life help: How can I gain self confidence? - Help.com

IDon'tEverQuit
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Saint John, NB, CA

How can I gain self confidence?

I don’t have much, if any. I find it impossible to look at myself and see anything good. I make so many mistakes that it’s hard to have confidence in myself. I have panic attacks so badly that I can’t live a relatively normal life…….it’s killing me….Any advice?

This open post was written 2 months, 4 weeks ago | V/U/S: 240, 28, 7 | Edit Post | Leave a reply | Report Post


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Since writing this post IDon'tEverQuit has helped in 10 other users' posts within the last 4 days. IDon'tEverQuit is a verified member, has been around for 8 months, 3 weeks and has 108 posts and 894 replies to their name.

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sexgoddes offline Unverified User #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (1 minute after post)

I have same issues i worked them out by giving myself confidence i thought of something im not confident doing then went and did it to prove myself.

NeverGiveUp9 (As your username says)

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Dougie the Pisces offline Verified User (3 months, 1 week) Long Term User Shouts: 36 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (7 minutes after post)

I know nothing about you other than one two good things!
1: You user name is good advice :)
2: Your avatar suggests you have a love for small fluffy animals such as kittens (THIS IS ALSO GOOD)

Seems like you have a good heart and a good attitude (generally)

What kind of mistakes are we talking here? Small clutzy ones like dropping people’s lunches while working at the diner, or horrible ones like robbing banks?

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IDon'tEverQuit offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 116 #
Saint John, NB, CA | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (9 minutes after post)

LOL neither…..I have panic attacks and I burden my boyfriend with them…..and I say the wrong things and I worry too much….I can’t keep my mouth shut when something is bothering me…….when me and my boyfriend argue (i hate confrontation) I don’t know when to stop and think and keep my mouth shut…….like if he says you know i’m angry don’t talk to me right now……..I can’t….cause I get scared of losing him…and I don’t want to lose him…..

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Help me with: I hate myself.
dotspot offline Verified User (9 months, 1 week) Long Term User Shouts: 1 #
An Undisclosed Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (9 minutes after post)

Living up to challenges. Like, climbing a mountain, maybe. Pushing through the hard times for the big payoff at the end, and being able to look back and feel good about your accomplishments.

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phuckit! offline Verified User (5 months) Long Term User Shouts: 6 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (11 minutes after post)

Tip #1:

Don’t care what other people think. I know you may think “How am I supposed to do that?”. Well the fact is that you can’t change what anybody else thinks. Imagine you are at a public gathering and you have really low self confidence at that point in time. You come home and you feel really bad because you thought you where judged by other people. Your best friend James, thought the same thing when he came home. Judith thought exactly the same thing. The point is, people care more about themselves than they care about you. So inevitably don’t care what other people think of you. You are not put on this planet to please all. It’s OK to fail, it’s OK to be different, it’s OK to do what you feel is right for you!

Tip #2:

Allow being judged. This is something that can be really hard, but guess what. In order to boost self confidence to great heights, you must be able to do things your way and be ok with other people disliking what you do. Again, almost everybody in the world judges people, I judge people for sure. If somebody tells me that I am something negative that I know I am. Let’s say ugly, or fat… I can simply laugh it off and say, “So what, I can’t change my genes and this is the way I am, do you have something else you want to judge me by, please get it off your chest?”. See there is nothing a person can say to you that you can’t counter in one way or another.

Tip #3:

Have really strong beliefs. The two tips above come down to one thing and that is having a strong self belief and solid ground in your confidence. There are many exercises you can take in order to really learn how to gain self confidence. You must get your beliefs in order first, otherwise you will always have a doubt in your mind somewhere. People are experts at destroying their own beliefs by having negative thoughts. STOP negative thoughts now.

Tip #4:

Writing your goals down on paper. People who fail will write their goals down once, look at them, put pen and paper down and then forget about it. People who have learnt how to gain self confidence proceed with their goals and never ever quit. I know this may sound harsh right now, but quitters remain quitters until they believe they can be winners. Be a winner.

Tip #5:

Be a winner. Even if you lose at one point in time be a winner. Even if somebody totally humiliates you, you are a winner. Why? Simply because everybody is a winner. Everybody is good at something. The reason you have low self confidence is because you have been programmed to believe something that isn’t true… at all. Maybe people around you have told you that you are worthless or too stupid to do something. Guess what, you are not, you are a winner. You are a winner because you know that if you set your mind to do something you will obtain this goal. You have done it before, every single time. You just don’t know it.

Tip #6:

Have extreme determination and faith. Know that if you have set your mind to do something you will obtain it. Maybe not tomorrow or the next day. Maybe not in 1 week or even 1 year. Learning how to gain self confidence takes time. Some people get over these negative thoughts and gain amazing self confidence in only 10 days. For some people the programming has taken much harder and it takes them 2 months. Maybe you are so deep into it that it takes 5 years? Even if it takes 5 years, when that day comes and you know when you are there, you will feel that 5 years was worth it.

Tip #7:

Patience. Learning how to gain self confidence is like fishing with a fishing rod, in a way. Let me explain. have you ever tried to fish with a fishing rod and you see something happen. You reel in to see if something happened. You find the fish has broke lose. You get pissed and throw it back in the water. This happens 5-10 times before you catch anything. In the mean time your friend is pulling up the fish every single time and he is laughing of joy. He is patient… he knows that when the fish bites, it takes a little bit of time before the hook is 100% attached. The point here is that, if something doesn’t work for you, throw the rod back in and try again. When you want to give up the most, you know you are the closest

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phuckit! offline Verified User (5 months) Long Term User Shouts: 6 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (11 minutes after post)

got that from google, lol

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IDon'tEverQuit offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 116 #
Saint John, NB, CA | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (12 minutes after post)

I don’t have the strength not to cry when I’m hurting…….I don’t have the strength to keep this inside until I am alone. I wish I knew how to deal with things better and find strength in myself to push it away for a time and keep going…..

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Help me with: I hate myself.
Dougie the Pisces offline Verified User (3 months, 1 week) Long Term User Shouts: 36 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (14 minutes after post)

I’ve been in your position before!
What you need to do is remove yourself from the source of what’s troubling you.
I remember I once had a beautiful relationship… and the worse thing I did for the relationship was to not remove myself from the conflict!

In the end I payed for it, because I lost her. When I should have just talked things out with someone who wasn’t emotionally invested in my problems!

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IDon'tEverQuit offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 116 #
Saint John, NB, CA | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (16 minutes after post)

I guess what I need help with the most is how to gain confidence in myself and how to deal with things by myself…….instead of burdening others…..

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Help me with: I hate myself.
IDon'tEverQuit offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 116 #
Saint John, NB, CA | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (18 minutes after post)

I love my bf so much and I don’t want to burden him. I have panic attacks though and that makes it soooooooo much harder to deal with on your own…….

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Help me with: I hate myself.
Dougie the Pisces offline Verified User (3 months, 1 week) Long Term User Shouts: 36 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (21 minutes after post)

OK… there are two things going on here that I can see!
You don’t want to burden your bf…. so clearly you feel guilty about doing that!
If he loves you that you should not he a burden!
However, obviously there is only so much any person can handle…
I suppose you need to find that balance between what is a burden… and what is a reasonable amount of emotional support!

I understand about the panic attacks too btw!
Are there other people you can turn to?

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IDon'tEverQuit offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 116 #
Saint John, NB, CA | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (23 minutes after post)

No.

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Help me with: I hate myself.
IDon'tEverQuit offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 116 #
Saint John, NB, CA | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (24 minutes after post)

What am I going to do?? I burden him WAY too much. I have several panic attacks a day and I think I lean on him too much……….

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Help me with: I hate myself.
IDon'tEverQuit offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 116 #
Saint John, NB, CA | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (25 minutes after post)

I don’t want to do that to him…he’s so wonderful..what am I going to do?

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Help me with: I hate myself.
Dougie the Pisces offline Verified User (3 months, 1 week) Long Term User Shouts: 36 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (26 minutes after post)

I’m not sure!
I’m not in Australia, so I wouldn’t know what services you have where you are!
But I’m sure there’s a help-line you could call… someone to talk to… just to calm you down!
What sort of things are you panicking about?

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Dougie the Pisces offline Verified User (3 months, 1 week) Long Term User Shouts: 36 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (27 minutes after post)

Sorry… I meant I AM in Australia… sorry its 3am here… bit tired! :O

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IDon'tEverQuit offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 116 #
Saint John, NB, CA | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (27 minutes after post)

everything just about………..it’s OK…I was just going to say uh..I’m in Canada :)I want to learn to deal with at least some of it on my own….I just don’t know how……..

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Help me with: I hate myself.
Sherooo offline Verified User (8 months, 2 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 14 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (28 minutes after post)

you should go to the doctors babe.
i had the same problem.

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Dougie the Pisces offline Verified User (3 months, 1 week) Long Term User Shouts: 36 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (29 minutes after post)

I used to have the same Problem…. seriously…
Unfortunately… I still have the odd panic attack even now!
But not as much as I used to….
I found most of the time… that there were certain things I could do that would make me feel calmer!

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IDon'tEverQuit offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 116 #
Saint John, NB, CA | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (30 minutes after post)

what did you do to make you feel calmer???

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Help me with: I hate myself.
Sherooo offline Verified User (8 months, 2 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 14 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (30 minutes after post)

took valium.
started smoking.

oh, and i got rid of the things that were causing my attacks.

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Sherooo offline Verified User (8 months, 2 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 14 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (31 minutes after post)

um, not that im suggesting that. lol.

i also went running to calm down :)

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Dougie the Pisces offline Verified User (3 months, 1 week) Long Term User Shouts: 36 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (33 minutes after post)

well… sometimes it would be things that were personal to me….
By which I mean… I would get myself into something that I enjoyed doing….
It would quickly take my mind off what was bothering… usually something very diverting like picking up that good book I haven’t read recently….
Or putting on my favourite movie…

Other times… I would just say to myself NO! STOP!
And go outside…. nature has a way of taking the edge off… a walk… or I would just find something beautiful to stare at for a while…
Then I would talk myself into believing that things weren’t as bad as I thought they were!

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IDon'tEverQuit offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 116 #
Saint John, NB, CA | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (42 minutes after post)

OK…..I’ll try that. Thanks. I feel a bit better now.

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Help me with: I hate myself.
myles8 offline Verified User (7 months, 1 week) Long Term User Shouts: 15 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (42 minutes after post)

u sound very much like my girlfriend,
i did this course in work;

http://www.pacificinstitute.co.uk/pag…

i found i very helpful and recommended my gf to do it,
it seems to have helped her,
maybe it could help you,

remember, not everything is your fault so dont blame yourself,
take a breather when you feel stressed, clear your head and try and sort things out calmly

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IDon'tEverQuit offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 116 #
Saint John, NB, CA | 2 months, 4 weeks ago (43 minutes after post)

OK Thanks.

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Help me with: I hate myself.
Starbuck offline Verified User (2 months, 3 weeks) Shouts: 0 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 3 weeks ago (6 days, 23 hours after post)

keep your friends and family close they are there to make you feel better and to give you hugs and encouragement.
go out and do things that you enjoy with other people that like the same thing,
example. if you like ummm…snowboarding go snowboarding youll have fun and meet new people that enjoy the same thing,
meeting new people and making new friends always makes you feel good,
confidence is about feeling accepted and doing your own thing!!!

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okei! offline Verified User (6 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 34 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 2 weeks ago (1 week, 3 days after post)

confidence is something that starts from within, find it within you :p

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