BPDRecovery.com: Forums

I was in crisis-mode this morning, ready to skip my group therapy. I convinced myself that instead of staying home where I would ruminate about problems that were out of my control, I would go to the therapy where I knew I needed to for my sake assert myself - which I did...! A group member congratulated me on my improvement, noting a big change from when I started last week. Compliments always make me anxious because I feel like I don't deserve them. At that point I was ready to go off into rapid-fire hypertalk (which in the past has covered up my true feelings, gotten me through socially, but leaves an inauthentic image of myself), but I managed to muster up will to just sit with the compliment. I think I can start to appreciate compliments as words of encouragement.

Good job self-validating for going outside your comfort zone and making the healthier choice two times! You seem very self-aware.

Compliments used to be hard for me too. If someone said I did something well, i would point out all the faults I saw in my performance. Then a teacher told me how rud ethat was, how it invalidated the others veiwpoint. I now just say Thank you. I'm happy you discovered this on your own.