The next two questions you have to ask yourself is, "Why am I bored?" and why am I depressed?

Any addiction is triggered by underlying emotional issues and it sounds like you know what yours are so it should be pretty easy to solve? yes?

Find something to do like volunteer work for the local food bank or some other non profit agency. That will also hep you feel good by helping others which will help with your depression.

Find a hobby, or a craft, something you are good at or something you always wanted to learn and sink you passion into it.

If I were you, I would stay away from the TV. Sitting and doing nothing is one of the worse things we can do. Get active. Go for a run or go for a walk if you can't run, it doesn't matter, just do something. Visit a friend or neighbor......

The key to your recovery is in your hands,

God Bless

Hi Bob thank you for replying to my post. Even though I know what triggers my addiction its not that easy to solve. I dont know if you have suffered from severe clinical depression and anxiety but its not easy to get motivated to do anything. I eat because I am extremely sad because of so many losses in the last few years. I have thought about trying to do some sort of hobby but I just cannot get interested in anything but food. I cannot exercise because of a damaged knee and when I even try to go for a walk my anxiety plays up and I get dizzy and have to turn around and go home. I have one friend that I visit but she smokes and uses drugs and I just cannot stay there for very long as I do not like these things around me. I have tried to make other friends but it just never happens. I have been in therapy on and off since I was 12 so it hasnt been much help. I guess I am a bit of a lost cause. I really do not know where to go to from here :(

You are not a lost cause, you only perceive that you are because you do not love yourself enough to get motivated to change your life. A psychiatrist once told me that no two therapists are alike. You have to be able to "click" with your therapists in order for it to help you so you may want to find another one.

Yes! I had been on anti depression medication for a long time but then I began to practice meditation and I didn't need the pills anymore! Just a voice in my head told me one day as I was about to take one, that I didn't need them anymore! In fact, I didn't listen to it the first time but the second time I did so I haven't taken any for a couple of years now.

I have a book that I think will help you. It's called the 12 steps for everyone who really wants them, which is the AA 12 steps, adapted for EHA (Emotional Health Anonymous) If you trust me with your address, I will send you one for free as I have an extra copy. If not, then I totally understand. You can also buy it used online at amazon or Barnes and Noble for just a few dollars. It was the catalyst that began my spiritual journey through which many miracles happened in my life at a time when I was as low as anyone could go.

Everything happens for a reason.

God Bless

I have never loved myself and I never will. I do have a good therapist but I have alot of issues that need to be dealt with and some are very painful and hard to talk about. I had been on different medications since I was 12 but I stopped taking them because they werent working. Thank you for offering to send me that book but I need to ask where you are because I am in Australia and if you are overseas I couldnt ask you to send it here as it would cost way too much. All I want right now is to stop making junk food my number one priority as it really is killing me.

I know what you mean. I eat one thing then I go search for the next thing or think about what I can eat next. I know it’ll make me fatter but I refuse to focus on my overeating and the guilt and sadness it will cause me from being fatter. So I block out my guilty feelings and focus on what healthy food I can make and what exercise I can do to give to the cause of my health

RealitySux, you loved yourself once. Every little kid does. I've got three grands here at the moment, and they are totally self-centered in a healthy little-kid way: the smallest one truly thinks the world revolves around him, because in his mind, it genuinely does. Someone changes his diaper, feeds him, picks him up when he cries. The six and eight year olds think their crayon drawings are spectacular artwork, and they think their 'new' Goodwill clothes make them irresistibly lovely, and they think their impromptu dance routines are the epitome of grace.

We were all healthy when we were young. Somewhere we got messed up along the way.

But, you DID love yourself. You didn't hate your body when you were three, or think you were hopeless when you were four. there was a time when you knew you were actually kind of awesome the way you were, even though you still had to grow up.

Can you get back to that place for just a bit? Can you see yourself as someone who's survived, someone who has persevered despite some serious challenges - but who still has some growing up (by which I mean, just getting our heads on straight) to do?

Bob's giving you amazing advice. I don't want to contradict a thing he has said. I just you to look in the mirror and see a beautiful person, an amazing creation.

Hi Katie. Thanks for your message. Even when I was a kid I hated myself and knew I was the ugliest kid in school. I was teased for how I look and for having a big nose thin lips and no boobs . Even my so called best friend always let me know exactly what was wrong with me. The last straw was when a man told me I was too ugly and should put a bag over my head. I was so distraught that my only saving grace was to have a nose job and it kind of helped a bit. I even contemplated taking a knife to my face and damaging it that much so I would know that there would be a valid reason for why I was so ugly. Even today I try to avoid mirrors as much a possible cause I just cannot stand to look at myself and going out in public is a nightmare as I know people are judging me. The only thing I have to look forward to is junk food . The one thing that makes me feel better and I can do in the privacy of my home all alone and not be judged. So you see I can never love myself not now not ever :(

Well, yes you can, but you're going to have to work at it. And when I said you loved yourself as a kid, I meant younger than school age. There was a point, before the world damaged your sense of yourself, when you didn't hate yourself. I mean, you didn't as an infant. You didn't as a two year old.

I don't mean to belabor the point or sound argumentative, but I think you need to realize that self-loathing is not your natural state - it happened, somehow, along the way. Something or someone hurt you, and cause you to feel this way. But you didn't always.

I get it. I used to make fun of myself because I thought other people were going to anyway so I might as well get to it first, like that would somehow make me in control of it.

You're smart enough to identify that friend as a 'so-called friend'. So you know that person doesn't have your best interest at heart. And the man who said that to you is an asshole. There are better men out there. And better friends.

Your vision of yourself is not an accurate one. Somewhere along the way something has gone wrong that's convinced you of something that's untrue. And the unfortunate thing is that it's a self-perpetuating circle: if you believe you are unattractive, you are. But the reverse is true too. Do you realize that most of the women who seem beautiful aren't remotely flawless at all - it's all a confidence game.

I know this because I'm one of those women who is on that edge. My nose is crooked and I'm getting older and of course I'm overweight. My hair does whatever the hell it wants and I've never quite understood how to control it, and I do not understand makeup.

And yet..........when I'm "on", when I'm feeling confident and powerful, I have been told I'm beautiful, compelling, magnetic. On my down days I look like a bag lady. I'm finally realizing it isn't about my nose or my hair color or my weight. It's something about attitude, and some days I manage it and most days I don't - yet.

I think the key for us all in overcoming our food addiction is to be able to consider ourselves worthy of love - and then learn to love ourselves. I struggle so hard with this. But I think we can do it. I think our healing will stem from that.

Thank you for your kind words but I will never change..I am too old and too set in my ways. I know what I am and that is never going to change either. There is not one thing on my face and body that I like. I will never find a decent guy cause they dont exist and all men want someone young and perky with big boobs. If women dont have that then men dont want them. I struggle every day with severe anxiety and depression which I know now will never go away, its just getting worse every day now. This is no way to live. I hate these feelings and there is no treatment for it. I am better off out of this world. I have no life. I have nothing. I am nothing. It was wrong to come on here. I was stupid to think that I could be helped. I cant and I know that now. Thank you again for your advice. Take care.

I think a part of you knows better than that, or you wouldn't have come here in the first place, I hope you can find the help you need.

Yes I just wrote a journal writing everything I don’t like about myself. I often feel that same way about men. Most are about sex sex sex sex sex. And do you think I feel like having sex w the way I look. Yes they have this image of what a woman should look like. I have like no boobs and still try to fit into a B cup. Alas I will keep getting up to fight and make a life for myself in whatever way I can. I’m shy and afraid of being rejected by women friends. But slowly I’ve even been asking some girls for their numbers and so proud of myself for trying to make friends. Next step would be to actually contact them but that could lead to rejection. I will fight for my happiness in this life. I’ve only got one!

Hi Tenderheart you sound so much like me. I too believe that is all men think about and its sad. I am very shy and I only have one friend in real life and i have tried to make friends but no one seems to want my friendship and I also fear rejection. I wont ever send the first text cause I think I am bothering the person so I leave it up to them to contact me. I also read that you get migraines. I had my first migraine after 10 years the other day and its affected my eyes in a bad way and its pretty scary. So I went off to the chiro again in the hopes he can stop them again. You should look into seeing a chiro for your migraines . I just feel so lonely and helpless right now. My anxiety is so bad I dont know whats real and what isnt. I just know I am never going to find a decent guy to be with and feel like I am better off not even being here :(