I can understand why you might find the game difficult, because it's not your average Pokemon game. The begining is designed to be challenging to give you the idea of what's to come, not to hold your hand. Build up a full team, even if you don't like or want to use that pokemon, oh well. I didn't wanna use Trubbish but it's decent bulk and Acid Spray/Toxic Spikes are what helped me destroy the second gym leader, after a few hours later, I replaced him with Zubat and grinded it back to my team's current level and evolved it, now I have a powerful Staraptor, lol