According to a survey conducted in 2012-2016, around 15,000 students in the UK have suffered declining mental health, just in the first year of higher education. These statistics show that the high pressure of academics can create feelings of self-hatred among university students.
Most mental health problems begin with self-hatred. Self-hatred can cause anxiety, depression and other related disorders amongst individuals. This prevents students from performing well in their academics, which eventually leads to them dropping out of school altogether. If your resentment for the self is greatly affecting your daily life, it is essential to see a mental health professional immediately.
Self-hatred can also be worked on. If you feel that you are harsh towards yourself, you can work towards changing this habit. Resentment towards oneself at the stage of the university can greatly impact the future. Keeping this in mind, you must follow the ensuing steps the next time you have self-deprecating thoughts:
Think about the best thing you have done for someone
Hating yourself is easy because society has shaped you to criticise yourself constantly. There are a lot of expectations- both stated and unstated, placed on you from the moment you are born. You have to be a good person, you have to get high grades, and you have to be successful. However, all of these requirements are extremely subjective. So, when you don’t meet the criteria of ‘successful’ or ’good’, that you have built for yourself, you start hating yourself continuously.
On the contrary, when you advise someone who is caught in the same dilemma, you may talk about their best qualities. Therefore, when you begin bashing yourself for not performing well in a certain area of your life, you can think about an event where you consoled a friend or a loved one when they were feeling down. You may call this a ‘positive aura,’ something you must pat your back for.
Extend the positive aura to yourself
Often the positivity that we emanate towards people fails to reach us because we do not treat ourselves the same way. This is why when you are experiencing negative thoughts, you must give yourself the same comfort that you give to a friend. Think about your situation from a third-person’s perspective. Write down the advice you would give to a friend in your situation. Next, use that advice to counter negative thoughts.
What makes you resent yourself?
Ignoring the things you do not like about yourself can cause more harm than good. This is why you must not shy away from the thoughts but face them head-on. Write down the weaknesses or flaws that you find in yourself and decide to accept them one by one. If there is a bad habit that you think needs to be changed, you must work on it regularly. This way, you can advance towards growth and self-development.
Engage in self-love activities
Resentment occurs when you do not spend enough time with the positive version of yourself. Think of this as a relationship with your roommate. If your roommate is not a nice person, living with them would probably drive you crazy. However, if your roommate is also your best friend, you would feel overjoyed.
Similarly, if you spend more time with yourself to perform the tasks you enjoy, you can learn to love yourself more. However, if you are always stressed and have negative thoughts, your self-hatred is bound to increase. As a result, you can increase the frequency of activities that require self-love. For instance, you can hire a Law Essay service, take yoga classes, or do the things that can make you feel more relaxed. This will make you love yourself more.
Healing from self-hatred requires a lot of time so, you shouldn’t quit the process in between. Just be patient and keep replacing negative thoughts with positive ones!
