What to do when I feel so unloved?

My first answer got blitzed because I used a word in it that FA’s censor doesn’t like. I can’t recreate it, but here’s another attempt at an answer:

1. Tell yourself every morning and every evening (and whenever you think of it in between) how amazing you are and what’s awesome about you!

2. Tell other people - including your parents, sister, and boyfriend - what you appreciate about them (without asking for anything in return from them).

3. Reach out to your friends and strengthen your relationships with them. You can’t expect them to “fix” things for you, or to always be on call, or to know how to lift you up when you’re down. But they can be there sometimes when you need a listening ear, and you can do fun and happy things with them to take your mind off your troubles for awhile and feel less alone.

4. Think of or find a responsible adult in your life who you can talk to. This could be a teacher, counselor, therapist, nurse, coach, clergy, relative, friend’s parent, or anyone else in your community that you know well enough and can trust enough to begin to open up to them a little bit (it doesn’t have to be all at once) about your family troubles.

5. Find something else meaningful to you that you can cling to - something that won’t mind, and that’s not addictive, or dangerous, or unhealthy. Music (listening or playing), drawing, poetry, G!d, a puppy, dancing, knitting, volunteering, etc.

6. Make friends with yourself, because there’s a way in which each of us is ultimately alone (as well as a way in which we are not).

7. Don’t hide from your feelings of sadness and loneliness. It’s ok to feel them. Just don’t get sunk in them, as if they are all that is real about you. The truth is they are just feelings, and they will pass (even if it feels like a long time until they do) if you don’t try to shut them off and don’t wallow in them.

8. Try to let your own emotional pain teach you to have compassion. Other people hurt just like you do.

9. Have compassion for yourself, too. You don’t have to do everything right, or feel the right feelings, in order to be loveable and worthy of being loved.