Hi, so, I don’t really know what to say. I am struggling with making friends in school. I am sixteen and the friends I did have moved away in the past few years. I still see them sometimes but they live in different school districts now, so I don’t have any friends left and making new ones has been really hard. I tried talking to people who I sort of knew and was always nice to but I don’t know. Nothing comes of it. Everyone seems to have their own clicks and clearly do not want me to be a part of it. I may try to join a club but they also seem to be very clicky. I don’t know what to do and I guess I just miss having friends to hang out with and talk to all the time. It’s really impacting my mood and the isolation sucks.
WHAT TO DO NOW
- Thank you so much for writing to TeenCentral! We want to apologize for getting back to you so late. We think something happened with the snowstorm in our area on the day you wrote this story and somehow we missed it. But we found it today and definitely wanted to write back to you! What you are dealing with must be SO difficult. Having friends is important to everyone. Feeling lonely is really tough.
- If this ever happens again and you don’t hear back from us right away or you just feel like you want to talk to someone immediately there are other resources to consider. The Crisis Textline is available 24/7 . You just text “HOME” to 741741 and start a conversation. It’s helpful to have that number in your phone just in case.
- It’s important that you are choosing the right friends for yourself. As you get older you will find that you may have a smaller circle of friends, but they may be tighter and more reliable. Perhaps right now you are going through that process right now – finding that small group. Check out a few resources on this site that may help guide you on this journey:
- Have you ever thought of talking to a trusted adult about this? How is your relationship with your parents? Do you think maybe one of them would listen to you? If not a parent maybe a guidance counselor, or teacher, coach, religious leader, older family member? You’d be surprised but sometimes nothing beats a good old-fashioned face to face conversation!
COPING WITH STRESS:
- In the meantime, while you are working on these challenging issues, how can you cope with the stress in your life? We can only imagine that you must experience shifting moods – maybe anxiety and depression at times. We suggest a tried-and-true method for reducing anxiety that involves controlling your breath. READ HERE a What’s New blog about reducing anxiety by using breathing exercises.
- If you are interested in exploring your feelings of sadness and depression, we suggest THIS TOOL. If there are other moods that you are experiencing, try THIS TOOL to see how often you are feeling each emotion. If you see a counselor share this with the counselor.
- We also highly recommend starting a journal if you haven’t already. This is a huge help when you are facing challenges in life. If you are not sure how to begin consider reading this BLOG.
