Hi,

I'm new here. This is my first post.

I'm a 17 year old female, in 11th grade. I have a huge family (3 brothers, 3 sisters and my parents). I'm adopted...And I'm stressed out/possibly becoming depressed.

For the past 3 months or so, I've been having issues with my family, with stress, with school...Whatever. I'm having a really hard time coping. I blow up at my family a lot, cry, feel like a worthless person.

Anyway, that's not at all the point of this post.

The point is that I finally got up the guts to tell my parents how I've been feeling (through a letter, talking to them directly would be way too hard). A lot of what's going on with me is that I feel disconnected with my parents, like I can only talk to them about superficial things...So that was big!

I told them that because I've been feeling this way for awhile, and that because things aren't really improving, I think that I should try therapy, and maybe that would help.

When I woke up this morning, my mom came and talked to me (I posted the letter on the fridge so that my parents would get it when they woke up because it would be before I did, so I wouldn't have to be there when they read it). She said that she would support me in this if it's what I want, but she also questioned me a bit. She wanted to know more of what's going on (I left out a lot in the letter, just getting out the basics was hard enough for me), so I tried to explain the best I could.

So anyway, I assume my mom will make some calls this week...But I've got a some questions:

1. So yeah, I'm the one who brought up the subject of getting therapy, but I'm nervous. I have absolutely no idea what I'm getting myself into! Help?

2. How much will my parents be involved in the process? Right now, I want them involved as little as possible because confronting them and sharing stuff with them is extremely uncomfortable right now. That's something that I need to work on.

3. How long would you expect I'll be in therapy? I mean, I guess it doesn't actually matter, I just want a general idea just because I've felt so bad for so long, and all I want is to feel better.

4. How many sessions a week? One, two? In my life lately, there's been a lot that goes on. More days than not aren't so great. More days than not, I end up upset and crying. What I've been doing is calling one of my best friends because he always tries his best to help me out and make me feel better.

Thanks in advance.