Hi! I am also new to here. I also suffer from low self-esteem due to people telling me I was fat while growing up. I didn't think I was any bigger than the other kids around me but I was teased unmercifully about my body type and for being shy and a book worm. Things people say to you tends to sink in and then you start to actually believe the stuff that they tell you. I don't think I had a horrible childhood. My parents loved me and so did my other sibling. But my mother passed away two weeks before my 12th birthday and my dad couldn't handle it so we packed everything we owned and moved across country. My dad was trying to cope with my mom's death and was basically ignoring my needs as a daughter who had lost her mom. I don't blame him one bit, he did the best he could after losing his wife and best friend. But I guess because I didn't get the love that I thought I needed from him I went looking for it in the wrong places and ended up pregnant at the age of 16. The guy was a jerk after he found out I was pregnant and dumped me, so that didn't do anything to help my esteem problem either. I started putting on weight soon after that and ended up being at 213 by the time everything was said and done. I have since started a diet and am now losing weight but I now have issues with the way my body looks. I don't know what was worse, me being fat or losing the weight and now have sagging skin everywhere and no boobs, lol. I try to think nice things about myself but it is really hard to look in the mirror some days and like what I see.

I'm new here as well.. You said exactly what I have been thinking. Hugs

You present as a decent person to me, someone who is heading in the right direction, maintain your current mindset and, apply it to something physical because you are bound to be very good at whatever it is you turn your hand to.

@deleted_user: I feel for you, the good thing is though you care about yourself, meaning there is a lot of hope for you. Self-esteem primarily is to do with what we DO in life as opposed to merely what we say. Most of us need only be doing one thing in life in order to have healthy self-esteem, which one is yours? You do have one, it's the most important of all.