Hi
Yes this kind of behavior can only contribute to your current state,can you recognize it right away when its happenning? If you can try to notice it and acknowledge that its unhealthy, maybe writing it down will help you notice. I know this may sound tough but try to replace it with a positive statement.

I've dealt with self-esteem issues for as long as I can remember, but its gotten much better since I was a kid. I still don't have full acceptance of myself and this BP thing is relatively new to me so thats a whole different challenge.. YAY

I am full of self hatred.

when i get depressed i talk really badly to myself, other times i have become able to stop the negative self talk before it gets bad and my self esteem has improved incredibly since i have started doing this

I struggle with self love and I know how important it is to love ones self.. a daily mantra can help.. I wrote one out for myself.. the words simply words at first can in time become reality..xx

I have self-esteem issues. I'm working on loving myself. I'm working on it and therapy. I'm getting closer and closer.

nope dont love myself at all, never have.

I get frustrated with my disorder, I get angry at how I feel sometimes, I feel ashamed at the way I behave during an episode sometimes. But, I love myself. I love what I have become and how hard I have worked to get here. I love the talents that I have and the things I have learned to do. I love my ability to fight and fight hard. Mostly because I have accepted that I have this disorder and this disorder is not me. If there is something about me that I hate then I have the power to change it. The more I love myself, the more I can love others.

I try not to confuse frustration and disappointment with self hate. The best way to nurture ourselves is to focus on who we really are inside and bring out the best in ourselves, not the worst. xo

No I can't say I do. I hate myself actually, everything about me. I figure it comes with the being BP. It's actually physically painful for me to try and think of anything good about myself (if that makes any sense), even harder to listen to a compliment. Hoping that medication will bring me to a better place and hopefully find something good.

I have this problem at times also but it comes from my childhood not the disorder. I was raised in a pretty abusive household so from a young age I was taught that I was bad or wrong and just exsited to make my parents happy without much though as to what I wanted to be happy. This still exsists in me today and I have to be conscious of it when I get into a down mood and start thinking I am horrible...I use cognitive behaviour therapy to help me with this.

Another problem I have is doing things I enjoy. I will often work all day and not take breaks to do nice things for myself because again that is how I have been raised. I only just recently started to take breaks to read or watch a little tv in the evening. Before I would work all the time right up until I went to bed. This burnt me out. Everyone needs time for themselves. I don't do a whole lot of self-appreciation but |'m getting better

The negative self-talk that you are doing can easily be reversed. There are two really good books out there with workbooks so you can do it all without a therapist (this is what I did).

The one I used was by Dr. David Burns in conjuction with Aaron Beck the pioneer in cognitive behaviorial therapy in the 1960's It's called Feeling Good. I picked it up in the late 1980's from a newspaper article I had read about depression.

The other book/workbook is called Mind Over Mood which is the same thing only published later. I haven't had the chance to use this one although I have looked at it. From what I hear it is very good also.

These two books are the gold standard of cognitive therapy in use today and any pdoc would know about them and give you their opinions on which one you should use or ask your therapist (if you have one) to help you with this.

There are things that "I do" and "I believe in" that I love. I am still working on the loving me part. I agree that affirmations can make a world of diff. They are on my to do list :-) Seriously, 3x5 cards......I bought some just for this......the procrastinator in me I don't like. Hugs

The only thing that ever worked for me is the cognitve therapy charting system in Dr. Phil McGraw's book titled, the "Ultimate Weight Solution, The 7 Keys". I'm not suggesting this book for you for dieting or weight, but only for the charting system you work with. This is one of the best answers I have to help your situation. I did it and it worked for me and millions of other people. Hpoe you feel better.

Oh, I'm sorry... My answer to your question is YES I love myself. I love every single part of me. I never use to, so I do understand where you are coming from.

Whether I love myself varies wildly according to my Bipolar mood states. In the last few weeks I have been so deeply ill that I have profoundly wanted to end my life. That's doesn't indicate self love!! A sincere wish to end one's life.

But when I am more normal I can see that I am a valuable person who has overcome extraordinary odds in many streams in my life and that I have love and wisdom to offer others.

I think it is important to remeber when the brain chemicals are so out of whack that every waking moment is about suicide, one can't really use the various techniques on offer at that time - it's really about risk management and prevention of self harm and we need the mental health traternity to help us with that etc.

But when one is OK/crappy/anywhere in between, we can use Mindfulness, which I guess is in some of the books etc that that have been talked about in this thread. After I tried to end it two and a half years ago and came out of the coma etc, I was put on a one night a week course for 10 weeks on ACT and Mindfulness at the psychiaric hospital I had been in and the text we used was The Happiness Trap. I highly recommend the methodology, which is a meeting of the best of Eastern philosophies and western medicine - truly fabulous. It really helps with panic and anxiety for me and also to some extent with Bipolar Depression.

l hated myself for years but picked up on a therapist who said to say 'l love you' while looking in the mirror once a day and you have to look at yourself while saying it, plus whenever a bad thought comes to you say it straight after so it becomes a mantra l still say it now.

At first it was very uncomfortable and l didn't believe it but l kept going and didn't realise when it happened the change but now l can honestly say that yes l do love me l know it l feel it and that makes me so happy l'm not a monster and l am worth love l validate me no one else so l'm no longer needy or as insecure.