As long as you as an individual... can convince yourself that in order to move forward as best you can you have to be optimistic, you can be described as 'one of the faithful,' one of those people who can say, 'Well, look, something's going to happen! Let's just keep trying. Let's not give up.
I learned early that you only have so much energy to give. You have to spend it correctly.
For me, the bulimia was about stuffing my emotions. So I stopped suppressing my feelings.