JavaScript remains a sore point for me as well. Learning jQuery helped to overcome much of the frustration I was having, specifically relating to DOM manipulation. What also tends to help me is by trying to create something with a technology I'm not comfortable with and trying to answer questions on forums that require me to do some research or testing - I find that trying to help others with their code is also an exercise in helping myself.

I completely understand how you feel. I finished those JavaScript courses 2 weeks ago and completed the full Web Development track just last week. According to the Treehouse Leaderboards, I have "more JavaScript points than 100% of all students." HA! I still consider myself a complete beginner, and think it's healthy to admit that.

So just bear in mind that: (What I know) = (What you know) + 1-2 weeks. What follows is my (admittedly limited) observations/ideas.

JavaScript is frustrating for a number of reasons. Learning it after HTML and CSS, it's incredibly... intangible, for lack of a better word. Adding h1's, h2's, and p's; changing fonts, background colors, gradients... these have an incredible feedback loop that allows you to see and play around with what you're coding.
JavaScript - especially at first - is very much not like that. You're doing basic math, you're learning about strings and arrays. Even when you're manipulating a DOM, and you start doing JQuery, you have to have html already in place to do anything that provides that level of feedback.

It's clear from doing some basic Google searches that JavaScript is just a much bigger and more complicated language than HTML and CSS. And to make matters worse, there are all these "frameworks" that I don't understand yet - but if you accidentally go down an internet rabbit hole to learn about them, you find yourself even more overwhelmed.

OK, so what to do? I'll tell you what I've been doing over the past 2 weeks and what's been helpful and what hasn't. These are DO's and DON'T's that I wish I had known about 2 weeks ago:

DON'T:

• Start learning frameworks or even poke around things like Angular.js, Ember.js, etc. If you're not confident in your basic JavaScript/JQuery, this will intimidate you further.

• Start learning another language like Python or Ruby. I started doing these, thinking that more practice with "similar" languages would better my understanding. It hasn't, it's made it more confusing. These languages have similar but different rules, and you wind up forgetting how to declare a function in one vs. the other.

DO:

• Find other Beginning JavaScript courses - there are plenty online, and most are free/comparable to Treehouse. As frustrating as it is to repeat the basics, the practice is incredibly worthwhile and I'm only just beginning to appreciate it.

Some I'd recommend:

• CodeCademy
• CodeAvengers

These are somewhat different from Treeouse, and I think the difference in teaching style and just having more practice with the basics is really helpful.

• Use repl.it or something similar. It's a great way to test and run JavaScript in the browser without having to bother with ChromeDev tools. I always have this open in another window while going through JavaScript lessons. Every once in a while I'll make a mistake, like an infinite 'for' loop, and instead of crashing the class, it crashes the repl.it window. Just close and re-open. Saves a bunch of time.

• Look for 'projects' that require a little JavaScript. This can be a website, although honestly I've enjoyed mini-projects like:

• http://www.pairuptocode.com/Level2.html#

• http://googlecreativelab.github.io/coder-projects/projects/digital_clock/

So that's it in a (very long) nutshell. Just want to echo that you're not alone in being frustrated with JS - I think it's a very, very hard thing to fully wrap your head around. I will say that it does get better the more you practice, and in some ways the frustration makes any accomplishment, no matter how minor, seem like that much more of a triumph.

Good luck!

I find that trying to help others with their code is also an exercise in helping myself.

It's a great way to learn. That's how I learned a lot of my CSS skills.

I have "more JavaScript points than 100% of all students." HA! I still consider myself a complete beginner, and think it's healthy to admit that.

I agree. Treehouse's student population is (I assume) almost entirely complete beginners to programming and it's courses don't yet reach to a point that is past "beginner" in my opinion.