Originally Posted by
TheEvilJester
Agreed on all of this. I'll even add that it can also help to kind of "fake it till you make it" in a manner of speaking. I have personally never thought advice like "if you can't love yourself then how can anybody else ever love you" is very good. I think it is incomplete. To somebody like me, you might as well just be saying "Nobody will ever love you." I think the better way to summarize that advice would be "If you can't ever let somebody love you, then nobody ever will."
Otherwise, that advice isn't helpful. Especially when the fact the nobody loves you is a large part of the reason you don't love yourself. Especially when having somebody who loved you could help you love yourself more. Truth be told, sometimes for people like myself it can be damn near impossible to love ourselves. So, I think the better advice in extreme cases like that is to, at the very least, not carry yourself as though you hate yourself. Like I said, fake it till you make it. ACT like somebody with confidence.
If you simply don't try because you think you KNOW nobody will ever love you, then it is a foregone conclusion anyway. If every other word out of your mouth is super negative about yourself, then you are going to turn people off immediately and most likely nobody ever will give you a chance. Personally, I'm doing much better these days than ever in my life before. Some days are better than others, and it will always be a struggle, but I appreciate myself so much more than ever.
But, for most of my life I have HATED myself. Even now, I still battle with that regularly and do all I can not to plummet back into that Hell. ....BUT... if given the chance to date, I don't make every other sentence of my conversation with the gal about how much I hate myself and how much I suck and this and that. I accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. (Love that song, LOL) I just be the fun, goofy idiot I am when I am the best of me and let the negativity take a break.
It's surprising, sometimes, how much that can help. Both in connecting with other people and for appreciating yourself. It becomes an all encompassing thing too. The better you feel, the more that shows. The more that shows, the more people are drawn to you and the easier you feel around them.
It's not easy, but it can work. And, as I am learning these days, even if it doesn't necessarily seem to help in the love department... truthfully it at least helps you feel better about you. I won't say it makes everything peaches and cream. Life can still be a b*tch. But, the more you appreciate you the easier it can be to deal with things even if you sometimes feel like nobody else appreciates you.
I know I make it sound easier than it is. It isn't easy, it is a struggle. Especially for guys like us. But, if you give up then life will only ever be miserable. If you try... if you fight... there will be bad times, sure.... but there will be good times too. Those good times are worth it.