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" Senior year of high school, anyone would have thought my life was perfect: I was Senior Class President, Tennis Team Captain, on Homecoming Court, and had a cute boyfriend who would do anything for me. But I had a secret. For the past five years, I&amp;#039;d been suffering from depression and anxiety, and during sophomore and junior year, I&amp;#039;d started cutting. By October of last year, the stress of college applications and my overwhelming fear of failure got to be too much, and I even thought about killing myself. I ended up spending the rest of my senior year in rehab and therapy. When I made it to summer, I thought I&amp;#039;d survived the worst of it, and college would be easy, a time to reinvent myself. But it wasn&amp;#039;t easy. The pressure of a heavy workload, trying to make new friends, living away from home and dealing with a roommate brought back all those familiar feelings that had led to my breakdown. The first time I had a big paper due I would make myself sick with anxiety every time I sat down to write it. I&amp;#039;d panic because I couldn&amp;#039;t write it and thought I&amp;#039;d fail the class and have to take it over again. The amount of reading was overwhelming too, and always put me to sleep, but when it was actually bedtime, I&amp;#039;d keep   myself up all night worrying about not getting my work done. At the beginning of the semester, I would call my mom hysterically, begging her to take me home, telling her I couldn&amp;#039;t make it at college. I was so stressed I couldn&amp;#039;t eat, I was constantly breaking out in hives, and the depression was wearing me out, mentally and physically. It was hard to connect with people at first-I didn&amp;#039;t want friends who would constantly complain, &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re so depressed all the time!&amp;quot; My hallmates couldn&amp;#039;t understand why I would sleep a lot and not be able to snap out of a bad mood. I had to remind myself to use my coping skills, like knitting, drawing and writing\u2014I focus completely on the activity and everything stressing me sort of fades away and loses its power. It also makes me feel good to actually finish something! It took a whole semester, but I definitely feel more comfortable and settled in. I know my depression won&amp;#039;t just go away, but I refuse to let it take over my life again! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/advice/a20010/dealing-with-depression-in-college/>