Low Opinion of yourself?

jonnyC · Newbie User Joined: Sep 08, 2006 Posts: 27

When you suffer from SA or anxiety in general, because of these negative emotions and physical symptoms, it can often make you feel rubbish. That you have this disorder which makes you hugely different to everyone else, making you a failure, incapable and segregated from society.

It is really difficult to get out of the frame of mind that you are not rubbish, that you can achieve and that most people wouldn't even know what you go through.

Even close people will tell you, yet you end up not believing them! Get people you don't know so well to perhaps reassure you. Because you don't know them so well, you are more likely to take in what they say. Reassure possitive praise with thoughts in your head which affirm these feelings.

The more you think of yourself, the lower the anxiety and problems you will have on a social level.

Ems · Newbie User Joined: Aug 28, 2006 Posts: 22 Location: UK

Hi Jonny C,

I have had SP since I was about 15 but I have managed to get so much better. I am 30 now, but I still feel paranoid sometimes that people are talking badly about me behind my back. I think it is because for so many years through my childhood and teenage life I was bullied and made fun of I still have this feeling of people making fun of me. I find it hard when I find people do this but I handle it so much better. I have so many negative thoughts through the day that it exhausts me. I'm always thinking of what other people think of me which wastes so much energy.
I know I shouldn't feel like this, but although my logical brain is telling me this the side of my brain that has been devastated from the past takes over.
Does anyone feel like this? It would be nice to get somereplies as it can be quite lonely on this site when people don't answer your posts.
xxx

blubs · Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:10 pm Post subject:

Hi Ems
I just posted about his on another thread..about 'feeling unwelcome'
I feel the same...I thought that whoever made the post I was responding to had a good point..& it made me think..
I've always only thought about myself in terms of other people's opinions...I never really developed much..um..sense of self...or self worth..or whatever you'd call it.
I'm in my 30s too...& worry I'm too old to change now...but I think I'm starting to..
The negative thoughts I have about myself are overwhelming...but I can't change them to positive ones...eg...if I'm thinking..my god I'm freakishly large (which I did today while I was having my hair cut)..I can't change it to...I am just the right size.
The best I can do I think is to try & ignore my inner voice completley...& try to focus on doing things I like...while I'm ignoring myself...& hopefully I'll build up some self worth..the more I can be doing things for myself...rather than thinking about myself.

**big sigh**...don't know if this makes any sense at all

but yeh...know how you feel..xx

Ems · Newbie User Joined: Aug 28, 2006 Posts: 22 Location: UK

It's really hard to get bad thoughts out of your head if you are so used to doing it. I have been brought up where my peers would ridicule me when I was young. It doesn't happen now but I still feel it. I have to realise that not everybody likes me...but it's NOT my fault it's theirs. That is what we have to remember it's not our fault and we take the blame for it...because we are nice people, insecure people that may have had bad social experiences in our lives and feel inadequate. I want to get over this problem and it would so much help me if I had someone with similar experiences to talk to. That is why we are all here I think. It makes me feel better that I am not alone.
All I can do is get on with life and try and get over these irrational feelings I have. Counselling has never helped me. Does anyone feel the same?
xxx