how do you start living life again?

Hi. So I currently have untreated depression and anxiety, and I am waiting to see a psychologist. I have done absolutely nothing with my life for years. I am 20 and although I have worked before, for example, I have a hard time finding work, mostly because I do very poorly in job interviews. I am also not currently a student. Most of the time I just sleep, eat, watch tv, and go on the computer. My sleep pattern lately has been very off, and I usually sleep during the day and am awake at night, however, sometimes I either barely sleep (which makes me feel very sick) or I sleep way too much. I am just wondering, after many years of living this way, how does someone start living a better life? Should I just wake up one day and decide that will be the day I change everything? Even though I dislike my life the way it is, change seems so difficult and also really strange, and sometimes I feel like no matter what I do I am never happy anyways. Living this way, though, is starting to make me feel somewhat crazy. I have not had a social life for years either. Living this way has taken a really negative toll on my health, both mentally and physically. I never have any energy either. I feel really stuck right now.

Starting with the doc and therapy is a good step.

Good sleep hygene would be another.

You are young and have plenty of time for a social life. Taking life one day at a time and working on yourself right now seems like a good idea.

Peace
Trina

At 20 you still have time to have a go at pretty much anything - studying, travelling, aiming for a particular career, or whatever. From 30s onwards, your choices become a lot more curtailed, particularly if you're female and also want to have a family on top of a career.

However, you do need that spark which at the moment you are lacking. I wish I had the answer to that. Depression is the absolute enemy of energy, enthusiasm, having goals, working hard, etc. But if you wait until the depression goes and a spark of inspiration hits you, you'll also be waiting until you're 90. I think initially you are going to have make some changes while still feeling depressed and unmotivated.

First off, get your sleeping regulated. Try to sleep for roughly the same number of hours each night. Don't be a night owl; a few people can be that way and still be productive, but I think for most people who stay up all night, they just fritter away the nighttime and sleep half of the day. If you have trouble with falling asleep, sleeping pills for a few weeks won't harm you - or an antihistamine which makes you feel drowsy or melatonin (safe and can be ordered online). If you don't need pills, so much the better! Speaking for me, though, there have been times when I've been through insomnia so bad I needed to take something for a few months to get me through it.

After that, you'll need to find stuff other than internet and TV to fill your days with. I'm still working on that one, tbh. A CBT therapist might actually be useful for you here: they seem to be big on making you fill in forms of your daily activities. I'm literally in the beginning stages of that, and don't know how it will work out for me yet. Also, CBT is good for anxiety: better than depression in some ways because anxiety, in my experience, is more amenable than depression to being challenged by rational or conscious thinking.

Best of luck to you.