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Do you love yourself?

I don't really understand the concept, how can you love yourself? To me love is about a relationship, how you care for someone who cares for you, and I can't fathom how to feel something like that for myself. I neither love nor hate myself, I just am.
 
Since I don't really understand the concept of love very much (and in particular love between or among human beings), how could I?
 
I struggle with it. At the moment I feel like I don't, I rub people the wrong way and I wish I could stop. It sounds stupid, but it's like a weight I carry around. I'm working on it though, once I figure out how to stop blaming myself for everything.
 
Voltaic said:
I don't love, let alone like myself.
I wish I did.

Edit: Let me rephrase. Do you love, or hate yourself?
Click to expand...

It's fluctuating. At times, I either don't think about it or maybe like myself a bit. Most of the time, I simply hate myself.
 
What would I say? sometimes I am proud to be myself, i do generally have a lot more fun when I am having fun than others. I like my expertise in certain areas due to obsessions over years, and have been refining critical thought as a therapy for a couple of years that transfer over to a lot of other areas in life. but all the good stuff gets turned into the bad. What do I see in myself, Heaps of potential, I truly believe I have a mind capable of achieving great things. What else do I see? waisted potential. I have this powerhouse in my head, but lack the power to control it. I can't devote myself to anything that takes effort, minutes amount of stress breaks me, I'm lazy, fearful of failure, fearful of social stigma, and fearful of myself; rightfully so. I can do almost anything, yet I sit here, unemployed, not finished school, and unmoving from my bed.

The same reasons I love myself, are the same reasons I don't just hate, but despise myself. I won't love any random person, just because, and likewise, just because I am me, doesn't mean that I am automatically worthy of my own love. Maybe Because I know myself better than anyone, but so far, I seem to be the most hateable person I know.
 
It depends on the day. Whenever I write something I'm proud of or do well on an assignment or test, I get very confident, even cocky sometimes.

Other times, I hate myself. I ruminate over everything wrong I ever did or thought, which leads me into a thought spiral on how no one will ever love me and that I'm worthless and awful.

Of course when I am thinking rationally, I know that I am neither the most talented person in the world nor a piece of worthless scum. I have a mix of good and bad traits, strengths and weaknesses, because I am a person just like everyone else.
 
InfinityRose said:
It depends on the day. Whenever I write something I'm proud of or do well on an assignment or test, I get very confident, even cocky sometimes.

Other times, I hate myself. I ruminate over everything wrong I ever did or thought, which leads me into a thought spiral on how no one will ever love me and that I'm worthless and awful.

Of course when I am thinking rationally, I know that I am neither the most talented person in the world nor a piece of worthless scum. I have a mix of good and bad traits, strengths and weaknesses, because I am a person just like everyone else.
Click to expand...
This, this is just about me in a nutshell, though with a touch more self-deprecation (getting cocky is something I actively avoid, so much so sometimes that it gets a bit out of hand sometimes).
Also, if loving "yourself" counts liking your physical traits, then I'd very much like to trade in my body for something else. Something closer to this account's namesake, because I'd like to be albino, maybe someone intersex (I think Accelerator might actually be intersex, given that apparently his powers caused his hormones to go kinda wacky, something about them not working right or something).
 
I have to agree with some other posters...I don't think of myself in terms of love or hate. I'm not really sure why. I have traits I like or don't like about myself, some I try to fix if they bother me enough, others I leave alone if they don't bother me. But an overall feeling of emotion one way or the other...there just isn't one. Wish I could say the same about how I feel about those around me though.
 
What does it even mean to love yourself? Pride or narcissism? I don't get it, as if 'loving yourself' somehow cures depression or an anxiety disorder? There are a lot of cliche phrases that I hate, 'just be yourself' is another bad one. Useless advice like this actually makes me feel worse.
 
Absolutely not. I never have. Everybody I've known has hated me, except for my mother and her parents (the latter two have been dead for a decade), so they couldn't all be wrong. I contribute absolutely nothing to the world and take much, the archetypal useless eater. I will be glad to finally be dead someday, I wish I could kill myself but I can't seem to override the "reptilian brain" survival instinct. At least I never bred, mainly because women thought I was stupid and ugly.
 
I think this question has two major paths.

The most common is the internal aspect - accepting yourself, being comfortable in your own skin, etc. There is no shortage of things I'd like to improve or fix, but I guess I am comfortable with most of my interests and values, tho most find them boring.

The other way to consider this question might be external. This is an exercise I sometimes do to try to figure out why people respond to me the way they do: if I met a copy of myself, would I like him? Would I want to hang out with him or work with him? Live with him? What would I really see? These evaluations are much less favorable, but pondering the reasons why can be useful.
 
Yes, I love myself. I believe that if you do not love yourself, you can not truly love someone else or be happy. I certainly love my wife and family, who make me very happy.
 
No, and I have sympathy for those that do love me or have loved me in the past because it is/was hell for them.
 
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