A lot of people think of therapy as something that only messed up people go to...but I went to a therapist once, just because I was going through a lot of crap at the time, and you'd be amazed at how much they help. Just having someone to talk to about all that stuff is good...even if they're not going to fix your problems.
You should encourage your girlfriend to go to a therapist.
Another thing she might want to do...if she's not happy with how she looks...this sounds stupid but working out really helps. Working out actually gets your adrenaline and seratonin levels up so after working out, you feel a lot happier and more motivated. Not to mention the added bonus of looking better once you're done
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Taking drugs (anti-depressants) should really be a last resort. You don't want to get too dependant on them.
*edit* As for what malificient said about volenteering...well, if helping others is your thing, then go for it. But I've found that you can't really help others until you help yourself. Making other people happy might be nice in the short term but it's not very rewarding and at the end of the day, all the problems you have with yourself are still there. Until you start taking measures to change them, you're going to feel bad about it.
As a side note, I think it's sad that so many girls on this board or girlfriends of people on this board have been through this. I have too. People are always telling me how great I look and how beautiful I am and all that stuff and I always find fault in myself. It's really hard to deal with not liking your self image because you start to lose motivation for other things. It's seriously gotten so bad with me that I didn't leave my house for days (I didn't want anyone to see me). I mean...I hate it when people go on and on about how bad the media is but I think it is sort of sad that pretty much no women I know are really happy with their self image. Obviously, this isn't just due to the media. The media only feeds us what we like to see. I just wish there was something we could do to make people see how great they really are.
You just have to start looking for the good things in yourself. It's easy to find the bad things...but once you start pointing out the good things, everything looks a little bit better
