Hi, just introducing myself...

@Melanie-cat Hey Melanie-cat and welcome to the forum :)xx. 51 you are a youngan I am turning 55 in November :D. I also live in NSW and am in the process of trying to get fit by doing loads of walking and healthy eating - love the walking loathe the healthy eating :D. You have come to the right place if you are feeling alone as there is generally someone online 24/7 who would love to have a talk. I live with my kidults and wonder how I would go if they moved out ..... it would be hard to get used to but will happen one day.

There are some great threads you might like to try out the 'good morning!' thread to start with. It is a thread which goes on all day and is one of my favourite and then there is the 'a long rave' thread which is another good one. Have a look around and when you feel up to it say hello 🙂 Oh and btw if you want to talk with anyone in particular put a @in front of their name like I did for you and that will send a notification to them of your message.

Take care and I hope to see you around. Love peaxx

Hi 👋🏻 @Melanie-cat.

Thats a pretty cool intro 😊. I could maybe learn a lesson or two from you, I still submit to shame and other destructive thoughts although slowly slowly improving.

I hope you find some connection and support here.

Best wishes 😊

Hi @Melanie-cat, welcome to the forum. Not letting your MH define you is a really great stance. I am not there yet, but I hope to be.

Great intro, hope to see you around the forum 🦋🌻

Thank you so much, @Teej ... As far as I'm concerned, if anything's changing in how you respond to shame, then you're winning; if you even have the awareness that you can potentially, when strong enough, stand apart from shame and resist it, rather than believing everything it tells you, then you're winning 🙂

@Molliex Thanks heaps... and its lovely to feel so welcome 🙂

@Bunniekins What a great message 🙂 I am also striving to change my eating and exercise habits, which at present are bloody abysmal. I love eating healthy, it's just that I have an addictive-like craving for the unhealthy stuff too, in direct proportion to how not-happy I am! Exercise is harder to want to do, because it physically hurts, but I think tiny bits of exercise are the way back in. It helps to remember that I have been better than this in how I eat and how I move, at times in the past, therefore it must be possible to get back to something like that again. Some days it feels so hopeless, but I don't think I have to feel hope, which sometimes we just cannot feel. I believe that the opposite of hopelessness isn't hope, it's action or movement. I keep telling myself that every time I move a muscle, even breathe deeper, it is a small victory. 🙂 Anyway thank you for the welcome, and it is good to communicate with someone who is aiming at the same target 🙂

Hey @Melanie-cat I'm a 51 yo woman too. I'm forever working on my food and exercise issues... forwards, backwards it goes... but agree that incremental change is the way to go. It all counts. @Bunniekins I love hearing about your walks. It's encouraging.

@frog Hell yes, it all counts!! You go, girl 🙂

@outlander Thank you so much for your lovely message. I have a suspicion you might be a sci-fi fan? I am too. 🙂

Creatively, I love to draw, paint, do photography, write, sculpt, and almost anything else that anyone will teach me. The more unhappy or scared I am, the less I do art, which is beginning to go beyond saddening, and is actually pi**ing me off, I think that's a good sign and potential motivator, haha 🙂

My doctor did do an enhanced primary care plan for me last year that included 2 visits to an exercise physiologist but I have to use all 5 of them for the physio. 😞 So I never even met her, yes I think I should revisit that idea. What exactly does an exercise physiologist do?

I have a nice shrink. She's a fair way away (I live rurally) and I have to take time off work to go to her, and only ten sessions a year unless I feel rich, you know the drill... but I have three good caring humans who I talk to regularly, and two of them actually "get it" from their own personal experience. The other doesn't get it, obviously I wouldn't wish all this depression and anxiety and shame on him just so he could get it! lol... he does his best to be kind, he really tries, but I often minimise what's going on when I talk to him because he's only going to say something that feels (unintentionally) invalidating. But he cares very much and that matters.

Thank you for your interest and concern, @outlander , you have a great day 🙂