Originally Posted by pdm22

A while back I read this article about self esteem vs self respect, but I can’t seem to find the specific one I’m thinking of. But they talked about how self respect is about what you do/ your actions, and if you focus on that, you will naturally have self esteem because you are trying to be a good person and do the right thing.

They did talk about that self esteem for no reason thing, like if you’re being an a**hole, yet everyone is telling you how wonderful you are, or you’re telling yourself how wonderful you are, and how just creates a headache for everyone. A**holes do actually usually have high self esteem, as do criminals (despite what they thought they were going to find when they first started doing studies on that!).

No clue about your person, but it sounds to me like you are respecting yourself by doing what’s right for you and working on your own stuff. I think if you have dignity and self respect, and good boundaries, you can create distance from the people who aren’t treating you well, and also it becomes easier to not let unhealthy people in to begin with. Sounds to me like you are on a good path .