SOCIAL MEDIA: THE KILLER OF SELF ESTEEM?

My whole life I've been a confident girl, up until a couple years ago. I developed some body issues and pretty much my entire life went to shit at once. I (never said these words before) hated myself, more particularly my body. I thought I was too skinny to ever be considered hot and I was extremely self conscious about every hair that would grow anywhere on my body besides my head. Thankfully, I got through the self hate and learned to how love myself.

I stopped comparing myself to other girls and it got better, I learned to love my 'chicken legs' and people grabbing at my wrist to see if their hand would fit all the way around it became second nature. The people saying I looked Anorexic had zero idea how much I actually ate and how hard I tried to put weight on, they didn't know they were making the issue worse (If I was actually Anorexic the last thing that would help would be people telling me how ugly I look, like how does no one understand that) People used to tell me "why do you hate your body, I would die to look like you", The ironic thing is, I would have died to look like them. Anyways, I started to ignore the 'haters' and a year later started gaining weight naturally. When this happened I started to really fall in love with my body again. Even if I was still pretty skinny, I was finally happy with how I looked. Don't get me wrong, I still have some body issues to this day, we all have insecurities, but I don't hate myself and that's the difference.

So many girls and boys struggle with self esteem issues and honestly I believe most of those problems come from social media. On social media, we put the best image of ourselves up for the world to see. We only show the highlights. It sets such a false example for young women and men.
I was comparing myself to girls from my own school, wondering how their noses curved so perfectly, without a bump. How their skin always looked perfect, with no zits in sight.  How their bodies looked so thin yet so curvy. It was so unhealthy for me to compare myself to these girls and I knew it, so I made a conscience effort to stop. I focused on myself and what I was passionate about, and my mind set changed. Instead of calling myself ugly or boney, I told myself I was beautiful, until I believed it.

I hear from so many people that they hate themselves, and it honestly breaks my heart. I promise you, the person reading this shitty blog, you are beautiful. I don't need to see you to know. I know this is so cheesy but self love is so so so important. If you want to change then you will, don't sit around and pity yourself. Make an effort to tell yourself that you are beautiful, handsome, sexy, funny, kind, intelligent, caring, loving and amazing, tell yourself everyday until you believe it. Everyone around you sees you as those things, its time you start seeing yourself like that.

Tip: Don't shit talk yourself, If you make a mistake don't call yourself stupid or a loser, just recognise that you made a mistake and fix it. Same goes for any other situation where you would talk down on yourself

*Social media is like a drug to some people, if you can't help but look at other girls/guys and compare yourself, unfollow / unfriend that person. Your mental health is more important than a follower on an app.

If you want to talk about body issues, ask a question or get advice DM me on instagram @Mikalatheo or use the contact form in the sidebar.

Thanks for reading, Until next time

- Mikala