Hello, thanks for your letter.
It seems like things are pretty tough for you right now, you’re feeling very confused about your emotions and feel that your friends and family are judging you when you say or do anything. It sounds really lonely for you and difficult especially as you feel it is affecting your school work.
I think it’s really positive that you have written to me as you feel that you may be depressed and don’t want it to get any worse. Telling someone how you feel can be the first step to changing things.
You mention that you have done a few, ‘online tests’ around depression, which have told you that you should seek advice. You say you don’t want your family to be involved so feel you cannot see a doctor.
The previous therapy you had wasn’t very helpful. I wonder if perhaps you could think about talking to one of our counsellors at ChildLine. They are not here to tell you what to do or to judge you, but to listen and to talk about how you are coping. I can see that you find it difficult talking to people about how you are feeling, perhaps you could think about chatting to a counsellor online.
You may find it helpful to read the information in Explore about depression. Young people, like yourself, post on the ChildLine message boards about feeling depressed and sad. It can sometimes help to hear what other people have to say about their feelings and how they cope.
Well done for writing to me today.
Take care,
Sam