How to get more motivated?

How do I get motivated to go to school? And for what?

• First, let me give you some information about me. I'm 19. Due to my father being a complete a** I was forced to get my GED at 17. Since then I've dealt with numerous serious health conditions so I haven't been able to work or start going to any kind of school. I've also suffered from depression for most of my life, and it only got 10x worse over the past few years. My father never raised me to have any goals, dreams, or to even think about my future at all. Now that I am out from under his thumb, I want to be successful and I want to have a productive life and a good future, yet I have absolutely no idea how to do it. I know that I need to get a job and go to school, but since I've never thought about my future, I don't know what I would want to do. Because of my depression, I feel like I'm not motivated at all, even though I want this for myself so badly. I'm working with my therapist on these issues, but other opinions are always helpful. Enough rambling. My question is this: How do I get motivated to get started on building my future? & once I'm there, how do I figure out what I want to do? I'm not sure of anything that I would be interested in yet, and I feel like that could be part of why I'm not motivated. These may be silly questions, and I'm not sure that anyone can really help me besides myself, but I figured it couldn't hurt to help. & please remember, I'm not lazy or anything like that. I just need help getting back on track. I want to do all of this, it just hasn't been easy. Thank you so much. =]

• Answer:

  Go see another counselor if you have to (or if seeing your current shrink isn't helping). I assume you're on an anti-depressant already? I think one of your pitfalls is that you're so overwhelmed with all the things you have to & want to accomplish that you don't even know where to start. Start small, one step at a time. Start at a local community college if you have to. Experiment. Take a lot of different courses until you find a passion. Try new things. Go out of your comfort zone. Reinforce yourself positively (you will gain a good job and achieve success in the future) or negatively (you will end up flipping burgers for the rest of your life if you don't work and go to school). It's good that you got your GED - that's already a start. But if you're looking for an answer as to how your depression can be treated, you won't find answers from strangers - again, go see your therapist (or another counselor if you have to).