Dear I hate me,
I am a Christian and I apologize if I offend you or anyone else with what I am going to say. I am also not a professional counselor.
I believe that God created you. He has a purpose for you. He loves you. Every time you hear your thoughts saying, "I hate myself", change that thought to a positive, something like "God loves me, and if God loves me, I can learn to love myself". Don't compare yourself to others. Try hard to find your good points-everyone has some good points.
When we hate ourselves, we can't expect ourselves to be able to love others - what happens is we subconsciously start pushing others away with our actions, because we feel we are not worthy of their love. You are worthy of being loved by God and worthy of being loved by yourself, and others.
When we feel loved, then we can love others. It's kind of like when someone ahead of you at McDonalds pays for your order-you can't believe it and want to do the same for the person behind you. When our love tank is so full, it just overflows to others.
Someone told me once, "Hurting people hurt others". We have to forgive those who have hurt us in the past, so that we can love others instead of continuing on with the pattern of hurting others.
What might be helpful too, is to talk to yourself like you would talk to your best friend-you would have compassion and show grace; so do the same to yourself-you are worth it.
Set goals- you will feel better about yourself when you reach a goal, but don't set the goals so high you can't reach them. Try to do something each day that you enjoy, like taking a walk, or reading a chapter in a book.
Pay attention to what your mind is telling you and "take every thought captive", -if it is a negative thought about yourself, change the bad thought and keep repeating the good thought to yourself--Change "I hate me" to "God loves me and made me and has a purpose for me" Forgive yourself for bad things in the past you haven't been able to forgive yourself for- you did the best you could with what you had - God forgives you.
Pay attention to what others say about you that is good and believe it.
Google "how to like yourself" - there is a lot of good information online.
I believe a godly Christian counselor would be good for you, but I know not everyone has the money or time for that.
Ask God to help you love yourself and others. Do good things for others-maybe that's what you are good at. What do you like to do-that could be an indication of what you are good at.
There will always be others who are better or worse at something than you are; those who are smarter, those who are not as smart as you, etc.
Try to accept yourself the way God made you; try to trust God that He made you a certain way for a good reason.
Take care of yourself.
My dear Katie Grace,
You are exactly right.
Your statement, "When our love tank is so full, it just overflows to others." is absolutely on target. When we have that infinite, perfect love of God in us, we are so perfectly happy. We can't help but crave to share this love with everyone we come in contact with. It's such a joy to be alive.
With God's love present in us, there is no longer anything to worry about. Money is no longer of significant importance because God provides all that we need.
I haven't always been like this. It was about a year ago that I returned to my church, the Catholic Church. I received Communion and God has been present in my heart ever since. It is the most wonderful feeling that a human being can experience. Try God. All else is nonsense.