Dear Prudence,
I saw a psychiatrist recently, and he told me he suspects bipolar disorder. I haven’t really felt like myself in a while, and with what the psychiatrist said, I think I just really need to talk to someone about how I feel. I tried to talk to my friends about it, but I feel like they don’t understand, and I felt all shaken up even trying to talk, so I stopped. One of my friends mentioned it to me again later and asked me if I was OK and needed to talk, but I brushed it off. After all, it’s not their responsibility to have to comfort me, and I don’t want to seem like an attention-seeker.
Still, I feel like I NEED to talk to someone, but I can’t when I try to. I feel so much all the time, like I’m going to explode. The only way I feel better is when I distract myself with things like smoking weed (lame, I know), and I feel really guilty about it. I‘ve been in and out of therapy pretty much my whole life, and only stopped a few months ago when I turned 18. I want to go back, but it would be so embarrassing to be the one to make that choice, since it wasn’t ever my decision as a child. I’m really lost at what to do.
—Lost