When being yourself isn't enough.

I changed who I was. The person who I was 10 years ago has been long dead. He died, and I replaced him. I was driven to near insanity, stared at the eyes of madness, and walked away from it. When I did that, I came away a different person, and its effects have slowly set in over the course of 6 or so years. I'm a lot more confident, less anti social, yet more introverted, more... complete. This, along with refining my tastes, has allowed me to date, although I've never had a full on relationship or had sex. That doesn't bother me overly. I've become more independent and livable without another, which makes it easier for women to approach me. So when you being yourself isnt enough, change who you are. Not in a backwards way, but plant your feet, expand your horizons and find something you dislike about yourself and work to change it.

I just find it better when people be themselves and not who they are not. Don't be fake. Don't pretend to be something you're not... nothing worse than a fake

I just want to say thank you to those who left positive feedback. One thing I've noticed on this site is that as soon as somebody post a personal message in the forums expressing their feelings, most pepole assumes that they want pity, hops on a soap box, and talks down to the person. I respect anyone who shows empathy, sympathy or support because those are the ones in tune, and confident with their and others emotions. Much respect.

Hey everyone hits rough patches in life. Places like this can remind us that we aren't the only ones going through something. We never go it alone. If an idiot like me can whether these kinda storms, a guy like you will most certainly be a-ok.

Just keep working out. For me, no one liked it when I was fat. It is better to be feared than to be loved. Now when I work out I imagine putting my jackboots on the throats of those who rejected me. Just kidding.

It can be hard some people can be very narrow minded and are not always used to really different or unique people so they are rude or mean to them or maybe even just completely ignore them. It's difficult yes, but try to surround yourself with good people and friends. Remember you can't be friends with everyone and a small group of friends can be very tight and supportive.

I got into an argument once about anime before. When it was all over, EVERYTHING I apparently said made it worse. Example of such thing is below (this was on a Minecraft server at the time). Person 1: Ok, it's all over now. Let's all calm down and actually chat nice. Person 2: No need to worry about this anymore. Right, everyone? Person 1: Right. So what is everyone doing right now? Me: Just mining and punching trees. Person 1 and 2: WTF OtakuJT! Shut up! You keep making it worse. >:l *OtakuJT has left the server* That's not exactly how they said it (they had grammatical issues in their sentences), but you get the idea.

I think if you're happy with yourself then sure, there's no reason to change who you are. But if you aren't happy being you, should "be yourself" be something that you cling to? Shouldn't you want to strive to improve or alter yourself if it's your own personality traits or lifestyle that's holding you back? I personally think that who you are is a work in progress. I don't even feel like the same person from last week much less from 10, 20 years ago (a soul crushing organic test can do that to a person....). I think people are much more dynamic than static when it comes to who we are. We're always evolving even if it's only in little tiny details. I don't think it makes a person "fake", we're all just trying to find ourselves in the end. Anyways, what I'm getting at is to just do what makes you happy. No matter if it's to change yourself in whatever way or to stay the course, if you will.

I wholeheartedly agree with xueli. If you just happy being the same yourself that you have always been all the time then you are living a stagnant unfulfilling life. I also think that there are many yourselves. Myself at school is different than myself at work or home and I accept all of those faces as my true self. I think that in the end it is all about which yourself you are comfortable presenting to those around you. If you are comfortable being yourself and they don't accept you for it, then there is inherent differing values that you should try to understand. If you are uncomfortable being yourself, then there is something wrong with the yourself you chose for that location and time. It takes active acknowledgement from both parties to understand and accept "yourself". If they don't accept that and you feel bad about it, then move on. You probably don't understand their values if you somehow managed to push them away and they are feeling just as awkward.