Young and Anxious

Dear Lynda: I am really hoping you can help me. I understand that it is a long shot that you will answer my email but I sincerely hope you do. I am 19 years old and I officially dropped out of school when I was 15, though prior to that I never went to school that much, mostly because I couldn't handle what was going on at home. When school didn't really go very well I found it easier to run away from school than home. Now reaching my 20s I am scared. I have so much school anxiety and people anxiety and just life anxiety. I am frozen in fear and can't move. It isn't completely bad. I have my moments of, well, what I like to call "quiet encouragement" that comes from within but really I need it from an outside source as well because I don't want to become closed off from the world for the rest of my life. I don't want to become a hermit. I do genuinely want to help people and be the best that I can be, but all that I have had to go through and the drama still continues I feel almost -- I don't want to say doomed -- but I am getting desperate. Any advice or wisdom you have, I would greatly appreciate it! I have no idea what question is the right question. I am hoping you know exactly what I need to know and hear because, truthfully, I am lost. Though that being said, I realize that you may not have all the answers and you may not know what I need to know or hear but I am open to hearing whatever it is you have to say, truly I am. Thank you very much for reading this, if you did read this.
C

Dear C: Please read the advice I gave to the post directly below yours. Anxiety responds very well to counseling and medication. And, uncovering the source of the original and "echo" traumas through hypnotherapy and/or EMDR, can be life-changing. Don't despair. There are many empowering steps you can take. You're young enough to make the changes you desire. Take that first step.
Lynda