What can I do to help with my struggle of feeling as if I have no worth or true value?

As a child my father was very harsh towards me. He spoke roughly to me. I felt bullied by him. My mother never stood up for me or herself, she just let him run all over us. As an adult, I struggle with speaking up for myself. I have terrible coping skills. I hold things in and blow up or I isolate myself and can come off unstable. I'm usually single and struggle to make emotional connections or friendships. I'm beautiful on the outside. I have the knowledge that I hold worth, but deep down I struggle with actually believing it and it shows up in the way I treat myself and how I allow others to treat me.
Asked by Riley
Answered
05/15/2022

Thank you for reaching out to BetterHelp for assistance. I look forward to assisting you. 

Sounds like you would like to know what you can do to help yourself with your struggle of feeling you have no worth or true value?  Sounds like you had some abuse and trauma as a child and growing up. Sounds like your father mistreated you. I am so sorry to hear this.  Sounds like he was a bully and not very nice and your mother did not protect you or prevent him from abusing you. She sounds like she was very passive.  Sounds like this has caused some self esteem issues with you and you do not have good coping skills and allow people to not treat you well. 

I would suggest you apply some coping skills with cognitive behavioral therapy/ CBT.  This type of therapy works on you challenging your thoughts and beliefs to get the best possible outcome for yourself. I would suggest you apply the ABC Model coping skill for CBT.  A= the activating event,  B= your thoughts and beliefs, C= the outcome.  Right now your A or activating event is the trauma from your childhood and father, Your B or thoughts and beliefs would be negative thinking, your C or outcome would be low self esteem, passive communication, depression. You do not want to be depressed or have low self esteem do you?  You need to challenge those negative thoughts about how your father treated you.  You need to tell yourself that you can not control what your father did or how he  behaved and treated you but you can control how you react to what he did. You can start to kick him out of your head. As long as he is renting space in your head, he still has control over you. You need to challenge your thoughts and tell yourself that your father had emotional problems and issues and did not treat you well. You need to tell yourself that you are a good person and deserve to love yourself and be loved by others. You need to start putting your oxygen mask on and take good care of yourself. You need to do positive coping skills for yourself and good self care. You need to hope your father gets help, but kick him out of your head. You need to do what you know is the right thing to do. Please do not continue to give your father power and control.  Please kick him out of your head and start loving yourself and doing good things for yourself.

Remember baby steps toward your goals of good self care.

I hope this helped you some?  I wish you the very best and hope to hear from you soon.