Love Yourself (even if sometimes others have to do it for you)
Itâs not a good thing to try and force someone not to use a healthy coping mechanism. Thereâs nothing inherently wrong with self-deprecation.
There is, there very much is.Â
Self-deprecation isnât a healthy coping mechanism. Coping mechanism? Yes. Healthy? Absolutely not. Saying bad things about yourself seems harmless or even good in the moment but if you do it enough you will reinforce negative beliefs about yourself and the world around you. Say âIâm the worstâ enough times and you will believe youâre the worst. Say âeverything sucks I should just die lolâ enough times and you will come to believe that too.Â
Iâm not pulling this shit out of my ass either, by the way, this is coming direct from when i was an outpatient at a psychiatric hospital, way back when i did this EXACT THING CONSTANTLY and ended up suicidal. This is what I was taught there, and this is how I dragged myself out.
The best way to combat this (very unhealthy) coping mechanism is really just to force yourself to say good things about yourself, and shut down the bad ones. It feels stupid, it feels like youâre lying, it feels like it will never work. But over time, if you keep at it, and with the help of friends, the new words will replace the old ones. If you replace âiâm terribleâ with âIâve made a mistake, but that doesnât make me a bad personâ that is what you will come to believe, and make it 1000% easier to actually fix the problem because you wonât be bogged down with self-hatred.Â
Itâs annoying, and aggravating, and you donât want to do it because self-deprecation is how youâve coped for so long, but I promise you itâs not healthy and will make everything worse in the long term.Â
My therapist always told me, âIf you canât think of a positive thought, think of a neutral one.â When youâre so used to self deprecation, itâs very hard to think positively because weâre not even sure thereâs a bright side.
Letâs say youâre worried about a soccer game coming up. Instead of telling yourself, âIâm gonna be terrible and weâre gonna lose the gameâ try, âokay, maybe I wonât kick the winning goal but at least weâll do our best.â
Itâs much easier to think neutrally than positively at first. Eventually, youâll get better at saying nice things to yourself, that positive self talk will come naturally.
Itâs okay if you slip back into the negative thoughts as well. Itâs important to realize where your thoughts are going, pause, and be gentle with yourself.
Positive self talk will come gradually. Relapses are normal too. Your mindset is so important, I would know because Iâve been depressed and suicidal for most my life and I never really saw improvement until I worked on my positive self talk. Itâs powerful. Youâre powerful.





















