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Building confidence 🌻

14 replies

QuaintMauveCrow · 20/10/2024 11:58

32 soon to be 33 mother of two
fresh out of an abusive relationship and I would love to hear the ways you have built your self confidence!

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Overtheatlantic · 20/10/2024 12:01

Feel the fear and do it anyway. Also, don’t underestimate how much people admire those with self confidence. Best wishes!

McCheck · 20/10/2024 12:06

Stand confidently in your body, that will influence what’s going on in your head. Google ‘Amy Cuddy power pose’ for an exercise.

PaininthePreferbial · 20/10/2024 12:07

By making my own choices.
By enjoying making my own choices.
By enjoying the calm not having an abuser living in my home.
By seeking help from Women's Aid and Rape Crisis. Don't underestimate how destructive being abused is.
By learning about the thinking behind the abuse and that it wasn't my fault and he would have done to to whoever he was with.
By taking myself just a bit out of my comfort zone a bit more every time.
By just being.

You'll get there @QuaintMauveCrow Flowers

QuaintMauveCrow · 20/10/2024 12:25

thank you for replying guys!
great advice 🙂
I miss having that confidence! Before I met my ex I felt vibrant, beautiful and settled in myself but now I can barely look in the mirror and feel like a shell of the women I worked hard to be…
im so angry at myself for letting this happen & I struggle so bad with feeling like it’s all my fault, I think that’s why I let it go on for so long!
im re starting therapy and seeking support so that is positive!
I want to stop going over in my head everything that has happened, accept it for what it was (abuse I did not deserve) and make positive changes in my life, I know I can do it but I’m so scared of feeling like this forever 😭

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McCheck · 20/10/2024 12:36

You can overcome this. it’s so easy to feel guilt or regret and self blame for things in our past. We all do it.

Can I ask you a couple of questions?

Imagine someone that’s not you but has your exact life experience, who is exactly like you, in exactly the same circumstances.

Would she have gotten together with this abuser? Would she have taken the exact same action you did? Would she have let it go on every time?

I think she would have. What do you think?

She was working with what she had at the time. There’s nothing she could have done differently with the tools she had at the time.

OhshitSharon · 20/10/2024 12:36

By refusing to allow negative self-talk because I realised how much I was holding myself back and pushing myself down with the way I 'spoke' to myself in my head. So everytime I caught myself thinking I couldn't do something or wasn't good enough for something I consciously pushed that thought away and overlaid it with something positive about me instead.

It took time and some willpower but eventually it became habit and I'm appalled now looking back at how nasty I was to myself, I was basically my own bully! And I've found it to be true that you get back what you put out into the world, the nicer I am to myself and the more respect I have for myself the more other people seem to respect me and treat me nicely, presumably because I give the impression I won't accept anything less these days.

I like the idea of being your own best friend, be everything to yourself you would be towards your closest mate in all the world. The more you treat yourself with that degree of love and care the more you realise your own worth and your confidence and security in yourself will grow.

PaininthePreferbial · 20/10/2024 12:58

im so angry at myself for letting this happen & I struggle so bad with feeling like it’s all my fault, I think that’s why I let it go on for so long!

You were groomed. He started off nice, testing you with red flags so tiny you either wouldn't see them or would think you must be mistaken because he's so nice. Once you are hooked, then he can start his business in earnest. That's when he starts blaming you, making you doubt yourself, persuading you that he's a victim. And he just keeps ramping that up until you are a shell of your former self. It's what they all do, those that are so special and wonderful - the reality is they know they are so weak and insignificant they need to bring you down to make themselve feel better. It is not your fault, you didn't have a choice, he groomed you into taking what he gave out. You are out now, that's the main thing Flowers

I want to stop going over in my head everything that has happened, accept it for what it was (abuse I did not deserve) and make positive changes in my life, I know I can do it but I’m so scared of feeling like this forever

It would be so good if the end of an abusive relationship was just "Right, that's that" but it's not. It takes a lot of healing from. They have done a lot of work on destroying you mentally and quite possibly physically (even if he wasn't physically abusive with you your body might be affected by what he put your brain through). All the things you thought were true were lies, you've had a whole lot of headfuckery for however long, you need to work through that to tidy it up in your head and box it up to eventually be covered in dust and cobwebs.

You could try writing down these thoughts when they come into your head. I've got pages and pages of rantings from the early days, letters to him (that I will NEVER send), it can be good to get it out of your head and onto paper. Also, if you look back at them further down the line you'll see how far you've come and probably not even recognise who you are today.

Don't be in such a rush to move on that you ignore tidying up the remnants of dicky's treatment of you. Your therapy should help, hopefully your therapist will have a good understanding of abuse and the damage it can cause. Also look up Dr Ramani on YouTube.

And in between do little things that bring you pleasure - go out and collect pretty leaves, take photos of the autumn colours, sunlight and stormy skies, re-arrange the cushions, a nice treat for your evening meal.

QuaintMauveCrow · 20/10/2024 19:09

Thank you all for your amazing words! You have no idea how much they have helped me today 💐

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PaininthePreferbial · 25/10/2024 12:29

How are you doing @QuaintMauveCrow ?

QuaintMauveCrow · 25/10/2024 18:47

Hello @PaininthePreferbial thank you for checking in with me!
I am really struggling this evening, everything he said and did is weighing heavy on my mind particularly the insults about my body. He would send photos of other women (nudes) and say that he was sleeping with them and how nice there bodies were compared to mine (in great detail) he did this when I would try to break up with him. Afterwards he would tell me that he got the photos from google and that I was over reacting, I will never know the truth about so many things.
i feel overwhelmed with the reality of everything that happened but im telling myself that the feeling will pass, not make any contact with him and that I may feel like sh*t now but IT WILL PASS. I don’t want to spend
My time ruminating on the thought of him with all these beautiful women who he will treat better then me because in his words they deserve it and I don’t ugh.
i have actually been doing really well! Being tired doesn’t help (teething 8 month old who has never slept well 😂)
apologies for off loading all of that! And thank you again for checking on me!

on a positive note I presented my first ever uni assignment 😊 fingers crossed it passed!

hope you are well too? 💐

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madroid · 25/10/2024 19:29

Anyone who says they will treat someone better because they think they are better looking is by definition a total waste of space.

It's a really judgemental, mean and nasty way to think about people. It's what's inside that counts, whether they are a kind and decent person.

By the way, you sound a million miles too lovely to waste your space with that tosser. I feel sorry for his next victim because abusive people rarely change.

PaininthePreferbial · 26/10/2024 10:36

Fingers crossed for your uni assignment @QuaintMauveCrow , getting that finished in itself is an achievement with the wee one and all you have going on. Well done 🙂

I can tell you now to stop worrying about the truth of what this 'man' has told you. He lies to you to lower your self esteem. Those lies are also an attempt to feel better about himself but he knows they are lies so it doesn't work. That is the long and the short of it. There may have been a truth in some of his words - what he wanted for tea for example - but on the whole these insignificant little men who have to behave like that are liars, sometimes good ones, sometimes not.

His insulting your body is purely about lowering your self esteem too, because he feels you are better than him, in every way. That may sound unbelievable too but why else would he do it? The fact he said you were overreacting when you raised concerns is just him telling you to shut up - he got the reaction he wanted. The fact he did it when you were trying to break up with him - punishment.

Even if he is with any other beautiful women, he will be treating them the same, because he feels inferior to them.

Keep up the good work, you will get there, it will pass, and best of luck for your assignment and whole course Flowers

Unexpectedlysinglemum · 26/10/2024 14:39

Realising it was abuse and not all your fault is the most powerful first step!

QuaintMauveCrow · 26/10/2024 19:44

@PaininthePreferbial you are an angel, I made it through the day and I’m taking that as a win! Fingers crossed for some sleep tonight!
your advice is so helpful, it makes me sad to think that you have possibly been through something similar 😔
@madroid thank you & you are definitely right abusers rarely change and I too already feel sorry for the next person he abuses xx
@Unexpectedlysinglemum it’s so hard to accept but you are so right & I know in my heart I will never let myself be treated like that again 💐

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