Just know that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve been where you are, and emerged better for it. This is one of the unfortunate hurdles that the “high achievers” among us have to get past.
And FIRST worked as well as anything else I tried to beat the blues…
The unfortunate side effect, of course, is a lifelong addiction to FIRST.
basicxman, thank you for raising this important topic! I believe this topic is very overlooked in the FIRST community, so this is, IMO, no way in poor taste.
My situation was a bit complicated when I was in high school, as there was no outside pressure forcing me to make good grades. I was obsessed with being a perfect student, and if there were someone above me in a class, then I would have regarded myself as a complete failure with no place in society (I seriously had this strange train of thought). This same obsession even followed me into my first two years on my school’s FIRST team where I obsessed over trying to be a perfect member, and if I found myself to be in a situation where I had nothing to do (like if there was nothing on the robot that I knew how to fix or improve) then I would have regarded myself as a completely worthless member of the team.
Eventually I sought help, and my symptoms were dramatically reduced. I still have these obsessive fits every now and then, but I have learned to control myself.
I highly recommend talking to someone you personally trust about any problems you have, since one of the best steps to take is sharing your feelings. Do not ever keep your problems to yourself, as they will build up and may eventually cause something very unfortunate to happen.
From what I’ve read here, there seems to be a bit of a confusion. High achievers have no more reason for high levels of stress or anything. It’s the fact that people with high stress often are successful that makes it look that way. I’m quite successful at what I do, and I don’t get stressed out as much as many people I know do. I find the key is to do things like read the comics, play a flash game, and just take a nap every once in a while. It really has to do with calming down every once in a while.
Side note: Aren’t vitamins drugs? I thought they were. Not saying anything against it, but I would definitely think high vitamin pills are drugs. And yes, not all drugs are bad.
vitamins are natural minerals that treat the cause of your mental illness, drugs just treat the symptoms and generally always have side effects, some safer than others.
to reference, vitamins have done nothing bad to me. Various drugs have caused me migraines, making the depression worse (yes, drugs can do this! be wary…), etc… I have seen anti-psychotics do cause seizures in some
Along around this time of year I try to remind mentors (and student team members, too) to be aware of other team members who are suffering from post-event-letdown. Particularly our seniors, who may be realizing that their FIRST experience is coming to an end…
Not speaking for everybody here but, I’m thinking more hard workers or people that have generally had success come to them. Not necessarily gifted but that works too 
I wouldn’t consider myself gifted…lol
I’ve heard of the idea of high achievers or intellectuals being more prone to depression and I think one reason this might be the case is that they might be pushed harder to excel even more. One thing I’ve found that has made me into an eternally happy person is living for myself first and foremost, and I don’t mean that in a selfish way. What I mean is you have to do what you think you need to do, and not let yourself be pushed too far.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/drug
Read definition 1. Vitamins in the form you described above falls under this definition of a drug. It really doesn’t matter whether or not it is natural.
Also, The link I was sent to suggested there is a correlation between perfectionism and high achieving. It stated that perfectionists tend to have depression. I’m not arguing that point. Perfectionists may. I don’t know, I’m not one. However, I’m saying that perfectionists are just one of many types of high achievers. I’m the kind of guy that comes acrossed as lazy, doesn’t study much for tests, and often don’t pay attention in class. Definitely not a perfectionist or your “standard” high achiever. However, I’ve got a 3.7 GPA and am half way to my mechanical engineering degree. It isn’t about what a person does that makes a person depressed, its how they choose to accomplish.
Disclaimer: Not suggesting everybody does things my way, just saying they do work for me.
Fair enough, my point being anyways, is that vitamins are significantly less harmful.
Just to comment on your behavior, I think you are right in the sense that it is how you choose to do things. I’m far from being a high achiever but I do fairly well in school without needing to focus. I’ve also hit points of depression so I can see both sides of this spectrum. Essentially I live my life stressfree because a friend of mine taught me that there is no limit to apathy. Now I’m not saying you should be apathetic about everything because I think that that would be a really bad idea but sometimes you just need to not focus so hard on life and just go with the flow of things. I hate it when things don’t go the way that I want them to or the way that I figured that they would go but I’ve learned to deal with it by just being apathetic about it. I know that it isn’t the best advice but you sometimes need to just live life for you and not care about the rest of the world. Give yourself the time and space you need to get rid of anything causing depression. Taking a step back and looking at things from a different perspective is generally one of my favorite techniques to overcome anything that is bothering me.
It always helps to tal to some one. Although I do not suffer from depression this year was so hard for me having a team of 4 people and a faculty advisor who made it impossible to get things done.
My advice: Find a mentor who you can really relate too and talk to openly about anything. I found one of them and she was really able to help me and now I can talk to her about anything. They are in the same boat as you and sometimes that is easier then talking to someone from your school.
…or teacher, custodian, parent (doesn’t have to be yours), other student, etc…
I’m available if anyone needs an anonymous source to vent to.
See the reason I was thinking a mentor because usually when you talk to people around your school even if it was a teacher or a custodian it always gets around. I mean I go to a really small private school and things get around so quickly because the teachers talk to each other and the students talk to each other. Sometimes it is best to keep things away from your school.
i’ve gone through this before (not clinical though). usually it happens in the off-season when i have nothing to do. and im stuck doing the same things every couple of days ie: school, work, homework, repeat.
sometimes you just need a good nap to fix things, Take a day off and just sleep. it will let you clear your head and allow you to start over.
I also found that if you have other hobbies, the better. I play card games, I’ll practice for tourneys and other things during the FIRST off season, but im usually away from that during the FIRST season.
in other words, “always have something to do that will change up your live”
There are lots of ways you can find help for depression; you just have to find one and make it work.
I’m feeling kind of bad, today.
We spent a lot of time improving our robot after the Cass Tech competition, and managed to make it work much better, but we didn’t do any better at the Detroit competition.
We did get the imagery award, which we’re all so proud of, but FIRST has really been the only thing saving me from the horribleness of my school, and it looks like we won’t be making it to Ypsilanti or Atlanta. =(
I hope that everyone that does make it has fun, and I’ll certainly stay involved, but it’s sad to realize that this is my last year as a student, and it’s over, unless we get really lucky and get to go.
Even if we do somehow make it, though, I don’t think we’ll have the money to get there. >_>
My school actually does not offer any AP or honors courses, so FIRST is the only challenge I’ve been given - I love it so much, and I’m sad to know that my time as a student is over, now.
There’s a lot of bullying, and people have even physically bullied me, only to be given a “warning”, or for there to be no ‘proof’, and thus ‘no offense’. It’s frustrating, and I guess it doesn’t help me to not feel depressed, haha.
If anyone needs an ear, I’m here.
Thank you for starting this post, and I’m sorry to have vented so much. 
Two things for pneddhao:
First off, no reason to be sorry for venting. If there was ever a thread to vent, it would be this one( or my old “thats annoying” thread)
Secondly, mentoring is great. To be honest, I find it to be more of a challenge then it was to be a student. As a student, you give it your all. If you think of something, say it. If you can do something, do it. As a mentor, there is a lot more that goes through your head. For instance, if I see that some dimensions aren’t going to work and see an easy way to fix it. I used to be able to just fix it and be on my way. However, now I try to get the students to figure out how to fix it. It might be the way I found but it might be different. For better or worse, that is the idea we go with.
Also, standard thought is that you have to mentor for your old team. Not true. Up until this year I’ve been a student/mentor for 1766. However, this year do to traveling that wasn’t going to work. So, I found out about 1529. They are close to where I live now, are student based (a must for any team I’ll ever help, not starting debate…just saying), and it worked out that I could meet them before hand at CAGE match. I learned about them through PMing the team on here.
If you would like to get away from your old school for whatever reason, and would like to continue with FIRST try to find some other teams. Particularly ones near the college of your choosing. I knew the teacher and 1 student off of 1529 before the build season. Found the school on the kick off date. And still don’t know half of the students names. But I had a lot of fun, and would like to think that I had some sort of a beneficial effect on their team. At times, I really found myself getting in the way of the students.(This was actually a good feeling because I knew they were doing everything fine.) On another note, I think I learned as much this year as being a mentor as I did as a student. Sure, I learned about people and stuff…but I still learned a lot about robotics I didn’t know. 1529 has some tools that 1766 doesn’t and vice versa. I feel this year really has diversified me.
I know that was a very wordy post. To anyone considering mentoring though, I would suggest you read my words.(specifically the second note)
See I had a little bit of a different issue. I am on the varsity softball and soccer team, I coordinate the blood drive and towards the middle of the year I started getting really worn down and tired and I even started getting really sick and bad chest pains and I was not getting any sleep at all just because I was so busy. On those teams I really did not have any friends or anyone I could really talk to but when it came to robotics…
I made a lot of friends and now I know where I really belong and when I get frustrated I have people to talk to. Robotics is where I can really just be me and not where I have to concentrate on trying to keep into the clique. Thank you FIRST and thank you for posting this thread.