Too much to handle

[Tom]

Hello, I am fourteen at the moment and fairly intelligent (as you would probably expect on this Ning). At the moment it seems like there are so many problems in the world little and small. This is something that I find hard to take in  and even small things that don't effect me get me worked up and angry. My mum says this is something I get from her because she is a passionate person and  was just wondering if anyone else feels the same and how/if you deal with it. I would like to mention I do not feel depressed I just get worked up over all these things and at the moment it feels like my head could blow off.I do also get pushed around at school a lot which works me up too but I hide it well, I have no means of expressing this which I know is extremely unhealthy and makes me more angry. I also feel if I try to talk to people about how things that work me up often barely effect me they will think it is stupid. I also feel like I cannot do anything to change the things that make me angry(things like poverty not things like being pushed around at school.) Which over all is what really makes me angry. I'm sure you can see a patern here.

Sorry for not paragraphing and the horrible gramar but I just kind of wrote stuff as it came to me.

Thanks

Tom

[Megan]

Hey Tom,

I'm very glad that you shared these feelings. It's really important to vent strong emotions, especially emotions like anger. Anger is a reaction that is rooted in helplessness. To cure it, you must put things into perspective- you cannot control the world, but you CAN control yourself.

Personal Problems: It isn't healthy to allow yourself to be mistreated at school. I'd recommend talking to people that can help, such as your parents or school administrators. If your classmates are immature enough to hassle you in the first place, trying to have a mature conversation will probably make things worse.

Global Problems: You need to understand your place in the world. It is noble to want to help, but you cannot be everywhere at once. The world is a shared responsibility; it is not COMPLETELY up to you to fix everything that is wrong with it. What you CAN do is make your own corner of the planet a better place. So relax and breathe- the problems of the world are not your fault and you are not solely responsible for fixing them. Look for things that can be improved in your own home, school, and city.

The Emotion Itself: As I said before, it's extremely important to vent your emotions. One of the easiest ways to do so is to exercise. Even if you don't do sports, you can still go for a run, lift weights, and participate in similar activities. Other ways include talking to people you trust and writing down your thoughts. Once you have released your negative emotions, it is good to distract yourself by doing things that make you happy. If you have the ability to be passionately angry, you have the ability to be passionately joyful as well.

I hope this helps! Keep us updated about how you're doing. =]
~Megan

[Clive-φ-Davidson ImagesNM]

Since you seem to be saying that you feel helpless against these bad things in the world, I'd like to point you in the direction of a few charitable organisations that need your help, but not your money:

http://www.care2.com is a petition site, where you can sign petitions to make governments all over the globe take action against these things.

http://www.freerice.com donates 10 grains of rice through the world hunger program, it's fun, educational and charitable!

http://www.freepoverty.com is similar to free rice, but with water.

http://www.thehungersite.com donates every time you click on one of the buttons, and you have multiple causes to choose from.

http://www.veosearch.com/en is much like the now shut down givoogle, although not as popular or effective.
It generates revenue from searches and donates 50% to charity.

[Tom]

Thanks you so much!!! Each of you have helped me in different ways and I will try this out. This was my first post and I'm very glad I got responses so fast. but seriously I can't thank you enough.

[Cavalier]

You, and your mom, have a good sense of empathy. You can feel for others. That is a good thing, but sometimes you just can't worry about everyone else in the world. I just remembered Hank has a video about this. Something about if his cat would die he would cry, but he doesn't cry for every dead cat. You can't save the entire world, but you can make a difference then feel good about that. Hopefully the links that the others posted helps you.

A man was walking on a beach one early morning and he saw a boy bending over picking up a starfish. As the man got closer the boy threw the starfish into the ocean. The man asked why he did that, and the boy told him because when the sun comes up the starfish will get burned and die from laying out on the beach exposed to the sun. The man notice there were countless starfish on the beach. he told the boy why even bother, there's so many you can't save them all and make a difference. The boy picks up another starfish throws it into the ocean and says I just made a difference for that one.

[Clive-φ-Davidson ImagesNM]

That is a nice story and very true.

[Lae]

I'm not a very passionate person, i can get worked up, but i lose it....i guess i just over obsess over some thing i vent all that passion in such a short time thats too negligible...then i forget what i was doing in the first place *usually involving a cookie...i like cookies...what were we talking about again??* people think i'm amazing for looking popular or having such drive...but i dont...i just look like i am...i'm just a guy who is who he wants to be, i'm definitely not popular (i think theres facebook groups mocking me...) i'm a big nerd....pretty much no one understands what i'm saying...and i dont understand humans...and cant hold a conversation...i also mispell words a lot because i'm a two finger typist...i always lose stuff and i just feel....useless when it really matters...i'm 15 years old and the world IS massive, your just 1/6,500,000th of the human race but that doesnt mean i stop..."I promised i'd keep going, and do what i had to do. He said only i'd know what that is. The World's full of Lies. There's no way to know what's right. All we can do is believe in ourselves. It's Easy to sit back and let people trick you...I'm done with their lies...From here on out i use my eyes. Think. and Act. I might not make all the right choices. But as long as i'm the one who decided what to do, there's nothing to regret. -Hope, Chapter 10, Final Fantasy XIII" i always remember that, and even though i have infinite problems, its still less than my victories. My advice is to just do your best and take pride in your choices, and Regret Nothing...do what you want to do, and enjoy your life :)