I'm feeling really sorry for myself at the moment. I've always been really slim and had if I'm honest problems putting weight on, or at least until I had anxiety.

When I started with anxiety, two years ago, I lost so much weight and went down to a size 8 or less. I noticed though that within a year I had put my weight back on and was a size 10 again. I didn't have a problem with that at all.

However over the last few months I seem to have put some more weight on and weigh a lot more than I ever have. I never weigh myself so it was a bit of a shock when I did today and it now seems that I'm about 11 pounds over weight and even then at that ideal weight it's more than I've ever weighed.

What could have caused this, I'm wondering if it's the meds that could be partly to blame. I know weight gain was a side effect of amisulpride but I stopped taking that in December. I'm still on the dothiepin though.

Well to cut a long story short, how do I get rid of this, I know I need to start exercising again but just find it so hard when I feel bad all of the time. I have been eating relatively healthily, though now def will be. I've probably been having a few too many glasses of wine too, does that make it gain weight? I just don't understand why my metabolism seems to have suddenly slowed down. I could always eat what I wanted and it had no effect, even if I didn't exercise. Guess it could just be age catching up with me.

Everyone says I don't look fat, but I can tell my stomach and hips are larger than they should be. Any tips on what I can do to get rid of this. I've never dieted in my life, so where do I start. I try to eat low fat anyway but what else can I do.

I guess I'm just worried cos this has hit me like a bit of brick wall

Jules