By Poet.Circle

I didn't know how to approach things back then. I made choices I regret, but I couldn't have known any better without experiencing them myself. I came to understand certain truths through my pain, and becoming aware of them has ultimately brought me a sense of peace. I never stop growing; I'm always learning. A butterfly may still scrape and damage its wings from time to time, but a butterfly is beautiful.

After being invited by someone in their house, I was left unattended and was made feel as if I were non existent. I didn't even go there voluntarily, I was requested to be there not once but twice and then I received this behaviour. I felt humiliated and insulted. I already suffer from clinical depression and anxiety.

My partner and I had a fight and she went no contact. I’m alone in my house and I’m struggling so much. I’ve tried to see friends and cuddle my pets, but I’ve never struggled so hard it cried so long in my life. Please help me love myself in my despair Reddit

Worth isn’t something you have to prove to someone who cannot, or will not, see it.

I just want to post it here to let it off my chest. I will have a good cry about this soon, but I also want witnesses to how I feel right now.

In my self love journey, my genuine self love has recently been labelled as selfish and narcissistic by my own partner.

I have done so much for them, they know it, we have talked about it. For years I have been adjusting for them because I was used to setting myself aside for other people.

Now that I have learned my boundaries and the kind of love I would want to receive, the dynamic has changed. And tonight I have been labelled as narcissist, and selfish. It hurts to hear those words because I know I am not that. I have asked my therapists and my cousin who is also a therapist and I have consistenly been told I am not.

I will be okay. It is just too much of a pain to hold it all at once right now. I am thankful for this space. If you read until the end, thank you for being my witness.

Received a job offer today after being a SAHM for the last 6 years + leaving an abusive 16 year relationship. Starting over is so hard but sometimes necessary.

I know parents disappoint but its different after forgiving them, you know. Especially now since they know what I have been dealing with they might use that as amo. How do I embrace it all? Soon enough when I make a silly mistake they are going to point it out and say that im judging them for their mistakes but I make mistakes too. Doesn't make sense. Idk how you can expose me to abuse then get angry when I forget to buy something and say that those mistakes are the same

Saying no is still something I’m learning how to do without feeling guilty.

For a long time, I thought being a good person meant always making room, always understanding, always bending a little more.

But sometimes I bend so much that I forget I’m a person too.

I’m learning that no is not always rejection.

Sometimes no is me being honest. Sometimes no is me protecting my peace. Sometimes no is me finally listening to what I need.

My affirmation today:

* I can say no and still care.
* I can have limits without explaining myself to death.
* I am allowed to protect my peace too.

The way you speak to yourself after a mistake matters. If your first response is to insult yourself, punish yourself, hate yourself, or treat the mistake like proof that something is wrong with you, you are not helping yourself grow. You are damaging the relationship you have with yourself.

Accountability does not require cruelty. You can say, “I got that wrong. I need to understand why. I need to do better next time,” without turning yourself into someone unsafe to be with. If every mistake becomes an attack, you do not build self-trust. You teach yourself that you are only worthy of kindness when you perform perfectly.

I (19F) feel like my love life is absolutely shit and it just completely destroys any confidence I have, It seems like every guy that I’ve talked to ends up losing interest in me very quickly often ghosting me and sometimes I do chase after them which I know is very embarrassing, I’ve been wondering if this need like this craving for romance and love has to do with the fact that I’ve been bullied most of my life from elementary school to highschool I’ve been bullied for my appearance and most of my bullies have been men but once I reached college it feels like a lot of the attention that I’ve received have been mostly attention towards my body and sexual attention I Take everything incredibly serious, I don’t know how to love myself first it seems soo much easier in theory then it is actually to do, my confidence like it seems to go up and down based on how someone treats me, I tell myself I don’t need love from men when I have love from my friends but I don’t know a part of me craves romance soo much especially when I see my friends in such loving relationships and I cannot seem to find that.

For anyone that struggled with self confidence Like I am now but has been able to rise above that how did u do it? how can I stop basing my self worth on others I just hate living life like this.

If anyone tells you that you are not lovable it's not true It's a control technique when people try to demean you to get you to do more things for them or more of what they want and you are certainly lovable not based on how many chores you do for somebody or how many times you put their needs above your own You are so lovable but you have to nurture your own soul and know that your worth is not measured by things you do for somebody it's by how much you show love not only to yourself but to those around you.

Basically my first girlfriend was very abusive towards me, but she wasn’t/isn’t abusive towards her ex and her current partner. She also appreciates things about him that I also had, that she didn’t appreciate about me

Basically it’s hard for me to put this behaviour on her and who she is, because her abuse was specific to me, and makes me think I brought it out of her. She’s not just an abusive person, and I can’t just tell myself that and that she would’ve done that to anyone. She was just abusive to me, so it makes me just hate myself. And because it was my first romantic experience, I don’t know if maybe I was the problem 😢

Like if I was just someone else she never would’ve treated me terribly. That it was me that was the reason of the treatment, not her. If I was her new guy she never would’ve done that maybe? I don’t know. But I met her in a very dark time in my life and she made it a thousand times worse

All the advice I see about abusive people doesn’t work for me, because all those stories are about people who abuse everyone, so that’s just something in general broken inside them, and that fact helps victims. But I don’t have that. All I have is self hate after it all, because the first girl to ever like me abused me, which at first just made me think I just got unlucky with a person who is abusive, and that it’s not personal, but then she showed me that she’s not even abusive to other people. She easily and voluntarily treats her bf the way I begged to be treated and she never could for me. So it was just me? I was so unlikeable she couldn’t help but be terrible to me? The abuse was because I deserved it? And now I don’t even know if it had anything to do with her, maybe every woman would treat me like that? It looked like she was mad at the fact that she was stuck forced to try to like me. Just the fact that I’ve never had an experience outside of her to compare makes me not know and scared to ever open up again

I don’t know if I can explain this right, it’s just such a complicated situation 😢. Has anyone ever experienced someone who was only ever abusive to you and no one else?

I was just barely a teenager when I wrote this, but I have fought tooth and nail to keep this message in my devices over the years cause it has helped me so much.

Title: It's Alright

If you are reading this then you are probably questioning yourself again. I won't say that is a terrible thing to do cause you wouldn't be reading this if I didn't do that a lot already, but I do want to stop you before it starts tearing at you. Don't let the questioning be destructive. If you ask a question at least have the decency to find an answer. I hope that at the end of the day you'll know that everything will be alright. You tell that to so many people, but you never tell that to yourself. So here it is now, from me to you whoever "you" turns out to be: It'll be alright. No matter what happens, you'll have something to learn and grow on, and that is the greatest thing about you. Your ability to grow and change and YOU will make it alright.

i have been having religious thoughts they are getting annoying but even this my thoughts are gettiing effected i have been trying to do stuff i want without shame and gulit i this want to do what i want to with those who are care about and who care about me