Is it ok to live with low self esteem?

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neptunekh
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29 Dec 2015, 8:58 pm

I have had low self esteem at least 13 years of age. Is it OK to live with if I'm used to it?



kraftiekortie
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29 Dec 2015, 9:00 pm

Nope...I don't think it's okay---especially if the low self-esteem isn't warranted and true.



neptunekh
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29 Dec 2015, 9:18 pm

Dont say that. you don't know anything about me!



kraftiekortie
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29 Dec 2015, 9:24 pm

I said nothing about you. I was talking in general.



enz
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29 Dec 2015, 9:26 pm

You kinda did ask, and he answered you



kraftiekortie
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29 Dec 2015, 9:32 pm

Methinks I discern somebody who has nothing better to do.



probly.an.aspie
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29 Dec 2015, 9:52 pm

I think it would help to define "low self esteem." I personally dislike the term self-esteem because i don't really esteem myself. But (on good days) I do feel that me myself am a worthwhile being and am here for a reason. (although i don't always know exactly what reason or reasons). I prefer the term self-worth because of that. We are all worthwhile beings.

I feel that i am worth something, but i also want to be a modest person. No one likes someone who is constantly blowing their own horn. And bragging may come back to bite a person if they cannot live up to their boasting.

I just finished a book called "Ed Nolt's New Holland Baler" (written by Allan Shirk) about Ed Nolt, the man who invented the New Holland Baler (hay baler) which revolutionized farming in the 1940's and put the New Holland machine company...and New Holland, PA, on the map. Nolt invented a hay baler that, first self-propelled by engines refurbished from old cars or trucks, then powered by the PTO (power take-off shaft) from a tractor, could be used by one man to do a job that had taken 3 or 4 men to do. It solved the problem of what to do with the straw (the stalks left after the grain was harvested) left in the fields by the new machine called the combine harvester which replaced the threshing machine. It eliminated the need for hand-stacking hay (grasses harvested for animal feed) onto a wagon, and then unloading it by hand into the barn or haystack.

Never heard of him? That's because he wanted to keep a low profile. He was a brilliant man of the brand of "blacksmith engineers"...old school engineers who did not have college educations or engineering degrees. He quit school at age 15 because he had a terribly difficult time keeping up with his studies. But he invented solutions to problems that had the college educated engineers stumped.

The story was told of a man who was having trouble with his baler and a car stopped. The man inside the car said, "I think i can help you with that; let me get my tools." The man did not give his name, but the baler was fixed in short order. The farmer later did not believe when he was told that the man who fixed it was none other than Ed Nolt. He became a millionaire who told his wife, when she was debating over a negligible price difference in prospective new kitchen chairs, that, "it was ok, the red things going down the train tracks (the new balers being shipped out from the New Holland plant) would pay for her kitchen chairs." Even though money was no longer an issue--she could have had a whole new kitchen!--he did not allow wealth to change who he was.

I want to be the kind of person, who, if i became a millionaire--would be the kind of millionaire who would stop to fix somebody's broken hay baler and not tell them who i was. Ok, i can't fix anybody's hay baler but i guess you get the idea. Sorry this got so long. I just finished the book today and am still impressed by the story.


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probly.an.aspie
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29 Dec 2015, 9:59 pm

Reading the book also made me wonder if Ed was an aspie too. He would avoid social gatherings; his own family never went to the New Holland company picnics because he didn't want to meet people. He often went off by himself if he were in a large group because he was afraid if he talked too much people would think he "sounded dumb." He was more comfortable speaking his native Pennsylvania Dutch than English, but it was more than a language barrier. The insecurity contrasted with his brilliant mind throughout the book.


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"Them that don't know him don't like him,
and them that do sometimes don't know how to take him;
He ain't wrong, he's just different,
and his pride won't let him
do things to make you think he's right."
-Ed Bruce


kraftiekortie
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29 Dec 2015, 10:03 pm

I hope the OP benefits from the wisdom you imparted.

For some reason, though, I don't think this person will benefit.

It's possible this person just wanted to come on here to make fun of us.

I hope I am proven wrong.



probly.an.aspie
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29 Dec 2015, 10:40 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:
I hope the OP benefits from the wisdom you imparted.

For some reason, though, I don't think this person will benefit.

It's possible this person just wanted to come on here to make fun of us.

I hope I am proven wrong.


I thought of that...just got on one of my aspie monologues. Maybe someone will see it and get some good out of it if OP is just here to troll.


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"Them that don't know him don't like him,
and them that do sometimes don't know how to take him;
He ain't wrong, he's just different,
and his pride won't let him
do things to make you think he's right."
-Ed Bruce


kraftiekortie
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29 Dec 2015, 10:45 pm

I admire Ed Nolt types, too.



probly.an.aspie
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29 Dec 2015, 11:03 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:
I admire Ed Nolt types, too.


sent you a pm.



catalina
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29 Dec 2015, 11:21 pm

do you really don`t like yourself, or is it because of other people? sometimes people can make you feel unworthy, but it is because society values stuff that not always match with what is important to you.



neptunekh
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30 Dec 2015, 12:18 am

I'm actually suicidal.



cathylynn
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30 Dec 2015, 12:28 am

doesn't sound like the low self-esteem is working out too well, then. all humans have worth. it's learning to appreciate the worth that can be hard. if you're stateside, i recommend calling this hotline: 1-800-273-talk.



JakeASD
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30 Dec 2015, 5:24 am

Am I to correctly presume that you are not 91 years old?

Notwithstanding your alleged age, of course it's not satisfactory to live with low self-esteem. May I ask what you are specifically insecure about?


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