Hello. First time to ask for help on MN, so be gentle with me!
I work full time and study part time for a MSc. Have been doing the MSc since Feb 07 (they take forever when you do them part time!) and hope to finish this Sept (this is the final push). Everything seems to be getting on top of me at the moment and my mood for the past couple of weeks has generally been very low and I've been very weepy. I get stuck in a viscious cycle of not being able to study as I'm feeling crap, then feeling hugely frustrated and guilty and angry with myself because I haven't done any study, and that makes my mood worse, so I can't study, and the whole thing starts over. I should be supposedly be studying about 36hours a week at the moment, on top of working 37.5. I'm not studying anywhere near that much, I just physically/mentally can't!
The especially bad uni time is only going to continue until June, when I will have met one deadline, then it will be a little easier until Sept for the last deadline. I basically just need some coping strategies for now until June! My boyfriend is very good on the practicals (make a study plan, consider studying in a different way etc) and is supportive (he is being lovely and does his best to look after me) but I suppose I'm looking for some more ideas/support on the emotional side of things?
As a little more background, I've always got stressed relatively easily, although not ever to a massively problematical level previously. And I seem to have been constantly anxious since Nov 08 when a close friend of mind died. That one I can't quite figure out, as I think generally I'm ok with that now (although I think of him often still), and I'm not worried about dying or anything like that, so why would his death be the trigger for me getting more anxious? But I get anxious about pretty much everything now, and always have a ball of anxiety in my stomach. And looking back, his death seems to have been the trigger.
This is turning into a big long ramble now, apologies....
Anxiety/stress/depression isn't really something I've had to deal with before, so beyond the avoid alcohol/have a healthy diet/do some exercise/get enough sleep/etc, what can I go to help myself?! I have problems with racing thoughts, especially at bedtime, and take 5HTP for that, which a friend with similar problems recommended, and it seems to work. I don't take any other medication (and the 5HTP only occasionally)
Help! Thank you.....