It took me quite a few tries to even write that much. I have a major fear of rejection.....no self confidence.

What can I do? I want to be a likable person.....but it seems that I just don't have that in me anymore.

consider yourself on ignore xxoo

You're too sweet Perx. lol. At least I do have A friend.

I have MAJOR issues with self-confidence and fear of rejection. I have a great deal of social anxiety. It keeps me from posting here often even though this feels more like my second home and comfort zone than anywhere. Anti-anxiety meds help but don't solve the underlying issues.

I wish I had better advice. I just want you to know that you are not alone. Hugs xo

I have a problem with this as well Except I'm like you I don't know how to deal with it because you have to be a confident person and love yourself and for me that's hard. I wish you luck on your journey!

I'll take whatever self confidence that I can get. Wish i had even an ounce of it.

I can't tell which came first....the social anxiety or the weight.....then again, over 100lbs ago I was self conscious that people were laughing at me when I walked by. Feels like all eyes are on me, ridiculing, criticizing and alienating me.

Ya know what I mean? I'm not the center of the universe...and I logically can say that chances are that people aren't even giving me a 2nd glance. But WHAT IF? What if they are thinking exactly what I fear them to be thinking? And Why the hell do I care??

I can struggle with this at times.

I think we all struggle with this at one time or another Hanna. It wasn't until I began to "develope" my interests and talents that I started to build self esteem. I think the more we accomplish the better we feel.

Right now my oldest is dealing with very low self esteem. He has alot of crap over his head with finances, low income, not being where he thought he would be at age 27 and living at home. As he works to see the "good things" about himself and changes the negative in his life with small steps, he feels better and more confident that he will reach his goals one day.

Just "putting yourself out there" little by little will build self esteem for you......xo

Ya i struggle with it to, not all the time due to my wonderful spouse.
I wish i could give you some advice, all i got is think positively.
All the best sweetie
HUGS
dee

My dad gave all of us kids "Dale Carnegie's How to Win friends and Influence People" when we were 16. It has held me through most of my life. It has been around for a long long time. This is for friends.

Self confidence is much harder. I still dont have much of it to show. I stay in the back ground and "produce" and appear to have self confidence but I really dont. Andbeing BP I get hugely angry and get upset with pp and if I dont hold my tongue I look like some one who isnt mature! Which shws lack of self cnfidance. win? lose?

I struggle with self confidence. I just try doing things that give me a sense of accomplishment. Right now, I'm working part-time and that helps give me something. I also have been writing a blog. Making things helps me too.

As for the issues with others, I never feel likable. In fact, when there are posts here where people say how great other people on the boards are, I always get this horrible feeling. It actually makes me cry.

I wish there was a magic answer.

I don't even worry about self esteem--I only worry about survival.

My self esteem was always ridiculously low, and after my ex abused me it was even worse. After my divorce I went to therapy for the first time and gained confidence like I'd never imagined was possible.

Lately I'm back to zero. Losing my self-esteem is one of the first signs I'm heading back into an episode. I'm trying to manage it by self-care, exercise, meditation, positive affirmations, and ignoring negative self-talk in my head. It's only been a week so I don't know how it's working yet.

Hi Hanna, I also have struggled with self confidence all my life and that created a bunch of phobias. I finally got some help from one of my counselors. We did a bunch of treatmemts of EMDR. And she had me post affirmations on every surface of my home..lol. But ya know. It started helping with a major stuff, thats what we started on. I was kind of amazed with some of my mental thinking changing. It grew from there. Once I had resolved the big things, the little one were a piece of cake. Now I still have my phobias but they dont run me anymore, i work with them.

I don't know what happened. I used to be such an easy going person. Now I'm so self conscious that I always 2nd guess what I'm even going to say...wondering if I will offend anyone, will anyone else think what I'm thinking is funny.....only to wait a second too long and someone else say exactly what I'm thinking and they get all the laughs.

Jealousy. I'm envious of those people that it all comes naturally to.