Thanks for the replies everyone. When I got to work today I was in the worst mood, in addition to being in some physical pain. I barely worked for the best part of my shift which I am sorry for. I was just absolutely miserable. But while I was doing the dishes towards the end of the night I got to thinking. This is the situation:
I am unhappy with my life right now. While I am grateful to have a job, I dislike the job that I have at the moment. There are many things I dislike about it: my boss, having to stand for 8 hours at a stretch, not having a proper half hour break, not being allowed to leave the store for my break, earning minimum wage and on and on. My job is one of the many things in my life that I am unhappy about. So when I got to work, I decided to call the AA hotline and ask for advice. No disrespect to the people who staff it but quite often I've found that their advice is to get a sponsor and go to a meeting. That wasn't quite what I was looking for. (I've tried this i.e. going to meetings when I am feeling distressed and it doesn't soothe me). Both times I called, the women I spoke to told me that if I didn't start working the steps I was just going to drink again which annoyed me because the thought of drinking over this hadn't even crossed my mind.
Anyway while I was doing the dishes I had a chance to think. This is not the first time I've felt this way about a job. My usual response has been to go home and drink about it. I remember, at the first proper job that I had, not only did I go home and drink and binge eat at the problem which of course did nothing to solve it. It just meant that the next day I just had to get up and go to a well, paying but dead end job that I hated more and more with each passing day. I was at that job for 4 years and I hated every minute of it.
At the time, I felt so trapped that drinking, eating and shopping were the only ways that I could think to console myself. Looking back, I had so many options: I could have gone back to school at that time to get an MBA, I could have worked harder on getting my accounting designation, I could have tried harder to get another job, I could have networked and pushed harder for a promotion or transfer to another position within the company. But no, I just sat around and resented my boss and the company for not giving me what I wanted. And I ended up staying 4 years in a position that truthfully, I was ready to leave after a year, maybe a year and a half at most. That is my own fault. I didn't invest the time and energy where I should have but instead went home and had drinking tantrums.
I won't make that mistake again. There is nothing wrong with saying that I dislike this job or my boss its how I respond to it that's what counts. So I plan to be a good employee, and after work just direct my time, energy and money towards activities that will actually make a difference.
I was thinking of waiting until maybe February of next year before I start looking for another job but I don't think I can handle it for that long. So I'm going to start looking now.