Stress Center Peer Support

HI I'm a 17 year old starting my junior year in high school. My freshman year was when I initially developed my anxiety about my peers beliefs in me. It was very hard and I had severe panic attacks on and off keeping me from school about a month at the end of the year. Then my mom got me StressCenter program off an infomercial and i worked on it that summer. Then I went back to school for my sophomore year on paxil and shortly after was taken off of it. I had no more troubles and i felt as if I had conquered my problem. Then all of a sudden at the end of the year I had a panic attack almost at the exact same point in the year. I missed 2 weeks and school was over. Now its time for my junior year and I've already missed 2 days. At one point I felt i had conquered this and now I'm right back were I was. I'm really frustrated and I don't have a lot of more options with school because I have to go. I don't want to drop out but I may have to. I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

I would suggest that you start the program over from the beginning. Also, I suggest that you go back to see your doctor. I personally would suggest a psychiatrist/therapist because they know more about how to help you(us) through this than a regular doctor. Remember you are not alone. I will keep you in my prayers.

I'm going to tell you a story about my anxiety experience in highschool in hopes that it will teach you to do the opposite of what I did.

I had anxiety in highschool but didn't know it. It started around my junior year. I was uncomfortable in my math class so I would always dread going. I didn't understand why I felt this way but all I knew was I didn't want to go, so I stopped. I cut math class everyday and went to a lunch period or the library. I went to a public highschool in a upper class area where we lived so I don't think my teachers cared too much as to where I was all the time. My math teacher called my house, (I got a friend to pretend to be my dad) to tell my
"dad" that I needed to make up a lot of work. I ended up with a "W" for the year which meant withdrawl. I was able to scan my report card to get that "W" off of there. I also changed my attendance because I cut a lot. For whatever reason, I was moved to the next grade with the incomplete in math. The following year I attended tech school and regular highschool so I was out of my regular school for half the day which I liked b/c I really enjoyed tech school. When I returned to school I was supposed to go to gym then english. Same thing happened again. I went to english a couple times, didn't like the way I felt, so I didn't go. I had a friend in the class who told me that everyday a student would come in looking for me to go to the principal's office but I obviously wasn't there. They even went to the library where I was hiding out, and came up to me and asked me if I knew where they could find "me". I said I didn't know who "I" was. Finally, after a few months of this the principal called and my parents found out. They had to get me a home tutor to tutor me in english. I caused my parents a lot of problems because of my behavior. They took me to see a counselor to see why I didn't want to go to school. I told them I just didn't like sitting in class. They thought it was me being difficult. But the truth is I was uncomfortable and filled with anxiety. When it came time to graduate, my guidance counselor told me I could use my tech course to subsitute for last year's math incomplete. That was big lucky break for me!! Now I could graduate.

I got a couple lucky breaks but you see what can happen when you let anxiety control your thoughts and feelings? I know it's tough, but try working on the program again. You don't want to miss out on your highschool expierence. Even though I didn't know I had anxiety, and I missed some classes, I did enjoy my friends and diff. school activities. Prom, basketball games, meeting new people etc...
Trust me if you run now, you'll be running forever.

Good luck and stick with it. You beat it before and you can beat it again.