Does your college have a counseling center where students can go for free or low-cost counseling? I had so many of those same feelings when I started college... it was hard enough adjusting to all the changes, but my history of depression and severe anxiety didn't help make things any easier when it came to making friends, having fun, etc. It took a long time to find out who the safe people were. But during that time where I felt like I really had no one to talk to, I talked with a counselor for 45 minutes once a week. It was a huge help for me. She worked from a very cognitive behavioral approach, but she was also very empathic and sometimes just let me vent and cry without trying to fix anything.

Now that I'm 36, I've had 3 hospitalizations and have been in therapy since my 20's. Aside from my therapists and pdoc, My family knows I was hospitalized, but only 3 of my friends know. They are my closest friends (from college, ironically), but several others know I'm in therapy and on medications. But, I haven't told anyone at work except my closest coworker that I take meds and go to therapy, but she assumes it's just for anxiety/worry. No one there knows I've been hospitalized or my history of severe depression. I don't plan on disclosing that either. I don't think it has to be everyone's business because as much as I wish it could change, stigma is still very real, especially in the work-place.

I think it's about starting out with someone who is pretty much guaranteed to be a safe person (a counselor or therapist), then learning slowly from there who the safe people are in your life that can be supportive friends.