when i do get brave and ask for what i want, if i am refused, i feel immediately shamed. I feel very small and naked, and following on the heels of that is a sense of self-hate. I don't know why. I think maybe i get mad at myself for putting myself "out there" and getting up false hope about something that "I should have known i wouldn't get or don't deserve." I get mad at myself for putting my neck out on the chopping block and hoping for something other than WHACK!! So, in a sense, it feels like, by asking for what i want, I've put myself in danger and allowed myself to be hurt again.

To be denied feels like a stabbing in my heart. And once that fades, i become angry and my walls go up ever thicker, while a voice in my head says, "I'll die before i ever ask so-and-so for anything again." I don't know how others accept rejection without feeling hurt, naked, ashamed, and angry. I mean, when it's something that is near and dear to your heart, and it takes SO much courage to ask for in the first place.