How to forgive yourself for your mistakes

I constantly replay every mistake I’ve ever made in my head. Doesn’t matter how old. And I just feel like the worst person and if only people knew these things they’d think I’m an awful person.. I wouldn’t be accepted, wouldn’t have a job, my life would be over. How do I go out into the world and take up space without feeling like a fraud? I don’t want to trick people into thinking I’m a good person, I want to truly be a good person. But I’m weighed down by every mistake I’ve ever made.

Anon>:

Date posted: 1y ago

I understand. I went through the same thing. Everyone makes mistakes, don't beat yourself up !! The fact that you look at your mistakes with cringe proves that you've grown. Just learn to love yourself and practice self care

BigGyro09

Date posted: 1y ago

I'm in the exact same boat. I feel worse than just a fraud. I feel like a genuinely bad person. I feel like a criminal sometimes. A creep. An evil. My life was so much better, so much happier, so much carefree until my addiction came in and ruined EVERYTHING. It made me depressed, it made me mean to people, it made me objectify people, it made me escalate to awful things outside my morals, it made me hate myself, and I wouldn't be surprised if it played a role in giving me this horrible mental disorder. It quite literally ruined my whole life and I don't see a way out right now. Loving myself and practicing self care just seems unwarranted and impossible when I've done so many regrettable things because of this one stupid thing

sick&tired

Date posted: 1y ago

@BigGip09 Thank you for sharing and I’m sorry you’re struggling too. 😔 We simply can’t waste our lives away dwelling on the past, on everything we said or did wrong..it’s a huge disservice. We just can’t change the past. And beating ourselves up about it won’t make us better people. If we really want to improve, we can learn from our mistakes and make better choices. The fact that you can acknowledge areas of improvement is already a sign of growth! Now that we know better, now that we have the right tools (or maybe we’re still working on them), we can do things differently. That’s how we take our power back and decide who we’ll become. And guess what? We’re still going to make lots of mistakes in our future. It’s guaranteed. But we’ll grow from them too. I’m holding hope for you. Be well my friend. Remember you deserve to be here — to be an imperfect human, to learn and grow, to make mistakes, and still make this life beautiful! ❤️ also addiction is a disease you were unwell. Please have compassion with yourself.

paulinacoffin

Date posted: 1y ago

@sick&tired wonderfully said ❤️❤️

BigGyro09

Date posted: 1y ago

@sick&tired Thank you. From all that what you've written, you sound like an amazing person that truly cares for other people and want what's best for others. I'm sorry that OCD holds you to this standard of negative thinking for the past. Recently, I just found Instagram comments that I left 4 years ago. They were very cringe, disrespectful, and what I consider out of line. For a little bit, I tried to delete those old comments I left under posts but there were too many. After a while I just decided to leave it after backing out by accident. That was me at a different time. That was me at a different mentality and I've grown from that. I'm not the same person I was when I was 17 and I'm not the same person I was when I was 15. I'm just doing my best to aim for who I wanna be now and I have a good idea of what that is. Thank you for writing this. It helps me see things with a clearer perspective. I'm just so blinded by distorted thinking and magnified observations.

Cecil.321

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

@sick&tired - Beautifully said!

Cecil.321

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

@BigGip09 - You are not defined by your past. It is never too late to be who you want to be!

BigGyro09

Date posted: 1y ago

@Cecil.321 I hope so. Right now I don't see it. I just keep seeing worse case scenarios where things just go absolutely bad and I won't be forgiven because of what this addiction put me through. I'm trying to let the thoughts just flow

LizOCD3

Date posted: 18w ago

i made some past mistakes that i obsess over

I have made multiple mistakes in my past that lead me to believe im a bad person. thinking about them often sends me into a panic attack. i cant help but feel i need to be punished. i hate this feeling, what should i do?

Infectedpick...

Date posted: 11w ago

Everyday is a constant cycle of regret and misery

Everyday I wake up, all my mind makes me think of is the stuff I’ve done in the past, like all day I’m in a constant cycle of judging who I used to be and it hurts so so much. I wish I never thought to do those things, I wish I had been more mature than how I was before, it’s really lowering my self worth and I don’t think I’ve ever felt this miserable before, like last summer was the worst because I was dealing with this shit, I about almost ended my life over it, and I thought it would get better, which it did, but it didn’t last but for a while. As soon as it became 2025 I was going through it again, having constant cycles of “I’m a good person” to “I’m the worst person imaginable” and I’m so sick of it because I just want to feel like the good person l like to imagine myself to be, but I can’t because of shit I did in the past that I obsess over. I’ve cried and screamed so much over it and it seems like it will never leave me.

lexfe98

Date posted: 7w ago

fear of being a bad person because of past events

I look back at various past events in my life where I said or did things that I feel really guilty, disgusted, and ashamed about. I replay them in my head for hours. I feel anxious about crossing paths with people that I've hurt or upset in the past or who perceive me badly, to the point that I will avoid going out in public as much as possible. I go out for work, errands, appointments, and occasionally to eat (even though those all give me a lot of anxiety), but I avoid community events where people might recognize me and I tend to isolate myself. The only people I see regularly are my boyfriend, my parents, and my coworkers. I live in a small community and I'm worried about people confronting me publicly and proving what a bad person I must be.

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How to forgive yourself for your mistakes

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