feel icky. And then you are doing nothing about it except that you can ACCEPT it and ride out the waves of it. Make sure your goal is not to make the anxiety go away. Your goal is to just embrace it when it comes. When anxiety comes, tell yourself, "I love these feelings. I hope they last all day! I'm glad I'm having anxiety while we're at this movie. I'm glad I am having anxiety while we're having this meeting. I hope it lasts all day!" You can make a list of your anxiety triggers. And then go and face them one by one. When you face your triggers, tell yourself that you hope that you feel anxious! For example, if it makes you feel anxious to go to the gym, then go to the gym anyway. Tell yourself, "That will be awesome if I start feeling anxious at the gym!!" Don't avoid the feelings. Just allow yourself to feel them. You want to feel the feelings. It will FEEL icky, of course. But you need to ALLOW YOURSELF to yourself feel icky. Do things again and again that trigger these feelings until you get bored of them. So when anxiety comes, instead of saying, "Oh no!" Tell yourself, "Yay! I'm glad I'm having anxiety today. I'm going to allow myself to feel all the icky feelings that come today." Below I linked a video that talks about this concept in the context of panic attacks. But you might be able to apply it to general anxiety. https://youtu.be/PaXMSVLkthc?si=AHEaHhjxZ7cQ8CtG
It is super hard, but it’s supposed to be. Moving out is one of the great challenges of life, but challenging ourselves is what makes us better people. “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for”
I had the same issue when I left for college. It’s so difficult at first, especially the part about being away from home. It took me so long to adjust to my life but I made it! I like to try new things and explore new areas. Maybe there’s a trendy coffee shop nearby? Try to get to know your new area and find community where you are. Wishing you the best, you got this!
there’s currently tension between the members of my family and it’s not only making me stressed, but it’s giving me really bad anxiety. the situation that’s happening is the byproduct of feelings being held in for years on end finally coming out. the situation doesn’t really have to do with me directly but more indirectly. it’s more so between my brother and my mom. and i’m really close with both. i also am home when i’m not at college. anyways, the issue is my harm ocd is latching onto it. lately, if i don’t like someone’s personality or they do something wrong, my harm ocd will latch onto that. this situation it happens to be my mom. but it’s also been my mom for a little bit now because she has faults that she refuses to acknowledge. my ocd is making me believe i hate my mom and so on. and i don’t hate my mom, but there are times where i really dislike her and how she handles situations, like this one. but i hate being at college more than i would hate to go home and i always love being home. it’s just this situation is making my harm ocd not great, making me not want to go home. furthermore, my contamination ocd gets triggered because of my harm ocd as i get nauseous so then i spiral. anyways, i apologize for rambling but i just need either some words of advice or support if anyone wouldn’t mind :)
I'm at my college and don't feel like being here. I didn't even want to come here. I woke up with anxiety bc i feel like i need to solve this. I had a bad stomach ache when i arrived to school and still havent even eaten breakfast yet bc i feel like i have to solve this. Im just so worried bc i have harm thoughts daily. If i could i would remove this! I dont want to think anymore. Its just, how do I know i dont have real urges when I'm feeling a negative emotion like anger or disappointment or annoyance? Im worried EVERY time i feel a negative emotion. Yesterday I was playing video games with my neice (we are close in age range) and she made us lose. She started blaming me and I guess i felt a little annoyed, it really wasnt my fault (dumb mini argument it was more playful since we started laughing but it was a bit annoying). Anyway i got a harm thought while feeling annoyed of me getting off the couch and lunging at her to attack. I immediately look at my bodily reaction and I tense up to stay as still as possible. My stomach was hurting and i wanted to leave as fast as possible. I stood up and turned off the game and said i was tired while making sure to stay back from her (and i had my hands away and stiff) but i felt so uneasy. I laid I bed and felt sad and heavy. And i kept getting thoughts that said "íts only a matter of time before you can't take it anymore". I started to reassurance seek using ai to ask if i was about to or if they are real urges or thoughts i mean until i eventually fell asleep in the middle of the compulsion. Im just so worried, what if I act out impulsevly one day? I dont want to! But what if when feeling a negative emotion, i suddenly dont care and do something? I really dont want to! I dont even want to feel negative emotions anymore since they trigger the thoughts and I dont want to think about any of that. As a result i tend to avoid my family as much as possible bc they are annoying sometimes. I just wish i was all alone sometimes so i wont get any more thoughts and so everyone can be safe. I usually just stay in bed under my blankets all day long to avoid my family and pets. I am constantly uncomfortable. I miss when i would never think any of this. Living life has become very scary for me now. 😞
I am a freshman in college diagnosed with OCD, anxiety and depression. I have been on medication for 2 months but I do not see any improvement yet. College has become an anxiety fuel now and I can’t study because I am too anxious and sometimes I cry when I try to. I can’t perform well in classes and the workload is stressing me out. During the first exam season I was a wreak but I wasn’t yet on meds and that’s when my depression appeared. The thing is I can’t really do the normal routine things and I don’t find happiness in the things that were my hobbies. I don’t know how I’ll be able to tell my parents if I do it because my mom is really on about the fact that I can do it cause I’m strong and now I just feel like I will disappoint her. If anyone that went or is going through this let me know your experience.
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