I WANT TO LOVE RUNNING

Where have you tried running? Because it is so important to add distance slowly, I'd encourage you to find a lovely place to run/walk. Make sure you can walk 30 minutes at a 3-4 mile an hour pace before you try to run. Then do the Couch to 5K program (C25K) or another beginner's program. Speed is NOT your friend--aim for a pace you can talk through, no matter how slow it seems.

If you can't find a pretty place, that's ok. I suspect most folks give up b/c they try to go too fast, too far, too soon. Be patient and enjoy the rhythm of walking and jogging--I have an anxiety disorder too, and while I take medication for it, the "meditation" of running has really helped for my whole life. Good luck, and let us know how you progress.

" i think most runners have a love hate relationship with running" Often/usually during the same run. Starts off the first mile: I really don't want to do this, I hate this, this sucks; second mile; this is pretty good, I'm feeling fine; miles 3&4: OK only a little further you got this; Finish: I'm glad I did that, it felt good, I feel good.

Okay, I cannot disagree with the advice to find something to do that you love to do.
That said, all of us can learn to like running. It produces endorphins like nothing else!
Here's how I started.
Nobody likes running at first.
I was about 20 years old and I was skinny. I wanted to look better so I started lifting some weights. A few months in, I decided I needed to do more for my legs so I went out to run.
Keep in mind, I smoked at the time and I had not done much that was athletic from age 14 years up to the time I decided to start lifting.
I went out for my run, and, about all I could do, was run around my apartment building. Once.
This is where I was lucky. I had no coach pushing me to kill it. I had no weight loss goals that I was impatient to meet. I just wanted to run a little bit. So, nothing was driving me to try to go further than was comfortable.
As such it never was hard, and I never came to dread it, and I kept up with it.
Surprisingly, progress came anyway, and it came much sooner than I might have imagined.
In a week, I was going around twice. In a month or so, I was going around five times.
I am not saying everyone's progress will be exactly the same. I'm just saying that it happened organically for me. It happened naturally.
When you start, you huff and puff going around once. Now, you could push yourself to go twice, but then it will be hard and you won't like it. But, if you go around once a few times, your body and lungs will adapt and once will no longer make you huff and puff. Then you go twice.
After a month or two, it got boring going around the apartment building, so I headed down the road, maybe two blocks. ( I don't honestly remember the distance.) But, when two blocks got easy, then it was natural to go a bit further. And then a bit further again.
Soon, I was chasing the sense of accomplishment I got from going a bit further each week or so, and I began to feel the endorphins and to chase those, which, after a while, required greater and greater distances.
I came to love running. Eventually, you get to the point where you actually want to challenge yourself on your runs -- to go faster or to go farther -- but before that you have to let your body adapt to it and to build the habit.
I can go out and go hard now because it honestly isn't as hard to run and breathe heavy as it once was.
The habit does not come if you make your workout so unpleasant that, every time you are sitting on the couch, and the time comes for the run, you find yourself saying: "Gawd! I do not want to do that."
I run at a track now sometimes. Lately, there has been a very obese woman there when I go, with her trainer.
This trainer actually seems really good, so i do not mean to criticize too much. He seems to take into account her exercise capacity and he scales her exercises. But he pushes her, still. He makes her sweat. Jumping jacks. Mountain climbers. Planks. Crunches. Etc.
I can only imagine how hard it must be for this beautiful woman, carrying all that extra weight through each of those movements, with no good cardiovascular and/or breathing capacity. Clearly, she has been sedentary for many years. And the days have been hot here.
Now, I applaud her determination. I have seen her two or three times.
But, I know, that one -- maybe two -- months into this new, rigorous routine, when she gets up and she is a bit tired, and she feels weak because she hasn't been eating because she is losing weight, and she's fed up with sore muscles, and she is dreading going out there with a task master who is going to push her so hard that she will feel like she wants to vomit, her motivation will waver. Maybe she will take a day off. Then another. And another.
Instead, she needs to learn to walk before she runs. Maybe just once around the block for a while. That may not burn a whole bunch of calories, but it'd be better than what she was doing before she started on the journey. And that is progress. Or maybe she should get a jump rope and do that for a minute, or maybe two. And then play some catch with a baseball, or kick a ball back and forth, for five minutes or so.
That would be much more fun and comfortable than doing 10 burpees followed by 20 air squats followed by 30 mountain climbers, until she falls on the ground in a puddle of sweat, her chest heaving, for about 30 seconds, until the coach tells her to get up again to do jumping jacks for a minute.
Slow and steady wins the race.
We all know that, really.