Have you ever went past a mirror without trying to look at it? You try to duck or hid from the mirror?Or maybe you make sure the lighting is the "right" lighting, so you don't have to see your every flaw? Have you ever felt so bad about yourself that the last thing that you want to look at is a mirror.

The mirror shows everything that you lie to yourself about. It shows things that you want to hide, that you want to cover up. You have this image in your mind of what you want to look like, or what you may look like, but when you look at the mirror, the mirror will prove to you time after time that your mind is playing games on you. That what you see in the mirror is what you really look like, it's not made up like Instagram or Snap-chat filters.

It may be because you have low self-esteem and don't love yourself as much as you should. Instead of looking at yourself in the mirror to see how beautiful you are, you try to ditch mirrors any possible time. If there is a mirror, you make sure the light is off. Why? Because you don't want to look at yourself. Why should you, when you already feel ugly and horrible about yourself. And you wonder why should you look at yourself when no one else wants to look at you anyways because you aren't good enough.

Having low self-esteem is hard. People may look at you and see a totally different person than what you see. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you may turn away every time. You despise looking at your real self, looking at every flaw you have. You may be insecure as it is, and having a mirror to show even more of your insecurities is even harder.

You want to love yourself, but every flaw makes you hate yourself even more. You constantly are bombarded with words that make you feel unworthy. People don't understand what words can do to a person. There are times where you may wish you weren't here anymore because of the words people use. I mean yes, sometimes they are joking, but just because you joke around doesn't make it okay. Words cut into the skin. Hearing that you're ugly, fat, too skinny, annoying, dumb, or not good enough, it cuts deep. Sure you can shake it off, not let it get to you, but sometimes it just hurts and you just want to go to your bedroom, turn off all the lights, go under the covers in your bed and just cry. You let the words of others become who you are. You let those words dictate your every fiber you have left.

If someone calls you ugly, then you may start to believe you must be ugly, especially if you have never been in a relationship. If someone calls you fat then you may believe you are and may start developing unhealthy habits, like not eating, just because one person, that you care about, says one negative word. And the list goes on.

Your self-esteem becomes low and and everyday when you could love yourself , you start to hate yourself. Some people try to help out saying positive words, but it doesn't help because that one person who said that one negative word has consumed any positive feedback you have ever received. That person who called you ugly, fat, too skinny, dumb, and etc... you will never forget those words, you will never forget what they said to you from a week ago, a year ago, or a decade ago. Words linger inside forever. And the question is how you rise above it? How does someone gain confidence in themselves when they are struggling with loving themselves?