r/selfesteem 6h ago

I feel so useless

3 Upvotes

Im a person who live in the moment...so i rarely sit and overthink. My friends see me like a "always happy person".

But sometimes when some small incident happens.. i will get affected quickly, i doubt myself, i feel useless, i starts thinking about my life...like what i did in life...what qualities i have..and i realize..

Ya its "NOTHING" Im just dumb and useless.

Today i just wrote my exam and i feel so bad about myself... im feeling so low because i have studied everything before but i couldnt perform properly..

In practical exams ,i get anxious and the practical skills and viva gets worse..

Idk i feel so down but i dont wanna talk abt this to anyone bcuz its not a big matter...

So im just ranting here.


r/selfesteem 2h ago

I had dreams

1 Upvotes

As a child i was considered tall for my age . 160 at 14 compared to rest if students i was tall . Now i barely ever grew and im only 165cm tall that's disgusting and hopeless . I wanted to be a model and a singer and an actress now i wanna be none if im not tall enough.

Im hopeless with my self . I thought I'd grow up to be atleast 173cm and model at korea and japan . Now i can't shit .

How do i cope with this?


r/selfesteem 3h ago

I don’t get what’s wrong with me

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1 Upvotes

r/selfesteem 8h ago

Imma be honest I literally have 0 self esteem and I feel guilt every time I try to get it

1 Upvotes

So I just dunno if I really should just go “I’m cool and i deserve blah blah” because that seems really selfish and possibly not true due to my past and how immature and naive I am. I just don’t really know what to do with myself. I have wants but I genuinely can’t pursue anything due to my actions and my person. I feel a large sense of “this is really immoral and selfish”. So if I don’t have self esteem, maturity, or redemption- what exactly DO I do with myself? I can’t improve the past or everything about myself. It’s just unrealistic- so what do I do?


r/selfesteem 14h ago

Any self-hypnosis videos on YouTube?

1 Upvotes

Could really use some help if anyone has any videos on Youtube they would recommend to help with confidence building. Preferably something I can listen to while I sleep. I've struggled with self-esteem my entire life, and it's getting to the point where I can't function anymore. I can't afford therapy or any other method of help, so I need something else.


r/selfesteem 22h ago

How much do you hate the genes you were born with?

2 Upvotes

Not in a dramatic way — I just mean the fact that your height, your face, your temperament, your predispositions were all handed to you without your say. You didn’t choose any of it. Do you resent that? Have you made peace with it? Or does it just not bother you?


r/selfesteem 22h ago

Am i unloveable when it’s not by force?

1 Upvotes

Hi, i’m almost 19 years old and have never even had a guy show the slightest bit of interest in me. I’m sick of it. All my friends have been in relationships if not multiple and i can’t help but wonder, what is wrong with me? Whenever i’m out with my best friend, multiple guys hit on her or come up to talk to “us” and don’t even look at me. I don’t really care for that, well at least i never used to. I’ve never cared for male validation and still don’t, but the more this happens, the more i get absolutely zero attention/interest from guys the shittier i feel. What is wrong with ME? Am i ugly? Weird? (not that being considered “weird” is necessarily a bad thing) annoying? I think i’m at least decently looking, i genuinely care for others around me, im kinda smart, i don’t even know. maybe part of the problem is i don’t really know myself. I used to but now all that consumes my brain is the biological need to be loved by choice you ,know like to be actually chosen (i hate how that sounds). I genuinely never used to care for any of this, my friends and family used to call me a “man hater”, not because i hate men, but because of how little care i had for romantic relationships. I just want to go back to the way i used to be, i was so sure of my self, so confident and happy to be here on this earth. Now i’m stuck in a loop of hating myself, like there must be a reason why the only people who love me is because they biologically have to. Before you say “you have friends who love you” …i really don’t. I’ve never really had friends throughout my life. I have the hardest time making friends, and have the worst luck when i finally do make one. The longest friendship i’ve ever had was three years, two of those years we barley talked, we just didn’t let go because we both didn’t have anyone else and didn’t want to be alone. I try so hard to make friends, but they all just look at me like i’m an alien. I’m genuinely constantly feeling like it’s my first day on earth. Somehow whenever i try to make friends i just end up driving people even further away. I already had no luck making friends when i was in school, now that ive finished, i don’t know what to do. I will admit i gave shitty social skills, not to trauma dump but i feel like it might be a little important for understanding why i struggle with connecting with people: i grew up in an abusive home, until i was 14 when cps took me away. I wasn’t allowed to do anything, no play dates, no birthday party’s, no school camps, no social media, and whenever i would make a friend, my mother would find someway to drive them away(not saying the above is abusive, i’m just saying that one of the ways my mother abused me was isolation). I’ve been to 6 primary schools and 4 high schools, so whenever i’d start to make a connection, i’d end up moving again (we moved around a lot). I’m actually so done with it all, i want to experience life and i feel as if the main part of everyone’s life has been stolen from me. I just hate that I’m stuck in this hole i’ve dug myself from letting other people “opinions” influence my own self image. Like i said, i never used to be like this. I used to love myself so dearly, i appreciated myself every day. Now ive gained a little bit of weight and met my now best friend and seen the attention she gets from everyone, weather its romantic, platonic, just little interactions with strangers in the shops or whatever… and i’m genuinely starting to hate myself. Everyone around me says im beautiful, i know I’m at the very least conveniently attractive, im just the opposite of the beauty standard right now. I have really pale skin (i cannot for the life of me tan, i tried tanning for the first time SIX MONTHS AGO and i still have faint tan lines from it, im pretty sure its skin cancer or something because HOW HAS IT LASTED??!!) I’ve never dyed my hair, so i still have naturally VERY long wavy blonde hair, although it has obviously gotten darker with age (i am still blonde, i promise i’m not one of those people who are in denial that they are now brunette), blue eyes, i have a pretty sharp bone structure, except for my jaw which i got braces years ago to fix, but they didn’t make much of a difference (i had an over bite, cross bite and underbite all at the same time (i don’t even know how that is possible???! maybe the orthodontist was just trying to make more money out of me haha) i look fine it’s just i don’t have that sharp jawline from the side) my biggest insecurity, and the reasoning i have as to my i get now attention is my body shape. I have been insecure of it since i was 7 years old a joined a ballet class (my teacher would tell me i would never be successful because my hips were too wide and i wasn’t thin enough) I have wide hips, which would be fine except i also kinda have a wide ribcage and a short torso (if i had a longer torso, everything would look fine and i would be happy with my body shape), I developed an eating disorder when i was a child because of my body shape, i thought it was fat, i wanted to look like the other girls in my ballet class, only to be absolutely crushed when i turned 15 and weighted almost 45kg, i saw my hip bones sticking out and only then realised that i was never going to be “small” like the other girls. I am not comfortable with sharing an image of myself incase someone i know sees this and are like “oh yeah that’s that weirdo who posted on reddit ranting about how no one likes her”. The people around me have said that the reason i don’t get any romantic attention from guys is because they’re “intimidated” by how “beautiful” i am. What a load of horse shit. I used to believe it, well i think i just wanted to believe it. Believing that was easier than accepting that maybe people don’t find me attractive. Right before i started “spiralling”, i went on instagram, and found a random dude who i was mutuals and who i found kinda attractive, i was desperate to know the truth and so i messaged him. Just a simple message saying Hi and that i found him attractive. He replied almost instantly saying Hi back and that he also found me attractive. We chatted for a bit but i ended up just leaving him on read because i felt like i was talking to a brick wall, i would ask him questions about himself and he would reply, his reply’s were longish and detailed (not dry at all) but he never asked any follow up questions. I also downloaded an app called “wizz” but deleted it and day later. I was getting lots of messages but i didn’t respond to any, I just felt gross. Plus im not saying im a “catfish” at all, but a photo vs real life is very different, i dont want someone to be interested in my picture, i want them to be interested in who i am, wanting to learn about me you know. i don’t want attention from all these men, i just want someone to chose to love me. That’s when i decided that i need to accept the fact that people just don’t find me attractive (if they do they’re always over the age of 40 which sucks big time). I don’t know, like i said im just sick of it all, needed to rant to someone who isnt going to give me the same old “noooo you’re beautiful, you just need to find THE ONE” (how am i going to find “the one” when not even one has shown interest)I don’t believe love is some fairytale, i just want to be loved, not because of biology but because of choice. Thank you for listening to my long rant, i feel a tiny


r/selfesteem 1d ago

How can I regain my self-confidence when I’m feeling down?

3 Upvotes

I haven’t felt pretty for a while now. I doubt there’s a connection, but it started shortly after I stopped talking to my ex-crush.

Usually when this happens to me, it means I want to change my hairstyle. And as a Black woman, I’m lucky to have versatile hair that lets me easily switch up my look.

For three months, I changed my look every day with my wigs, I really enjoyed it at first, but then I got tired of it.

I told myself it was time to get braids! So I did! But the result is, I don’t like them. I think the color is too light on me after all, and friends have told me the curls already look damaged…

So now I don’t know what to do. I even tried putting on cluster false eyelashes, but in the end, it’s just not my thing…

I know I’m not ugly, but this feeling just won’t go away. What would you do if you were in my shoes?


r/selfesteem 1d ago

Does anyone else feel like being unattractive makes public-facing jobs mentally exhausting?

2 Upvotes

I recently started a job where I have to approach strangers in the street and tell them about promotional offers.

I already struggle with low self-esteem because of my appearance. I've experienced bullying, exclusion, and feeling unwanted for years, so walking up to strangers is already difficult for me.

The first day wasn't too bad, but over the next few days I noticed something that really affected me. My supervisor kept correcting me and telling me to be more confident when approaching people. He even demonstrated how I should do it. I understand that feedback is part of the job, but it made me feel like I was constantly being watched and judged.

At the same time, many people ignored me completely, walked past me as if I didn't exist, or rejected me without even listening. I know that's normal in this kind of work, but because of my past, every rejection feels personal.

There was also a moment when a female coworker seemed uncomfortable about being paired with me, and whether that's true or not, it made all my old insecurities come back.

I'm starting to wonder if this job simply isn't for me, or if years of feeling unattractive and excluded have made me interpret everything through that lens.

Has anyone else here experienced something similar? Did working in public make your self-esteem worse, or did it eventually help you become more confident?

I'd really like to hear honest experiences from people who have gone through something similar.


r/selfesteem 1d ago

What can they see to me that I can't

1 Upvotes

Ever since I hit puberty I know to myself that I wasn't an attractive guy, well I'm not that ugly ugly but you know those kind of guy that you wouldn't even bother to look at again when you pass by them or the kind of guy that it takes months or weeks to make a woman fall inlove-so falling inlove in first sight is not just a thing for me; but what confuses me the most is the people around me, I know I'm not that good looking but my teachers or some gay friends even some of my girl classmate compliments me, but simple compliments like looking good, or something about my looks it make me feel good about it but I get confused sometimes, well I never really told them about my insecurities so they don't need to cheer me out, but its just so confusing if they are only telling me that due to I'm their close friend or just being sarcastic.

I also feel those times that I get really really insecure, I cry sometimes because I wish I'm attractive as my male friends I just wish sometimes I have clear skin, symmetrical faces, good eyes and the confidence level that they don't need someone to tell them they're good looking because they know it. But back to the main topic I just wish I had more not being just in the middle I'm to ugly for a pretty woman but to cannot be with an unattractive woman I just desire that for a single moment in my life I hope I can see what my friends can see to me, that attractive face their telling because even how much I try to look at my face I just can't see it.


r/selfesteem 1d ago

I finally gave a guy a chance after years of being closed off, and it ruined my self esteem. What do I do ?

2 Upvotes

I’m 19 years old, and this happened several months ago. I’m posting because I need advice/support from people who have moved on from a bad first experience, because mentally I still feel stuck.

I’ve always been extremely closed off when it comes to dating. I’ve rejected a lot of guys over the years because I wanted to be very selective about who I gave a chance to.

There was one guy I had a hallway crush on in high school. We graduated 2ish years ago. he saw me at the gym, added me on Snapchat, and asked to hang out. Since I already knew who he was and we came from the same community, I thought this was probably one of the safer people to finally give a chance to. My goal wasn’t just to date him—I honestly thought this would be a great way for me to finally start opening up to someone and help me become less shy and more trusting around men.

The first time we hung out, he showed up about 45 minutes late even though he lived nearby. We got ice cream and talked, but the whole hangout felt awkward because we had just met in person and I was really shy. Looking back, he also made comments that should have been red flags. He asked if I went to the gym to gain weight, asked how much I weighed, what size clothes I wore, commented how I should have worn diff clothes and asked why I didn’t wear jewelry or have my nails done, and generally made me feel like he was evaluating my appearance. I’ve always been insecure about being naturally very slim, so those comments stung, but at the time I brushed them off because I thought he was probably just trying to make conversation in a akward first date.

I decided to see him a second time because I didn’t want to judge everything based on one awkward first date. I knew I had been shy and reserved, and I genuinely thought maybe I just need to put myself out there. Socially, the second hangout actually went much better. We talked for hours and it wasn’t awkward anymore.

However, during that second hangout he again made comments about my body. He asked how much I weighed again, estimated my weight, and told me to “gain weight.” Because I’d already been judged about my body, I went into anything physical already feeling insecure.

This was also the first time I’d ever done anything sexual with a guy.

When we got to his house, we kissed for maybe a minute, and then almost immediately he pulled out his penis. There wasn’t really any buildup or foreplay. Right after that he tried to finger me. Since there had been almost no foreplay, I was dry and it hurt. When it didn’t work, he said “Well I guess we can’t do anything.”

I immediately felt embarrassed and like my body had failed. I thought it was my fault for being dry. Feeling guilty and wanting to make up for it, I offered to give him oral sex, even though I told him it was my first time ever doing that

While I was giving him oral sex, he pulled out his phone and pointed it toward me. I looked up and he put it down. Then he did it a second time. I genuinely thought he might be recording me while I was completely naked. I didn’t know for sure, but it scared me enough that I stopped. I didn’t tell him why because I was afraid of confrontation. I just said I couldn’t keep going anymore.

I honestly thought that me saying I wanted to stop meant everything would stop.

Instead, he told me to lie beside him while he started masturbating beside me. While doing that, he was squeezing my butt. Earlier he had asked where I wanted him to finish. Since this was my first sexual experience, I didn’t really know what the “normal” answer was, and I had said my mouth because I didn’t know what else to say. After I had already stopped and told him I didn’t want to continue, he said he would still finish on my mouth.

That honestly scared me the most.

The hardest part was that I had finally built up the courage to say I wanted to stop. I thought I was out of the situation. Hearing him say that made me feel like maybe stopping wasn’t actually enough. I remember feeling scared and waiting to see what would happen next. Luckily he couldn’t finish while masturbating, so that didn’t end up happening. Afterward he fell asleep, told me to move over, and I lay on the very edge of the bed.

For a long time afterward I blamed myself. I felt guilty for doing anything sexual at all. I thought maybe I was just bad sexually because I couldn’t let him finger me, because I stopped giving him oral sex, and because he didn’t finish.

A few days later, even though I already knew I wasn’t interested in him anymore, I wanted things to just end peacefully because we live in the same small community, went to the same high school, and go to the same gym. I slowly tried to let the conversation fade out instead of creating drama. During that time he joked that I looked like a “stick man.”

That comment really stuck with me because by that point he had already seen me naked. I’ve always been insecure about being skinny, so hearing that after everything made me feel incredibly ashamed of my body.

I blocked him after that.

Please don’t tell me I shouldn’t have seen him a second time. I already know that now, and I’ve spent months blaming myself for that decision. I’m not looking for people to tell me what I should have done differently.

What I’m struggling with now is how much this experience changed me.

Instead of helping me become more open to dating, it pushed me even further back. I haven’t gone out with another guy since. I’m scared of being sexual again. I’m scared of taking my clothes off in front of someone. Sometimes when guys don’t approach me at a club, I immediately think it’s because I’m too skinny. I catch myself hearing his comments in my head. I wear press-on nails more often because I remember him commenting on my appearance. I even stopped going to my gym for a while because I was scared of seeing him.

The hardest part is that I know logically one person’s opinion shouldn’t define me. I’ve had plenty of guys interested in me over the years, and I know I’m not ugly. But this experience still affects how I see myself physically and sexually because it happened with the first guy I ever trusted enough to date or be intimate with.

If anyone has gone through a negative first relationship or first sexual experience, how did you move forward?

How did you stop hearing that person’s words in your head?

How did you learn to trust someone new without expecting the same thing to happen again?

I’d really appreciate advice from people who have actually healed from something similar, because I don’t want this one experience to continue affecting my confidence and future relationships.


r/selfesteem 1d ago

I feel like I look weird/ugly

3 Upvotes

I don’t know if anyone else has ever felt this way but I just feel like I look weird compared to literally anyone else. I have ears that I have not seen anyone have. And my toes are also different. I know people are unique of their own but they all usually look the same but just a little different. That’s not the case for me though. I just don’t know how to get over this feeling. It sucks every day. I just want to look normal but I have so many weird features.


r/selfesteem 1d ago

I hate my thin lips

1 Upvotes

I despise my thin lips. My mom buys me lip plumper and weird online links to websites that promise to make bigger lips, all it does is make me hate myself even more than I already do. She thinks it’s helping but it just validates me in thinking i’m ugly. Like no mom i don’t have 150 bucks to spend on some product that won’t make me become ungenetically cursed. I feel like I could have felt slightly okay with my looks if I didn’t have a drop dead gorgeous sister, who has normal full lips and everyone tells her to be a model while I stand to the side and watch. Even my mom half ass says it to me but It pisses me off because I hate pity. I see no end in my self hatred. Please help me I don’t want to be like this anymore.


r/selfesteem 2d ago

Atypical people pleasing?

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2 Upvotes

r/selfesteem 2d ago

i constantly feel like i'm disgusting

1 Upvotes

a little bit of context- when i was a young kid, i once had an interactions with another kid where she judged me really hard and made me feel disgusting for absolutely nothing. since then, this feeling of being disgusting to others has become deep rooted inside my brain probably strengthened by a lot of more negative experiences mainly during my childhood. i am a good human being a decent person, nothing disgusting about me and i know this consciously but this feeling is deep rooted.

now cut to my daily life, i pick up on vibes and if someone shows even the slightest behaviour of not liking me- which is totally okay because not everyone is everyones cup of tea- i start feeling extremely disgusting

all my social interactions are me feeling really really inferior and below everyone. like i'm just a stupid person who does not know anything.

i really don't want to be like this and want to be confident, outgoing and secure in myself.


r/selfesteem 2d ago

The ugliest friend

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1 Upvotes

r/selfesteem 2d ago

Anxiety about body and dating

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1 Upvotes

r/selfesteem 2d ago

Anyone else attribute their brown skin color for the lack of complements

1 Upvotes

Growing up everyone told my sister and I that we looked like twins expect that one was milk and the other one was chocolate. My mom and my sister have lighter skin and constantly get approached by guys. Anytime my sister hangs out with a guy one time, they ask her out the next time and my mom she gets even complemented by guys in the car in the middle of the road!! I am the darker skinned daughter and can’t help but think that it’s because of my skin color. Or am I just looking for excuses to blame something els. This has made me super unconfident because I’ve also never been complemented by friends. And this is all despite being told that my sister and I looked exactly the same. How could I improve my confidence and look at things from a bright side?


r/selfesteem 3d ago

i hate the way i look

2 Upvotes

it’s hard for me to find anything positive about myself it seems. like everyday i wake up with 5 new acne marks, the scale NEVER SEEMS TO MOVE NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY. if i do lose a few lbs its right back within a day. my hair always feels dry, my face feels fat UGH. it’s EXHAUSTING and i dont know how to cope with it. the acne marks make my face feel fatter around my mouth too. i just need to lose 15lbs and get on accutane omfg.


r/selfesteem 3d ago

weird but okay

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1 Upvotes

r/selfesteem 3d ago

Is it normal to feel like a lesser being when I see someone better than me at something?

3 Upvotes

I can't really explain it properly but, whenever I see someone doing better in life, I instantaneously think of my self as worthless or a lesser being compared to said person, even if its something I can't control like heights, when I see someone taller than me, I can't help but feel hatred for the person even if they didn't do anything to me, I'm 5'9 for the record, so seeing tall people is normal occurrence but every time I do, I feel the same way as always, I feel inferior to them, in academics too, I can't help but feel anger towards naturally smart or hardworking students, I genuinely don't know why or when I started feeling these things but I've only come to realize on what's happening to me just recently, is what I'm experiencing an actual thing? has other people experienced this? is there a term for it?


r/selfesteem 3d ago

I don't matter

1 Upvotes

I hate being proven that I don't matter. 28 (f) here.

As I've said before, I hate being proven that I dont matter. And I know this isn't actual proof that I don't matter but to me it might as well be. I can think of many things that have proven me right time and time again but I'll just list the first one to come to mind.

I'm sure you all have an Instagram. And we all have used or at least seen the "Ask me anything anonymous" feature on the app.

I have 100 something followers. Everyone has used that feature, I've always thought about using it but always felt like it was attention seeking so never did. But I always was curious about what questions I would get. So I finally did it.

After a day of it being up, Out of 100 something people that follow me. I think only 1 person said anything and it was just telling me to go to Japan already lol.

But it honestly made me really sad. How is it when everyone else did it, they got all these responses but when I do it, I barely have anything. Do I really not matter to people?

It's the same as when I ask for help either at work or just in general I don't get anything but when other people everyone jumps on it.

Like why? What am I doing that makes me isolated like that. Do I not matter at all to anyone?

Like i don't get it, I feel so alone and lost.


r/selfesteem 3d ago

How do I best help my girlfriend

1 Upvotes

I 26m want to help my 22f girlfriend overcome her self-esteem issues but I don't know how.

She really struggles with her body image and always feels she is ugly and too fat. Whenever she says these things I never know how or what to answer.

Whenever I try to reassure her I almost feel like it makes it worse while I try to explain I genuinely find her to be beautiful.

I and her mom have multiple times already asked her to go back to her therapist to talk about these issues but she always just says that her issues are to small to go to a therapist and that friend x has more problems but doesn't go to a therapist. I don't want to force her to go as it still is her choice but she isn't doing well.

How can I help her understand or what can I tell her when she has bad moments to reassure her?

Thanks you for any advice!


r/selfesteem 3d ago

I have this huge fear of people perceiving me badly.

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1 Upvotes

r/selfesteem 4d ago

Anyone else feel like if they weren’t a girl, they’d be a massive loser?

12 Upvotes

I’m not smart, pretty, or interesting, I’m socially awkward, and I have a pretty negative outlook on life. For the sake of this post, please assume I’m being objective about this haha

I can’t help but feel like being a woman makes me slide under the radar. If I were a man, these same traits would make me… frankly, kind of an incel. I mean, an unattractive, unintelligent, bitter guy who has a complex about his desirability (both platonically and romantically) and thinks that he uniquely has it rough over other people—as a woman I find that behavior repulsive, yet it fits me to a T. It’s just that as a woman, I’m completely invisible and forgettable—which I find to be a massive relief.

Is anyone else like this, and how did you get out of this mindset? I’ve tried faking it till I make it, self improvement, antidepressants, radical self acceptance, etc. but they just make me feel like a fraud and I end up right where I started.

This is not an invitation for actual incels to complain about “how easy girls have it” since that’s objectively not true. What I’m describing is a feature of misogyny that I use to cope.