so bloody confused...

[BuryYourFlame]

gah...well...it took a fair bit more me to convince myself that people would read this and care...but everyone seems worse off than me...idk

atm i just feel like throwing up...and im pretty sure exams are all to blame...

pretty much everything is fucked up atm...school...home...friends...gah...

at school...i am starting to fail some tests...and my grades are dropping in general...and all the while i think my teachers are beginning to wonder what is happening...which they will never find out...

at home...sara is always shouting at cameron...trying to be our mother...and failing...and it is fucking pissing me off...

and friends...well...no-one of them seem to understand...at all...im gettin nothing but guilt trips from everyone who isn't on VT...they only make me feel worse...and want to cut again...

so yeh...i am absolutely freakin out about exams...cause of the slipping grades thing...i tried to study...but i just cant concerntrate...at all...and it is driving me insane...

and the worst thing...i have no idea how to handle all of this...

any help is appreciated...

[Donkey]

The first thing you can do is concentrate on your work at school. That is the most important thing. Forget about what's happening at home, and just get down to work. You need to understand what is important at what times. At the moment, exams are very important for you therefore you should be trying to work on that as much as possible.

At home, you seriously need to talk things through with Sara. You need to tell her that she is getting annoying, but in a calm, peaceful way. You need to tell her that it is bugging you and stopping you from being able to work properly, and for that reason needs to stop now. I think she'll understand if you sit down some time when you are both relaxed, calm and ready to have a sensible discussion about what she is doing.

You can explain to your friends what is happening to you at the moment, but as you said, I don't think they'll understand. Tell them how you feel like I said above. Do it as a one-on-one thing with each of them who are causing you problems.

As a final note, I would like to say that studying too much makes you stressed. Being stressed makes it harder to concentrate. For that reason, you should start relaxing a bit more and be more calm about things. You can't work all the time, but you still do have to do it. Make a good balance between the two. Do not get stressed out.

And Declan, I admire you a lot for taking the willpower and stopping the self harming. That takes allot. I well respect you for that. Don't let it happen again, otherwise you're only letting your self down. As I said, relax. You can get through this man.

[theOperaGhost]

Declan, you need to stop keeping it all a secret. You don't have to tell people you have cut and such, but tell people how you are feeling. Bottling it all up inside is the worst thing you can do, and it's exactly what you're doing. Posting on here is a start and helps a little bit, but it would be better if you would tell people. You need to get help with your depression because it IS effecting everything else in your life that you just mentioned, and possibly more than you mentioned. You need to stop hiding, because you aren't going to get help or get any better by hiding yourself.

[INFERNO]

I assume Sara is a sister and Cameron is a brother?

You have to prioritize things. School (homework and exams) outweigh family drama. It may sound insensitive, however, that is the reality.

You do not have to tell your friends that you cut, that is up to you. You can let that out here, that's perfectly fine. You can tell your friends, however, I do not know how they are, so I am uncertain if they will understand or not understand.

Stress seems to be a major culprit, and as hard and difficult as it is, you have to relax. It sounds simpler than it is, however, a goal for you should be to relax, then study and improve the school grades.

I don't know what the problems are exactly, however, from reading your post on here, I'm inclined to go with stress and depression. Other than that, I don't know anymore of you, so I cannot say any more details. But, it is necessary for you to try and get some help, and posting on VT is a good start. You've acknowledged that you are suffering and you've let it out. In order to receive help face-to-face, you have to tell someone outside the computer and hopefully see a trained mental health professional. Keeping it bottled up between you and VT will not be beneficial in the long-run because we cannot provide face-to-face assistance, and the immediate assistance we can provide lacks the human-like qualities of being with a person.

But, you have to deal with the issues separately. The easier one to deal with is the family (I assume Sara is family, if not then please correct me). Tell Sara how you are feeling about her behavior but do so in a calm, relaxed, non-hostile manner. Once that issue has been resolved, then you have one less item on your plate. You can then turn the focus towards the school work and studying for exams, and letting others know about the depression and stress. Succeeding in the school can help reduce some of the depression, and in doing that, some of the stress. Ideally, telling someone, hopefully a trained mental health professional or guidance counselor or school psychologist can help reduce them even more.

In the end, it's like breaking through a brick wall: you don't run headlong into it, as doing so leaves you injured and with a nice bump. You take a hammer and look for areas that are weaker, break them then you break down the wall. This is akin to dealing with the issues one at a time, not all at once. You're human, you can do only so much at once.