Question : I feel as if everyone takes me for granted. I feel as if I make myself so open that everyone takes me casually and never values my opinion and this happens only with close friends. I feel as if I am extremely undervalued.
Teentalker , 14-year-old
Dear Teentalker,
Thank you for reaching out and sharing your concerns.
Feeling like your opinion does not matter can hurt a great deal particularly when you experience this with close friends.
Here are a few suggestions that could potentially help you get through this:
1. Get to know yourself better: You might want to get started by working on activities such as ’20 things I love about myself’,’The MPS Process’, ‘Boost yor self-esteem’ and ‘Values Worksheet’. You can access the tools by clicking on the toolbox and selecting the ‘tools’ option.
2. Remember, what you choose to become in life depends on what you say to yourself. So, make sure the self-talk is positive. Please work on the tools ‘Automatic Thoughts’ and ‘You are so worth it’ to know more.
3. Choose your friends wisely: Quality of friendship is more important than the number of friends you have, so make sure you surround yourself with those who truly love you for who you are and encourage you to become the best version of yourself. If no one in your current friend circle is that nice, then keep them at an arm’s length distance. When your value system is similar to that of your friends only then you will feel truly close and connected.
4. Be assertive: Stand up for what you believe in and put your point of view across accordingly. Please visit the teentalk website and under articles select ‘peer pressure’ to learn more. You can also watch the expert speak video on ‘ 5 tips to be assertive’ by clicking on the videos tab.
5. Visualize: Imagine what would your ideal life look like and start working towards those goals. You can also use the tool ‘SMART goals’ to help you in the process.
Hope this helps, should you have any other query do connect online for chat between 11am-8pm or drop us an offline message.
Best regards,
Expert Teentalkindia