Is There Some Place I Can Go for Guidance? (Kind of Long)?

Question by Friend: Is there some place I can go for guidance? (Kind of long)?
Ok, I know you’re probably going to say “guidance counselor” or something like that, but I think I need a little more.

Here’s the situation:

I’m 17. I wouldn’t say that I’m a drug addict, but I do have some things that I depend on still. I’d say that when I was about 14, I began to smoke pot with a couple friends and then things escalated from there. I got into more harder drugs and was eventually locked up. The whole me being in and out of the juvenile detention facility thing lasted about 2 years, and then I finally had enough. I stopped using all “drugs”, but I became fond of sleeping pills. The sleeping pills are the only thing that I still do, and I’ve cut down on them A LOT! At one point I was up too 12 maximum strength sleeping pills a night, and then sometimes I would take more after that AFTER the sleepiness high would go away. I quit for awhile, but I managed to get back on them and still am.

As far as my schooling goes, I really fucked up bad. I’ve never really had any guidance in my life (I’ll talk about that next), I’ve just kind of been floatin through life doing whatever came at me. I think about in 7th grade I started to drop out of school. I mean, I just didn’t see the point in it; everybody was getting good grades and I was just having fun. Friends just meant more to me at the time. I guess because I didn’t have any guidence, or I didn’t know what I was doing with my life. I got a 0.0 gpa through out my 7-9th grade years, got held back in 9th cus I was locked up, and then switched to a charter school. I’m doing ok in charter – cought up a little, but I’m still not motivated or into it. I’m just kind of lost right now.

My parents are a different story. I was never abused or anything; maybe a little from my dad when I was younger – he was an alcoholic, but he never really did anything too violent. I was always realy close to my mom, and I was pretty much raised by her. She ended up becomming a best friend instead of a parent, and I think that kind of screwed up my direction in life; I don’t want to blame anyone for my actions though. She use to let me stay home from school; when I got F’s, it was no big problem; She use to give me money for drugs, and cigs. You know, it was just like she was feeding me to rock bottom even though I wasn’t there yet. I know it’s not completely her fault because we shared more of a friendship instead of a mother-son relationship, but I just feel she aided my downfall. Now it feels like I’m living with two friends (my parents – who were never strict), and I’ve never had a chance at direction, or been pushed.

My life as of now:

After I got out from being locked up about two years ago I became a recluse for the most part. I didn’t go out because I didn’t want to see my friends who got me in trouble anymore. It’s gotten pretty bad though; I haven’t left my house in about 2-3 months. I guess you could say that I’m just embarrassed of myself, as silly as that sounds. I mean, I’m supposed to graduate high school this year, but I’m grades behind. I don’t have ANY friends anymore, what so ever. I’m extremely pale and constantly thinking about how I look. I’m constantly worried that I’m going to run into my old friends and they’re going to see how bad I’ve gotten – some of them I’m afraid of seeing that I’m still a loser… I can’t get motivated in school because I don’t know what I want to do with my life. I can’t make plans for the future because I can’t even figure out what to do this day or the next.

My question is: Is there some where I can go for guidance? I’m 17, and completely lost. It’s more than just a guidance for school, it’s a guidance for life pretty much. I don’t want someone to tell me how to live my life, but I want someone to help me find meaning, or direction. Where can I go? – if you know of some place.

Best answer:

Answer by think green thoughts
a therapist?
im not real fond of ’em…but im not you.
hopefully it’ll help.

other than that, i don’t really know of anything else.
there really isn’t anything…professional wise.

you can always talk to your parents…you said they’re like your friends, so im sure they’ll be more than happy to listen. and maybe you can help them realize they need to kick back into parent mode a little more.
anybody else you have that you feel comfortable talking to.

im always here for anybody the needs to talk.
sometimes it’s easier to talk to a complete stranger.
that’s how i feel most of the time.
so, yeah…just puttin’ the offer on the table.

=]

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