-- Posted by Anonymous at 10:43 am on Feb. 17, 2008 I've always been a pretty upbeat person. I never seemed to have that many huge problems or anything, and I've always been a generally happy person. That is until recently. Since school started back last fall, I've really seemed to be struggling with a lot of stuff. I have times when I am so down that I just want to sit and cry. It's gotten to the point where I'm even pushing people away. My roommate and best friend since elementary school has noticed a lot lately that everything seems to bother me, and that upsets her. She says the smallest things seem to get to me and put me in a bad mood, and she doesn't know how to act around me. I've really put our friendship under a lot of stress lately, and I'm so afraid that I'm going to keep getting in these moods and push her away. And it's not just her. I feel like a lot of my friends don't really even want to be around me anymore, and I am constantly afraid that people are mad at me or are talking badly about me or something else dumb like that even though no one has given me a reason to think that. I don't know why I feel this way, and I don't know how to make myself stop feeling down all the time. Any suggestions/advice? -- Posted by XxCrAzEdInSaNiTyxX at 10:48 am on Feb. 17, 2008 It sounds like your suffering from, AAD. Acute Anxiety Disorder. Just calm yourself. Talk to all your friends at once if you can and help them to help you. I'm sure youll be fine. If you keep feeling unhappy do what i do...... HUG A PUPPY!!! -- Posted by branflakes at 11:00 am on Feb. 17, 2008 Hey, it seems like you're just under a lot of stress right now. If you try to show your friends that you're sorry for any bad moods you may be having, I'm sure they'd understand and try to help you get through this. We can't be happy all the time after all! Think for a second. Since you've start school, have you been focusing more on schoolwork and less on things you enjoy? Even though it's important that you're working hard, you need to take a breather and do things that are carefree. You need to relax from time to time. If your schedule is too draining, you might want to consider talking to a counselor to try and lighten your courseload. Are you getting enough sleep? Sometimes, in these situations, we work too hard and don't get enough rest. Rest is important because it's during this time that our bodies repair themselves and, if you're not getting enough sleep, your feelings of stress will keep piling up. Try to set aside time to go to sleep instead of doing other things that might be killing your time. As I've said, I think it's important that you talk to a counselor to get things straight. You're obviously going through some issues right now and you should set yourself on the right track. You've been happy in the past so you know you can be better but you just need to make that effort to help yourself! There are a lot of people out there that want you to feel good so go for it! I hope this advice helps. I know life can be tough sometimes but try to do what you enjoy and also try to talk about your problems. Just getting things off of your chest is sometimes the best medicine. I'm sure you'll make it through and be stronger in the end. If you have any more questions, feel free to message me! Stay strong! -- Posted by Amanda2774 at 11:09 am on Feb. 17, 2008 Hey dont feel bad im right here with you i have the same problem everyday and i dont know how to handle it either do you have any help for me? -- Posted by Anonymous at 1:38 pm on Feb. 17, 2008 I feel horrible about it, but I'm also having trouble trusting my friends lately too. Like last night. A bunch of us had plans to go out dancing, but I had to leave fairly early, which would have been fine if we had gone to the club we had originally planned to go to.  But everyone decided they wanted to go to a different one. I didn't know how to get there, and it takes a while to get there, so I would have had to either drive myself (and probably get lost) or make someone leave early with me. So I decided not to go. Then this morning I found out they all suddenly changed their minds and went to the one we had originally decided on. And that makes me feel like they just didn't want me to go, so they changed the plans to make me not go, then went back to the original plan once I had gone home. I don't know if that's what happened, but I'm afraid they just didn't want me there and made it so I wouldn't be.