[daisy2]

I feel tired and empty. It seems the harder I try the more I fail. It is the first time in my life where I want to give up. I want to hide in a hole and never come out. The reality that I may not graduate from college is destroying me. My ambitions, goals, and dreams are evaporating. How do I get out of this emotinal train wreck? Are there anyways to cease this feeling of doom? I am ready to have a mental breakdown. Can anyone help me?

[pachyderm]

> It is the first time in my life where I want to give up.

You might try "giving up" whatever you have been trying to keep your self afloat. Let the world (we are part of it) keep you afloat for a while. I know it sounds counter-intuitive. Maybe try it anyway?

[Perna]

You can graduate from college, it just might take a while longer or a different "route". I graduated in the "wrong" major in 1972 and just got my second BA this past May 2007 in the "right" major :-) You can get where you will be content with your path, it is just so hard to see when we're struggling in it. The "disappointments" and struggles give "depth" to the pattern.

Can you think of some way to "rest" now; something you really enjoy like a good book and go out and find/give it to yourself? Take $5-$10 and wander in a thrift shop or a grocery store until something catches your eye and soothes and comforts you. It helps a great deal if you can give yourself comfort in some way; satisfy yourself with a little treat. When I was in college 1968-1972 one of my treats (I still remember fondly :-) was to buy an entire box, an entire gross, 144 "fireballs" and a New Yorker magazine at the Student Union store and sit on my bed on a Saturday morning and "chill" :-)

My college years were very difficult; I had to start going to see a psychologist at the counseling center in my junior year, changed my major just before my senior year because of intense fear of taking my beloved major's thesis course, was on academic probation in my junior year (which is hard to do with all the credits "behind" you to uphold your GPA) and almost got thrown out, had to go to summer school.

But it is all okay now, 35 years later and the struggles I had until recently (I'll be 57 on Friday of this week) have all been worth it, all "make sense" and the pattern of my life is turning out okay with me.

Have you read The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle? I recommend it highly to help with what you are going through now.

[daisy2]

Thanks for the advise. I will look into the book you mentioned.