People are almost entirely self-serving

Happy Brexit and a wonderful new life outside of the EU.

And a Happy Diwali to the one billion Indians who’ll emigrate to the UK as part of a new post-EU trade deal with India

Perhaps you need to start filtering out some of the bile and actively seek out things that challenge your current perceptions and make you happy.

 

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I don't think you ever fully recover from terrible parenting. Not completely. When parents have failed to encourage the development of their child's self-worth, have perhaps even actively blighted it, it leaves a permanent scar that no amount of subsequent work will remove. It's like slapping concealer on a spot: the impression is still there, if you look closely enough in the right light, even when you've tried to mask the rawness.

Great post, thank you for your contribution Hecate.

Your point about filtering out bile, and other negativity from people; I think is very much linked to the second part of your post that I quoted above. When we feel a sense of lack, that we're missing something inside (perhaps as a result of not feeling loved, cherished, valued as a child), we'll often seek to fill that hole with something that is outside of ourselves (for example, love, friendship or appreciation from other people). As a result of this "looking outside for something that's missing inside", we're more inclined to accept all kinds of crap from people, in the hope that they'll love, cherish, accept, be friends with us. All of which is only going to make us feel worse, not better.