Trying to turn a corner

I've been very depressed and suicidal lately but I really want things to change . I want to lose weight because with my depression I've been comfort eating . does anyone else do that ? I also want to get out more , keep my flat cleaner and start trying to change my life in a positive way . I need to do things slowly and realistically so that I don't fail . does anyone have any tips or ideas of how I can make improvements ? Does anyone have tips in how to build confidence ? I really just want things to change now .

Sorry, C. Well, I struggle with daily life too so I'm not the best person to advise. I'd say you've got it right. Small things, to begin with.

Creative pursuits are what have always worked for me in the past. They absorb you and give you a strange inner confidence that you can't really imagine until you do try them. And, because they're for their own sake rather than to make money, they tend to lead you to other people on a similar wavelength.

I put on weight, partly due to medication, partly due to eating comfort (junk really) food, and partly because I just didn't care at the time. I've got it off and am trim now, so it's certainly possible -- even for an unathletic slug like me.

The confidence is a tough one. I'll get back to you on that -- someday.

As for the little starter improvements ... rather than trying to recreate and put together a list of advice now -- let me do a little dredge on my prior posts....

(some of these cover social anxiety issues as well, so filter that out if that doesn't help)

https://forums.psychcentral.com/5799517-post3.html

https://forums.psychcentral.com/5861069-post3.html

https://forums.psychcentral.com/5886202-post2.html

There's advice from other posters in those threads too, of course.
Hopefully some more creative people will chime in here.

Thank you. Those links did not send me to the posts though , maybe because I'm using my phone . medication was how my weight gain started also but then I continued to gain wait probably by comfort eating and staying in reclusively , therefore getting no exercise . its good to hear you lost the weight . how did you lose it ?

Thank you for the advice . I did used to be creative . its been a long time since ive done anything creative

I can cut-and-paste it for you. Rather than clutter the forums with stuff that's already in the forums, I'll just paste it into a private message for you. Although it may not be worth the trouble -- they're just random ideas and thoughts, I'm not some guru.

For the weight, the gain was the same sequence of events for me as for you.

As for losing the weight, I went off the medication that was causing some of the gain and was able to stop eating between meals all the time. My appetite went back to more normal levels. When this happened, I decided to press the advantage and get my weight back to normal. I was also becoming concerned about my health.

I slowly cut out junk food and replaced it with better food. I also reduced my serving size. I would eat a smaller amount and then wait a bit to see if it was enough. If not, I could have a little more after 10-15 minutes. Giving it time, so that I didn't eat until I was stuffed. I started by removing/reducing the worst offenders (ice cream, store-bought desserts, sugary sodas/pop). I ate more fruits and vegetables. Balanced my food groups, mostly. I don't deprive myself completely or terribly, but I make more healthy routine choices, and have found a number of better substitutes.

Not rocket science. I figure what's the point of getting fancy, if you're not even covering the basics? So, no calorie counting or special supplements. And no crash diets for me, because I'd never stick with that. I'd improve a little at a time. Giving myself time to get used to the new regime without feeling too deprived. I was looking for a permanent diet change, and I've been able to stick with this by not overdoing it.

That got quite a bit off. The rest was exercise. I have a real hard time motivating myself to do exercise. So I go to classes for an external motivation. There's a bunch of posts on my exercise misadventures over in the "Health Support -> Exercise & Weight Loss" forum. (Warning, excessive rambling on my part in the Daily Exercise thread). Again, I started with something small and easy. Then worked my way up from there.

To give you some idea, I went from the borderline between overweight and obese, down to comfortably in normal on the body-mass-index. But one of the important motivating factors for my personal adherence to the plan, was sticking with it for general health reasons and to feel physically and mentally better. The weight loss was a happy consequence.

Sorry if this is a little long.