Dear Hannah:

I experienced life very similar to the way you do, I too had “a negative view of myself. I (didn’t) ever feel like anyone really likes me or that I’m good at anything. I often feel lonely”, and I too was “obsessed with trying to be ‘better’… constantly feeling like I need to change my life and be better in every aspect”-

I felt that I needed to be someone else, not who I was: inferior to others, not worth it, not worth other people’s respect. It was a miserable way to live that brought about dysfunction in every aspect of my life.

This attitude, this deep core belief of being less-than, came about because I really was treated as less than by mother. I really was disrespected. So I believed it was so because there was something very wrong and very inferior about me. And then, this core belief kept getting activated every day of my life.

What about you as a child, were you treated disrespectfully, ignored, unattended to, as if you were not important?

anita