"When you feel so tired but you can't sleep, stuck in reverse"; how can I change my life?

You are a dreamer…that is great as you are tuned into things other than the day to day grind that most people fall victim to and surrender to those demands. Continue to dream but find the courage to face your responsibilities especially school as you have said that is the key to making your dreams a reality! Hang tough and smile!

Ah baby – sisteen is hard! It will get better. Be glad you have a best friend and keep talking to him/her. Do your work and go to college; you’ll find more compatible friends there. And don’t sell your mother short, you may find she understands you better than you think.

Welcome to Fluther!

The teenage years are a little taste of Hell on Earth for many people (myself included). But, fear not! You only have a few years of that left. Life simultaneously gets better and worse. The important thing is that you keep striving to be better and make your situation better. One day, you’ll feel a little better, then a few years after that you’ll feel comfortable, then a few years after that you will find your first taste of true blue happiness. It does take time, but don’t give up on what is important to you. Indulge yourself in the things and people you love and keep your eye on the prize!

@read ’Lights will guide…..you home. And ignite your bones. And I will try…. to fix you.

Think you will find many teenagers feel the way you do, but keep following your dreams.

Remember your parents were once teenagers, so they DO understand how you feel deep down, perhaps they don’t show it the way you wish.

Keep up your educaton, then one day you will be able to achieve those dreams,

Adults pine for being teenagers again, but forget the hell that is being 14–16.
It will get better, and it will soon be the best times of your life. Just keep on keeping on.

And, in case the song is having an impact, don’t do heroin.

Pick up a camera and start taking photographs. Pick up a brush and start painting a canvas. Wet the clay and let your fingers find the form. Point your life toward a direction and take the first step, any step, just move from where you are currently. You said you didn’t like where you are (mentally), so move from that space immediately…

Go Now!

Parallel your young fresh life with a young fresh artistic pursuit. Laugh at yourself as you will laugh at your first artistic attempts. Don’t build your life for others any more than you would create your artistic vision for others. It’s your life, and it’s your artistic vision.

Start exploring it Now!

Get the pencil and paper Now and draw an image of a physical object… Anything! Draw from your mind if you like, but starting with a physical object can help the process along. Laugh at your perceived terrible young life just as you laugh at your perceived terrible young art. If others mock you and your dreams, then laugh at them too.

Behold your life improvements as you behold your artistic eye improving. Refine yourself as you refine your art. Create yourself as you create your art. Bask in the amazement of others as they watch you create yourself, while creating your art. It will improve, but you must move. Move… move Now. Leave the frown behind. Throw it to the dirt and stomp it out. Stomp on it Now! Walk away from that awful thing that would hold you back, clinging to you for its very life.

That frown doesn’t control your life. You control the frown. Throw it down and Clown that frown! You are a CREATOR OF LIFE! Get up Now and start Creating NOW NOW NOW.

New Life awaits you. It awaits you, you the Creator of Life. Start creating it… Now!

Believe it or not, I’m 62 and have had the same problem. My solution has always been a process. For example, I started a big project in late January with a customer that is 600 miles away. For a wide variety of reasons, the project has had an unusually number of delays. To add a little more complication, my father died in the beginning of February and we had the funeral in the middle of the biggest snow storm the northeast has seen in twenty years.

I have finally wound down. I drove home (550 miles) on Thursday, spent Friday watching DVR re-runs, and sleeping. I got up this morning (it’s Saturday), and started a list of all the things that were neglected for the last two months. I find working my way through the list as a way to unwind and get back the the simple things in life.

So my process is to:
1. Stop completely for only one day. more will actually set back you recovery.
2. Have a good breakfast the next day and spend time assessing the situation.
3. Start a list of all the things you feel you missed. I don’t use a particular order because I try not to be too obsessive.
4. Start working through the list and mark off things as they are completed. This gives me a visible measure of my accomplishments.
5. I suggest going through the list by doing one item that is difficult then the next should be simple and short.

I hope this helps, I have been trouble-shooting my entire life and find that it helps to have a list but not a detailed plan. That way you think about the process and avoid boredom. To me, boredom is the enemy.

Find a volunteer activity.

@read, I know if doesn’t even seem possible to make it out of this awful time in your life, but so many people before me have told you that it will happen, and I’m just one more that is telling you the same. And then you know what else seems impossible? Another day will come, years down the road, and you’ll look back and think, “MY GOD I had fun in high school.” Because you’ll only remember the fun crazy stuff. The pain, the confusion, the difficult relationships – it’ll all be just a fuzzy memory. You’ve got two more years of fun and crazy to go. Trust me. I could have written exactly what you wrote in your question above when I was your age.

@Trillian, good answer. LOVE the video and the story behind the song.

I was just thinking this last night! WoW!

wOw you are psychic! And you just reached 2000 lurve! Congrats! Let me be the one to bump you over with a great answer! Here it comes!

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies LOL…Thanks. I always appreciate getting jump-started! And I got the starfish award along with your GA!