My family tell me I am ugly
I have very low self-esteem. I have grown up thinking I am ugly, as that is what my family have always told me. I am now a grown woman and someone told me I look lovely the other day. I burst into tears and got very agressive with the person. They could not understand why I go so cross when they were just trying to pay me a compliment.
I have no idea how to take any form of compliment and am constantly telling my daughter she is beautiful but cannot believe anyone would think I was. Although my husband is always telling me I am.
I know I will never pass this onto my daughter, but I also worry that I will pass my self conscious loathing of myself onto her without really realising I am doing it.
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I am always tearful
I am 17 and love my mother both as a mum and a best friend. However her lack of self esteem and confidence dominates her life. She gets tearful about work because people are not very nice and her caring, eager to please nature means she is downtrodden and she never gets any respect. She would never dream of standing up for herself and is always apologising for everything. She says I am the only person who understands her which is lovely but it also worries me as we are very similar. I am just about to go to university and feel as if I am letting her down by going. My older sister left because she said she needed to get away. My mum is strong in that she has survived a traumatic childhood, anorexia and an unhappy marriage. However I worry I will become her.