Suffer from a damaged ego in school initially (7)
I believe the answer is:
agonise
'suffer' is the definition.
(agonising is a kind of suffering)
'a damaged ego in school initially' is the wordplay.
'damaged' indicates anagramming the letters.
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'school' is 's'.
'ego'+'in'+'s'='egoins'
'egoins' is an anagram of 'gonise'.
'a'+'gonise'='AGONISE'
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for agonise that I've seen before include "Undergo great anguish" , "rack" , "worry a lot" , "Worry greatly (over something); I go sane (anag.)" , "Suffer extreme mental pain" .)