Alex's Answer

Hi, welcome to Ask Alex. 

Thank you for your question and thank you for making contact with us.  

You have been so brave to reach out to us and it sounds like things are difficult for you right now with how you are feeling about yourself. 

You say that you want to like yourself, however you feel ashamed of yourself and binge eat until you feel sick and throw up. It is not easy dealing with these situations, but we would like you to know there is support available and you have a right to access support and get help. Do you have a trusted adult that you feel you could talk to about what is going on for you at the moment? This could be a parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent, coach, or youth worker. Adults can help deal with these situations for you. 

You have asked the question how can I love myself? It is important to love who you are, and you deserve to do this, self-confidence means feeling good about yourself, believing in your abilities, and believing in your worth and value as a person.  

People can struggle with self-confidence when they do not feel they are good enough, perhaps try some of these tips: 

• Trying to think more positively, try to replace negative feelings about yourself with a positive belief in who you are and what you can do.  
• Think of at least one good thing about yourself that other people like that makes you feel good, it could be something like being trustworthy, having a good sense of humour or something you are good at in school or at home. 
• Plan something positive every day, something that you can look forward to and that gives you a sense of achievement, it could be going for a walk, doing art, or helping another person.  

There is information on the Childline website and advice on the section titled “info & advice” in here you will find information on “how I feel,” you can access this by going to www.childline.ie . Other websites that you may find helpful are www.spunout.e and www.bodywhys.ie.  

If you would like to chat with someone further then you can contact Childline by phone on  1800 66 66 66, or through our web chat on www.childline.ie. You can start a chat by clicking on the orange tab on the right-hand side of your screen. Childline is here for you anytime and we are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is a free and confidential service. Childline is non-judgemental, and will not tell you what to do instead Childline can help you explore what options may be available to you.   

Thank you for your question and I hope that you find some of the information above useful.    

Take care of yourself, 

Alex