Thanks Mindinpieces, however it DID take me time, I didn't really have it at age 19.
It took time to develope a stronger sense of self. To be honest, we actually work on that all our lives.

I actually talked about this with my T today as I know I have some troubled areas in my interactions. We have narrowed this down to my childhood struggles where my parents failed to see my struggle, even made it worse. However often parents do this unknowingly simply because they never knew what to look for.

I think it can be harder if a child has social phobia or even another issue, if a parent doesn't know about it, doesn't make efforts to help the child overcome it, it can present a sense of self anger as the child ages and continues to struggle. Sometimes we can form these deep angers about ourselves that we don't understand, not our fault. It is very helpful to try to find out where this comes from and then the work can begin to help put an end to the sense of not being good enough somehow.

I think you said you were going to start CBT? If that is the case, it would be good if you settled where your sense of self negetivity comes from so you can make peace with it and move forward. That is what I am working on myself. I have been aware of the struggle with it for a very long time, so in that I recognize it in others and reach out. However I never truely filled all of my own struggles, some, but not all.

(((((Hugs)))))

Open Eyes