34 and feeling like I've missed my entire life
Hi,
I'm not really sure what this post is. Maybe it's just a vent... but here we are.
I'm 34 years old, and I feel like I haven't really lived.
When I was 16, I developed an eating disorder, and even though I'm fighting harder than ever to recover, maybe for the first time in my life, I'm still trapped in it.
I've also struggled with depression for as long as I can remember. I'm alone. My parents love me, but they don't really understand everything else I'm dealing with, and apart from them, I don't really have anyone.
I spent years isolated at home. Now I have a job that I worked incredibly hard to get, but my life is basically just work and home.
Over the past year, with the help of my psychologist, I've started to understand that I'm neurodivergent. Having an explanation helps in some ways, but it doesn't take away the pain I've lived with for so many years.
Every weekend I can't stop thinking that I'm wasting my life. I feel like I'm already too old, and I see people my age with years of memories, friendships, relationships, experiences... while I feel like I have nothing.
I'm scared. I'm exhausted. I don't think I'm looking for solutions as much as I just want to know if anyone else has felt this way.
If you've been through something similar, whether because of an eating disorder, depression, neurodivergence, or something else, how do you cope with the feeling that you never really got to live? How do you make peace with the idea that you might be "behind" everyone else, or that it's too late to start?
I know this probably sounds dramatic, but it's genuinely how I feel. And yes, I'm in therapy and I'm also receiving psychiatric treatment.
Thanks a lot.
Posted Jul 25, 2026, 7:35 PM UTC