12 Steps to Overcoming Bitterness
By: Tommaso Meli
Anger involves outrage followed by action, as you decide how best to handle your situation.
Bitterness can feel worse than anger because it involves feeling helpless. Referred to as ’embitterment’ in psychology circles, bitterness happens when you feel there is no action left to take because everything is out of your control.
While it might be true you can’t change what happened that has left you bitter — you can’t undo it if you were in an accident, or get back the promotion that your colleague won instead — you can take action to move forward in your life and away from bitterness.
Is overcoming bitterness worth the effort? Bitterness not only causes symptoms of trauma like sleeplessness, fatigue, and lack of libido, it can in the long term lead to low self-confidence, negative personality shifts, and an inability to have a healthy relationship. So it’s worth looking at.
[For more on the symptoms and effects of bitterness, read our article on “Why Bitterness is a Real Psychological Concern.”]
12 Ways to Overcome Bitterness
So what can you do if you are stuck in the bitterness trench and can’t climb out? Here are 12 ways to start dealing with your resentment.
1. Do a serious re-evaluation.
By: Bev Sykes
Bitterness thrives on sympathy. And often, in telling our story to others, we stop telling the truth to ourselves about what really happened and what is truly upsetting us.
Ask yourself good questions to dig deeper into facts and feelings. Journalling can be a great tool here (as can a counsellor who is trained at asking powerful questions).
What about the situation really upsets you when you go through it? What are the details that actually haunt you, versus what you tell your friends bothers you because they all agree it should?
If you were the victim of fraud, is it losing the money that has upset you, or is really being made to look stupid that has you bitter? Are you upset your partner left you for another, or is the truth that you wanted the relationship to end but are bitter that their new partner is wealthier or more attractive than you?
Re-evaluate the thing that was actually lost, too. Do you still want it? Is it still attainable? Or is it all something you really have long since outgrown?
You’d be surprised how many people hold a grudge over the loss of something they discover they no longer even want.
2. Put your story on hold.
As for that story about what happened to you – what would happen if, just or a week, or even a few days, you take a break from telling it?
Telling the story of what happened to you to those whose job it is to help you, or because you are trying to find new and positive ways to deal with your situation, is one thing. But telling the story of what happened to you again and again in a negative way to everyone you meet is often a form of keeping yourself stuck in victimhood.
It might be harder than you think to not mention what happened to you at all for some time, but give it a try. Enlist friends to keep you on track, or try putting a rubber band around your wrist and ‘pinging’ it just enough to cause you a sting each time you find yourself telling your story again. This is thought to train the brain away from entrenched patterns.
3. Take what responsibility you can.
As for that victimhood that your story generates – if you are a victim, you are helpless.
If can see your hand in things, it means you had power then, and still have it now.
Of course not all situations contain personal responsibility. If you are bitter that a loved one died in a senseless war, there is nothing you did to make that happen.
But many people who are bitter know they had a part in what took place, but are too ashamed to admit to it.
Remember, the point of acknowledging your responsibility in what transpired is not to blame yourself, which is counterproductive, but to reclaim your personal power.
if you are bitter that you lost a substantial amount of money in a scam, where there signs you chose to overlook, or research you knew you should have done but chose not to? Did you ignore warning signs and jump into an unwise relationship? Or ignore your friend’s warnings that your partner was a cheat?
4. Stop spying.
Unfortunately, today’s technology and social media provides the perfect fodder for bitterness if there are other people involved. Spying on the person who triggered your upset is really a form of self-torture that involves comparing yourself to others unfavourably, and inevitably it lowers self-esteem.
Spying on others can also be addictive. If you can’t stop spying, you might need support. Tell a good friend, seek a support group (if it’s an ex you are spying on, a love and romance addiction group could help, for example). If you feel out of control, you might want to talk to your GP who can refer you to a counsellor for a round of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
5. Face up to your hidden fears.
Bitterness often is a perfect disguise for a fear of change or of failing. If you deal with the fear, you won’t need the bitterness anymore.
For example, if you are claiming you will never do the PhD you dreamed of because you were scammed out of all your savings, you might discover that actually, you are terrified you aren’t smart enough to finish the PhD. Is it possible you are holding on to your bitterness about money when you could work on your confidence, take a student loan, and get on with your dreams?
6. Forgive – but only at your own pace.
Forgiveness is a great psychological release – but only if you are ready and it’s real.
Fake forgiveness can be a way of just denying how you feel, or even hold you back from processing emotions and situations.
(Read more in our article, 12 Reasons Why You Can’t Move On).
7. And don’t forget to forgive yourself, too.
This might be the hardest but most important part of moving on from bitterness.
It’s possible to hold on to bitterness for a long time so you can focus your anger on someone else, because the truth is you are furious at yourself, and that feels too hard to face.
Finding ways to reframe what happened in ways that show yourself compassion can be a great release.
If you feel overwhelmed at this thought, again, don’t be afraid to seek support. Bitterness is a hard thing for anyone to get over, and sometimes the strongest thing you can do is admit you need help. You might want to try a round of compassion-focussed therapy, a new kind of psychotherapy exclusively geared to help you be easier on yourself.
Or, start now by reading our article that explains 10 Ways You Can Show Yourself Compassion.
By: jeronimo sanz
8. Step into the now.
Bitterness often consists of “dining out” on the awful thing that happened to you, and fantasising about revenge or thoughts of where you’d be now if things had gone differently. In other words, it lives in the past and the future.
Get into the now moment by concerning yourself with current opportunities and goals that are about you and a positive future.
One of the best techniques for staying now centred is mindfulness. A tool now used by many therapists with their clients, it trains you to constantly check in with your feelings, become conscious of the thoughts that are distracting you, and learn to notice the good things right in front of you.
9. Branch out.
Bitterness tends to fade in the face of excitement and joy – in other words, new and better experiences. Explore a longtime interest, re-connect with others, choose some new things to put into your life.
10. Set mini goals for yourself each day.
Bitterness is a powerful tide, and best intentions to do things like try new things and be mindful can soon be caught in its tug. The way around this is to not just make big goals, but also small goals every morning that keep you on the road away from bitterness.
From meditating for ten minutes to doing the research to find three possible schools that offer the language course you are interested in, make sure your goals are achievable. Feeling a failure is the opposite of what you want here. Use SMART guidelines for your mini goals just like you would with a larger goal.
11. Try a new perspective.
A mood of embitterment can have us seeing life from a very narrow perspective indeed. A great coaching tool to help you move forward in life is to imagine what the situation you are struggling with would look like from a different viewpoint entirely. Read our piece on How to Change Your Perspective for some great advice on seeing your life in all new ways.
12. Seek support.
Yes, we keep saying it. But the truth is that bitterness can be quite the battle to move on from. And sometimes the strongest tactic and easiest way forward is to accept help. If your friends and loved ones are great listeners with no agenda, perfect. But if you need an unbiased viewpoint and a place you don’t feel judged, again, try a support group or a counsellor or psychotherapist. To find a trained therapist online, visit harleytherapy.com to easily and quickly book counselling today.
Do you have a tactic for letting go of bitterness we didn’t mention? Why not share it below?
this goes out to you know who at my last job because you all are the worse! Get a life and stop being so horrible to people who come to work and not play your stupid childish games. I’ve had a lot of bad work environments but I must say this last one was Cherry on the cake! Grow up!
It sounds like you are very frustrated. We are glad that you have moved on to another job, but if you are still thinking about the people at the past one, it sounds like they have really triggered something within. Is this a pattern at all? Do you often feel angry and frustrated?
I have been trying to let go of bitterness, and it seems all of my coping skills are exhausted. I have been hit with major health issues one after the other for decades: crohns disease, a brain tumor, epilepsy, sinus surgeries, to name a few. I also have problems with mental illness and cognitive problems from the tumor. I came from an abusive family and therefore haven’t had one, so I’m out here on my own, disabled, vulnerable and very poor. I am bitter when I see people enjoying all they are able to take for granted. I am bitter when they complain of one problem when mine are all encompassing, so I’ve lost my ability to connect even with my friends. I can’t afford therapy with all of the other medical costs and demands. Maybe I’m just tired.
Well goodness, who wouldn’t be tired, it’s perfectly understandable. And it’s perfectly understandable to feel bitter and angry too. What would happen if you just stopped comparing yourself to anyone? To a single soul? What if, just for today, or even just for half of today, you only compared yourself to you? How much of a relief would it be to just stop the comparison to everyone else? And to just see how you are doing today compared to other worse days, and give yourself some credit? What is most worrisome reading this is the total lack of connection to anyone else at all. I know it can seem easier, to just cut off, but connection is now proven by research to be healing and pretty darned necessary to survive down here. Do you have a hobby that you can connect with people over, even if just behind a computer screen in forums where your privacy is protected? Or, could you find a support group for those with illness locally? Usually free, they are a chance to connect with others who have similar experiences. As for having no money, there is still support available. Read our article on free or low cost counselling for ideas. https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/low-cost-therapy-free-counselling-services.htm And finally, if connecting with others just makes you want to scream (we get it, it happens), and you want to try something absolutely free and, if you stick to it, something that can bring a lot of acceptance and peace you couldn’t find otherwise, we suggest mindfulness. We offer a complete easy to read free guide here. https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/low-cost-therapy-free-counselling-services.htm , https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/mindfulness-help-guide.htm (you’ll also find great free resources all over the net.) We wish you strength, and commend you for all the strength you’ve had so far.
I got divorced nine years ago. My ex husband cheated throughout our marriage and was emotionally abusive making me feel worthless. We have three daughters. He hasn’t had any contact with them for five years. He has never paid me any maintenance. I left with nothing and still struggle financially. I can’t stop feeling bitter and resentful as mutual friends tell me he goes away every weekend and has at least three luxury holidays a year (with his new wife). It just seems so unfair. I really want to let go of this bitterness.
It definitely sounds unfair, too! Sometimes bitterness lingers when we let people overstep boundaries that we do have power to set. It doesn’t solve everything, but it certainly helps to make sure you are setting boundaries that are acceptable and fair and are not being a victim if you don’t have to be. Not paying maintenance is usually/always against the law. If you don’t have the money for a lawyer, seek assistance from a family charity that can help. It’s not ‘mean’ or ‘petty’ to seek money to support your children, it’s the law. And it certainly helps self esteem to set boundaries, which is never a bad thing!
I find that my days are filled with endless bitterness, despondency and apathy. I am over 40, never married and no children – all of which I dreamed out, and prayed for, and fully anticipated my entire adult life. I guess my bitterness lies in the fact that I had NO control over finding a suitable mate or having children with that mate. Or maybe, just maybe, I’m bitter because I was taught my entire life to hold a high moral standard for my mate and insisting on a traditional marriage and then kids. I honestly feel I did everything the best I could; ie. cut ties with men who were disrespectful (cheating, lying, stealing, abusive), tried to live a moral life and helping people (charity work, random acts of kindness, etc) ONLY to be rewarded with a life deficient of a family and age that prevents it from ever happening. I grieve for my unborn children and cannot endure social media, even though I sometimes self-torture, seeing my friends and families kids grow up and even some becoming grandparents when I never even got the opportunity to have a child. I feel lost and honestly am finding it hard to see the point of life with no legacy and no heirs.
I have been a good person for a majority of my life, I make jokes, I am easy to talk to, and I have a good soul, but I am so bitter from all the people who hurt me. I have gotten to a point where I literally say I hate people, and prefer to have no connection at all, I have even stopped believing in showing love and compassion to people as well, ( not a sociopath btw). I find myself angry and being mean to those who don’t deserve it. I hate what these associates did to me and I just want to know, what should I do, to guard myself from feeling like this?
Please pray for me
to release this anger, resentment and bitterness in my soul
I seem to keep a negative attitude toward others, even tho I’ve prayed and prayed it still lies within me ,feeling hopeless
It sounds like you are really judging yourself as a ‘bad’ or ‘flawed’ person for feeling bitter. Psychotherapy has a different viewpoint. It would believe that you have these feelings as you have had difficult experiences in life and were perhaps also not bought up in an environment where you felt accepted and loved no matter what your emotions.This leaves a child to repress emotions and feel resentful, and this continues into adulthood. You are not flawed, you are just a person who has had confusing messages in life and now feels angry and maybe alone. You probably also have a wonderful kind side. We all consist of all emotions, no matter how mixed up they can all be. The secret is to develop self-compassion, to learn to accept yourself, and to learn how to release your feelings. When we learn to accept ourselves, we learn to accept others more, too (we have a piece on our site about self-compassion that explains this well https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/self-compassion.htm). When there is a backup of emotions that is controlling our lives, it is of course highly recommended to seek support as it might be a lot to unravel alone. Could you find a counsellor or therapist to talk to? It can be a huge relief to have a safe, nonjudgemental environment to let all the things stuck inside come out.
The reason why i got to see this site..is because I need help …i feel helpless. ..writing what i have gone through. ..what i am going through. ..what i feel…my mind and everything is enough to fill a book…I wish i could talk to you in person
This is some very honest sharing, thank you, Angela. And good for you for being so honest. The last thing you need is someone telling you to be grateful for what you do have, or to try mindfulness, etc. What might help instead is just finding support to really go deeply into instead of away from this rage, sadness, and deep sense of loss, and get to the bottom of it. You are really in mourning by the sounds of it. And to look at the patterns that keep repeating in life, as it sounds like there was a pattern of attracting difficult men in there. It might seem that there is no way out, that all is over, but you are stuck in the forest at the moment, where all there are are trees, so to speak.Have you considered counselling? As what you are dealing with it pretty enormous and just a lot for anyone to handle alone. If it’s out of the budget, do read our piece on free and low cost counselling. Just allowing yourself the safe space to get out all this upset, and to find a new perspective, might be more powerful and freeing than you expect. And it will create the space for other possibilities you haven’t seen of what might make you feel more satisfied. We do hope you give it a thought, and wish you well.
Thank you for sharing Nicole. It takes a lot of courage to admit you need help. No matter how helpless you feel, there are ways forward. It might sound unbelievable, but the first step, as you seem to instinctively realise, is to find someone to talk to. Do know that in every country there is some form of free hotline available, in the UK and the USA this is the Good Samaritans. If you can’t afford a counsellor or therapist at this time, read our article on free and low cost counselling for inspiration on finding help https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/low-cost-therapy-free-counselling-services.htm
Well first of all, maybe consider, do you really need to ‘guard yourself’ from it? Is it really a crime to feel angry, bitter, non perfect, and sometimes to feel hateful? It sounds like you have tried so hard to live up to some unreal ideal of being a ‘good person’ when really the other perspective is, what if we are all just human? What if it’s okay to have all emotions? What if you are acceptable and loveable just as you are? Things to consider. It’s only when we finally have self-compassion for ourselves we can have compassion for others. We’d suggest you use the search bar to find our piece on ‘self-compassion’ which you might find an interesting read. Otherwise, it would be a good idea to consider finding someone to talk to about this. A good therapist or counsellor or therapist won’t judge you for any of this. Far from it. They create a safe space to let these emotions out and find some inner peace again. If money is an issue, also read our piece on low cost or free counselling. We hope you consider it, as living with no connection at all makes us sad to hear. All the best, John.
I feel really bitter thoughts about my time at university. I met a friend who was having severe health issues, and I stood by their side. I definitely took on more than I should have. However, I was the only person they had. I didn’t want to abandon them at such a tough time. My studies suffered, and I was definitely mentally exhausted from everything. I feel resentment because I feel like I missed out on making more friends, and doing better in classes. I feel like a horrible person for feeling this way because the person was going through an incredibly tough time. Especially since this person is so nice, and has always been a good friend to me. They are still going through a tough time health wise, and I am trying to be a good friend and stick by them. I can’t talk to them about it because I believe it would cause them too much stress now. I just feel like I can’t look back fondly at those years, and it makes me very sad because I was always looking forward to it. I definitely acknowledge that a lot of is that I’m not the best student there is, or have the best social skills, but I always think that I could have done more, and better. Thank you for your article, I will definitely try to keep your points in mind.
I have a couple of issues that I hold a strong resentment. 1. When I was a child, I was molested by two of my uncles in which one spent time in jail a short period. I have not been able to forgive my relatives at all. They have attempted speaking with me, and I shunned them. I am not the only individual to be molested by these two uncles, yet I’m probably the only one holding on to the anger and resentment. I forgive them in a way, but I don’t want anything to do with them because I’m now 38 years old with children of my own and the act that damaged me caused me to be paranoid of everyone, and I punished my kids by being overprotective and overbearing. The psychological damage from the sexual abuse has shadowed me my whole life, and I honestly wish to get over this part of my life. 2. I’m married to a man who has cheated the whole duration of the relationship. Many things I didn’t find out until many years’s later. My husband has given me sexually transmitted disease which was treated and cured but, he has bragged about having unprotective sex and how he doesn’t “Use condoms.” I have in return cheated on him a felt awful because I know it isn’t who I am. I acknowledge that participating in his game has only made him feel that he will always be apart of my life. I have a psychiatrist and also, take medication for PTSD, Generalized Anxiety and Major Depression.
I made my husband leave for the well-being of our children and both of us. He was gone ten months and begged to come back with promises of doing whatever it takes to be the man he promised me he would be. He recently cheated on me again and said that he is sick….he moved to a different job location and now has a therapist and psychiatrist. He was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and is currently taking medication. He is a habitual liar. The medication hasn’t changed anything, such as his reckless behavior, speaking down to me, or his lying.
I know that I am partially responsible for everything. I set boundaries that were just ignored. I know that CO-Dependance plays a huge part to why I let him continually hurt and disrespect our family. I have found that both situations make me feel the same way the difference being now I’m focused more so on my husband’s infidelity, manipulation tactics, and lies more than what my uncles have caused me…but, the two situations remind me of each other.
I was in such peace when my husband was gone, and now that I have let him back into my life it’s even harder than the first time to make him leave due to financial reasons. I would like to get over my resentment and be able to forgive them all so I can have a more fulfilling life.
i need to move on
Good to recognise! But it takes time, so do what you can but allow yourself to feel what you feel. If you can’t move on, do seek the support of a counsellor.
Maria, thanks for this honest sharing. There are a lot of good questions to ask here. What would happen if you didn’t have to take care of everyone else? What inside you feels that is your job? Are others more important than taking care of yourself? Do you deserve love without doing anything at all, or do you feel you have to deserve love? Did you have to be good, perfect and helpful as a child to receive love? We’d suggest you read about codepedency. It’s a way of relating to others where you put their needs first and gain your sense of self through overgiving only to later feel bitter. https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/great-codependency-hoax-codependent.htm
Ok, I am in therapy and I’m not trying to be whiny. Also, I have wondered for so long what causes people to be bitter just to realize I’m bitter. In high school 6 people I cared about died and so did 2 of my cats, when I was very young my brother Isaac died, when I was 8.5 my favorite aunt and her baby both died, and when I was in 7th grade my Great Grandma died. Also, when I was younger my parent (whom was abused as a child) would yell at me and be like “I wish I could beat you like my mom beat me” and they eventually started asking my other brother and I stuff like “would you miss me if I disappeared” and asked my other parent to put a gun to their head (even though they told me suicide was a bad thing). Also, my parent used to threaten to send us to foster care. I have no idea how to forgive them. It seems like at least some of my emotional issues could have been avoided if they never asked my other parent to put a gun to their head. Also, not only that, but I cannot seem but help to be angry that it seemed for the longest time (with the deaths), no one understood, and no one felt bad for me like I feel bad for others.
My ex broke up with me 6 years ago and i still think about him. He has never tried to contact me and once i got drunk and called him. We spoke for hours, he offered to come and see but as the conversation changed i felt that he only wanted to come and see me for sexual reasons, not because he missed me. That night I told him how me made me feel after the break up. Humiliated, hurt and stupid and he told me that I should have told him earlier. After that night, i texted him saying I am sorry for calling him and he said it was fine and that was it. Later on I wanted to speak to him on another drunken night a year after the first incident and my friends took the phone off me so we didn’t speak. He messaged me the next day asking if i called and i said by accident. He didn’t like my answer and we started to argue in the end i said sorry and wished him a great life and we haven’t spoken since. Its been almost a year since this happened but i still think about him. I have a great man in my life who loves me so much but still I feel as though i am cheating on my ex when i am with him. This is not normal and i want to move on. My anger has been worse and i am bitter about so much and every time i try to come and down ask why i am angry and bitter my ex is the reason. What does this mean?
I work friend recently commented about how we are both just told old bitter people surrounded by young people who don’t know any better. I responded with “I’m NOT Bitter!” …. He laughed and said, “OH YES YOU ARE – Robin, please – I’ve known you for two years, don’t even try!”
It didn’t take me long to realize he’s right …. so now I’m on my quest to lose the bitterness I’ve been nourishing for the last 6 years (and much longer on some issues). SO Thank you for these steps – seems like a great starting point to me.
Wow sounds like one of those lightbulb moments! Glad to be of help Robin.
It’s not surprising you have PTSD, that is a lot of trauma. Here’s the thing we’d say – it’s okay to NOT forgive people. Sometimes it becomes about just accepting forgiveness won’t happen. Sometimes half the stress can be living up to this idea we must forgive. How would it feel for you to just decide right now that it’s okay to not forgive people? That it’s okay to just accept that something happened and you can’t change it, and you can’t forgive it? But you will leave those people alone and move on with your life? In some cases, if forgiveness happens at all, it happens when we just move on and get so busy taking care of ourselves that forgiveness creeps up without us noticing. In the case of your husband, we would say the phrase “I was in such peace when my husband is gone” is worth paying attention to. How much money or financial security is your inner peace worth? Regarding having a psychiatrist, it’s great to have some support. But do you have someone who has helped you properly process this trauma in a deep way? Medication helps many manage but it does not process the trauma for us. In the UK at least, psychiatrists do not offer this support, this is something that counsellors or psychotherapists do. It sounds like money is tight, but do read our piece on free and low cost counselling and consider at the very least looking for a support group for survivors of sexual abuse, most are free and can help you feel less alone with all that you are going through and have gone through. If you can afford therapy, schema therapy is very useful for overcoming abuse and learning how to trust and form healthy relationships (again, not sure if you are in UK or US, we are UK based). Finally, good for you for getting through all this. We believe you can find your way forward, and wish you courage.
Thank you for sharing all this. That is an awful lot of trauma for one person to handle. It would be entirely normal to be angry, confused, and bitter. And also to feel misunderstood. But the wonderful news is that you are still a caring person, and that you are brave enough to have sought help to process all this. It will take time, therapy is a journey, but we congratulate you for being on your way forward.
Well it can be many things. It’s hard to say just based on comments, a deep useful answer is something that might take several weeks of therapy to find. But often these sorts of patterns, of holding on to an idea of someone from the past, are related to intimacy issues and core beliefs we have about ourselves and love. This sort of pattern is also self-sabotage, it sabotages the good things we have. So, for example, by always thinking about this ex, you can make sure you never get too close to the partner you are now with and never really let yourself fall in love. This might be due to a core belief that you are unloveable, or that love has to be hard, that love has to hurt, or that anyone you really love leaves you.
I am adopted, and I thought I had finally found a forever family that would love me. However reality is my dad might love me, but my mom does not. I know this because she said so….I mean she stated , and I quote, “she only adopted me because CPS stated it was a requirement. She only wanted a son, but the only non African male available for adoption at the time was my brother.” So since I was 13 I knew I wasn’t wanted by the one person I wanted to want me. I have tried over many years to get her to want me to no avail. Consistently I was told that there was nothing good she could find about me and I was worthless. The last straw was when I told her that my uncle(her brother) just tried to send me a pic of his penis…her response was to tel me to shut up about it and don’t talk. So since then I have not spoken to her or my dad. I am really hurt and I do blame myself for speaking to her. I believe you are right about blame. I keep going back, or I use to, to get something from her she is clearly unable or unwilling to give. How do move on?
I’be been STUCK for many many years. I’ve been married for 20 years and divorced for 6 years. This is caused me plenty of pain and heartaches. I just got before God yesterday and declared a fast because I need to have clarity on my feelings, we’ll long and behold God revealed to me that it’s a “ROOT OF BITTERNESS”! That’s causing havoc in my life! Well now to do more extensive research in this area of my life. I pray that everyone on this post receives healing and restoration for their issues they are going thru. God bless u all
Oh my goodness, what a very difficult situation for you. And what a horrible thing to be told. This is a very damaging situation and there is more than enough here for us to suggest it would be a very good idea to seek external support in the form of counselling or psychotherapy, as this would all cause deep-rooted issues around self-esteem and codependency that need real help, not a reply comment on a website. If you are a student, see if your school has a free counsellor. Otherwise, we have an article on here about free or low cost counselling. Finally, depending on your age, if that picture was sent, it’s a crime. Again, speak to someone, such as a counsellor at school. Otherwise, if you are already an adult, there is a lot here to be said for acceptance of what is and then working to protect yourself and seek situations that are good for you instead of undermining and destructive. Of course seeking love from those who reject us can be almost addictive and hard to stop, and something we repeat in each relationship we choose if left to our own devices, so again, something a therapist can help with. We do hope you consider therapy, and we would just add that your adopted mother is one person in a world of billions and there are many people out there who will see that you are worthy just for being who you are. Get out there and do anything you can to bolster your esteem enough to recognise this and start to meet friends and loved ones who you feel good and honoured around.
Reading this has been really useful for me. I know better how to solve my bitterness and will work on taking back control of my life.
Many thanks!
Glad it helped!
I just don’t know why I’m so bitter or angry. I was born disabled along with 3 able bodied siblings. My condition is progressive which means I am getting more & more disabled as each year passes. My younger sister was very spoilt & always blamed my other sister & me for everything that went wrong. She was the golden child who couldn’t do anything wrong. So my childhood wasn’t happy. I couldn’t cope in mainstream schooling so at 11 I went to special school. I made a friend who lived 2 miles from me but she was a day girl & I was a term boarder. I hated it & was badly bullied. To get me away from the bully, I was kept down a year while she went up!!! When I finally left school I applied for 287 jobs & went to 46 interviews but could not find work. I was finally employed by the only job I didn’t want. It was only 6 months but I ended up staying there for 14 years. I am passionate about social justice but I take it too far. I hate anyone who is rich, Tory or racist.
I get very angry but just want to enjoy my life without continually fighting for others. Please help me xx
Hi Gail, well it seems you do know why you are so bitter and angry – those are a lot of odds to surmount! Your childhood sounds lonely, and bullying can really cause long-term issues and leave us with low self-esteem. In summary, there are a lot of really serious unresolved and deep-rooted issues in there. It’s not the sort of thing you can just solve overnight or we can help in a comment, it truly is the sort of thing anyone would need serious support with. On the positive side, we do truly feel all these issues are possible to work through, and that a life where you feel less upset all the time can be reached. We would suggest working with a therapist. If you feel nervous about that and want to just start with a short term therapy, you might want to look into acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Hope that helps!
This is really sound advice. I was divorced almost 5 years ago and for some reasons the bitterness is coming up now. Most likely because I am not in the last 7 months of alimony. Not sure why but emotions do not always progress in a linear logical fashion. I think your advice on setting goals and forgiveness are key. I think also taking full accountability and responsibility for being a co-creator in a failed marriage ( my story) is the path to ultimate healing and moving on.
I appreciate that you posted this online. Sometimes it just takes someone repeating what we already know intuitively will help someone learn to finally find peace. Ultimately I think that is what we all want from any traumatic experience.
Words of wisdom, Frederick, thank you! Taking responsibility for being a co-creator is a huge step and really a sign that you truly are moving through things. And yes, emotions are anything but linear. They are more like a sea, big waves one day, little ones the next, and we can’t tell in advance what to predict. Also, the mind seems to like avoiding pain, so facing the big emotion of bitterness now is again a sign you are moving through, as you are getting to the big, hidden emotions. First seems to come anger and sadness, then a long time of perhaps being sure we feel nothing, or feeling numb… and then out comes the grief, rage, shame and bitterness, like hidden sludge at the bottom of the bucket. It sounds like you’ve learned a lot from this experience, about yourself, and about healing. We wish you continuing courage!
I used to be such a positive and open person. Even when going through hard times, such as life with a very controlling man, or when I found out he had sexually abused our daughter I was still so hopeful about life. Several things happened which seem to have just sucked the meaning out of my life and left me feeling that I have lost all my illusions and am left quite bitter. First my sister, with whom I was very close and supportive, had a breakdown. She cut off contact with everyone in the family but I was the closest to her and the most hurt. It was like a death. I had been trying to became more independent of her but I never wanted to cut off contact. Then my close friend also had a breakdown and cut off contact with everyone she knew. More recently my teenage daughter developed social anxiety and depression and made a suicide attempt. My other daughter is being assessed for aspergers syndrome. She can be quite hurtful without intending to be. In other ways my life is good. My husband is kind and caring and I have q job that I love. We haven’t any money problems and I have a few kind friends whose company I enjoy. My husband is not interested in hearing about my deeper feelings. He wants me to be happy but when I tell him about anything that is troubling me he is at a loss for words. He would give me a hug but I know he would prefer not to hear about feelings when he can’t directly help. Even things like my daughter’s diagnosis he would never initiate a conversation or ask how I feel about it. When he is low I notice and invite him to talk. He does talk a little and then feels better but he would NEVER start such a conversation with me. He is threatened by the possibility that I might not be strong and capable. I am.strong but I sometimes need to share my feelings and to cry on his shoulder. But anytime I do his lack of understanding and his clear discomfort makes me feel worse.
I am talking to my sister again but I can’t shake this feeling of victimhood and distrust.
Overall I know my life is good but I still feel a lack of meaning and purpose, a sort of cynicism. I’ve lost my innocent faith in the power of kindness. I still act kind and everyone thinks I am kind but I am just doing what I know is right not what I feel . I feel like being alone and not counting on anyone. There doesn’t seem to be any point in reaching out and connecting when no one is willing or able to hear me and just recognise my sadness. I am not always sad. I am often happy and full of fun and I am usually good humoured and resourceful. I just seem to have lost my old drive and faith in life. I still go through the motions of everyday life and carry out the usual tasks and responsibilities. I hope my old love of life and passion for other people will return.
Elizabeth, this is a lot of brave sharing, thank you. Reading this there is a real sense of a person torn in two. Between the person she really is right now, and the person she feels she is ‘supposed’ to be. What if we don’t have to be happy and strong all the time? What if it was okay to be miserable, full of rage, and sad? What if NOBODY is really happy and positive all the time, not really? If that is a myth? Where in life might you have learned that you must be strong all the time and appear happy and ‘positive’ in order to be acceptable and truly liked? How is this belief helping you? How is it holding you back? All interesting questions to start asking. Otherwise, what is very apparent here is that you have gone through huge amounts of trauma and are currently without any real support, all while others need your support. Anyone would be close to breaking point with all that going on, so give yourself some credit. But then get out there and do what you can to get that support. You say there are no money problems. What about investing in the best therapist you can find? Someone who is interested in fully listening to you. Look for one you feel comfortable with and feel you can grow to trust and who has experience working with trauma. Read our articles on here about finding a good therapist. Also look at what types of therapy might suit you, perhaps one where there is a strong basis on trust between you and the therapist. Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) or dynamic interpersonal therapy (DIT) might be short-term therapies to look into, or schema therapy and compassion focussed therapy (CFT), although of course other types will also help. We wish you courage!
Hi, From ma childhood I have grown on an environment without love and no concern from my parents. This have made my heart bitter a d lowered myself esteem and not to appreciate maself n I see myself as a failure n evenafter my secondary education I was left alone n I was employed as s house help n its 6yrs since n I HV attained to say its mine,I hv lived a life full of sadness, sorrow and pain n Neva been happy this hurts me a lot,I HV a kind heart and I help others but I hv achieved nothing to myself,I always wanted to go college which I dd but later I cud not hv capital to continue with studies, I fallen in love twice and heart broken n I hv not been able to let go n overcome the second one am so bitter n hate maself for allowing maself to fall in love again despite bin hurt n the life I HV been brought up from n ma experiences.I feel helpless n so disgusted by myself for not having achieved anything in life..coz even right now am jobless not bcoz I don’t look for jobs,I hv actually written ma CV n gone extra mile but nothing …I feel helpless, bitter n disgusted with ma own lifeg
I’ve been a bitter person I can finally admit after I was crossed by the people who meant a lot to me (family) it went down hill from there not long after my family letting me down I met a guy we were together for 8 yrs and the whole 8 years I felt like was getting used and he really didn’t love me and just wanted somewhere to live so I said to myself since he treats me bad I’m gonna treat him bad and I emotionally abused him to feel better or even because of what I thought he was doing then at the end of our relationship while my father was dying and after my father died he was starting a new family and got married while still living and in a relationship with me the way he treated me was beyond this world I can’t even talk about cause it puts me in a dark place I felt alone and empty inside the worst feeling ever well two months after ending that relationship I jumped right into another one that made me feel even worst he was drinking too much which made him turn into a monster he was in a girl house he had relations with talking about me putting me down how I know she told me and it was a incident on father’s day she told me he was talking bad about me and tried to have sex with her which they probably did he talked bad about me to everyone in the neighborhood, my friend and to me as well he never showed me any kind of love in any form it was horrible but he wants to be with me I just don’t get it so I was asking myself is this karma for how i emotionally abused my ex boyfriend so I stayed and took it cause I felt I deserved that but then again I didn’t because I really was becoming a better person and I was treating him right so why was he so cold to me so i couldnt take it no more and became that bitter person I just ran from being I seen me back in that cold place again it’s like a damned if u do and damned if u don’t but I just wanna become a better person learn how to let go and become stronger for situations I have no control over and make better decisions for me
I struggle to understand why you advice people that it is okay “NOT to forgive” and move on with their lives. How are they going to do that without letting it go?
We are sorry to hear about all your struggles Hannah. If we grow up without feeling loved we can find that as an adult we don’t know how to reach out for support when we need help. We give, but don’t know how to receive help. Which means we suffer silently, and we can’t see what is going right anymore. Is there anything going right in your life? Even something tiny? And can you see that there are a lot of things you should be proud of, such as having done some studies, and managing despite all these challenges? Even being brave enough to do some research and end up on this site is worth giving yourself a pat on the back for. You certainly aren’t helpless or you wouldn’t have made it this far. In any case, it sounds like you feel alone and need support. Is there a friend you could trust? Is there any free counselling or support groups in your area? This article might give you ideas on how to find free or low cost counselling bit.ly/lowcosttherapy
Hey Reggie. This all sounds very tough. Here’s the thing. It also feels like you have really low self-esteem. And when we secretly don’t value ourselves so much, we tend to pick situations that confirm we don’t have worth. Trying to bully ourselves into just ‘becoming stronger’ doesn’t tend to work, because low self-esteem is connected to really deep rooted beliefs we have about ourselves that often come from difficult childhood experiences we have internalised or even blame ourselves for. No matter how hard we try it’s like deep inside our hidden pain pushes us toward bad choices again and again. What you need is not to beat yourself up about this. It’s a hard thing for anyone to handle alone. What you need is support you can trust. Not ‘friends’ who sleep with your partners or talk about you behind your back…!! Real support. If you could be strong enough to reach out for some counselling, we think you’d be surprised how helpful it can be.And how much of a release it can be to talk to someone who is not invested in your choices, doesn’t judge you, doesn’t make you feel bad, but just listens. It doesn’t have to be expensive, there are many low cost incentives available. Read our article on tips for how to find low cost therapy here bit.ly/lowcosttherapy
You’d be surprised to find, if you sat down and had a good honest chat with others, that almost all of us have one or two things (or more) in life we just haven’t gotten over. The point is that pretending to forgive if we haven’t really is no use at all. And it can just mean we repress how we really feel, with worse consequences than if we just decided that right now we can’t just ‘get over it’ but we are going to do our best to ‘get on with it’. Forgiveness is often a process that takes time, and if we find we can’t forgive then we can accept the situation, which can be just as powerful. OF course we are neither God nor you! If you have some very big capacity to forgive everyone who wrongs you, wonderful! You are very lucky.
Harley,
Thank you for taking the time to care about me. Your post just reminded me not to give up. The game of life is not about winning or loosing…..it all about trying. Thank You.
Harley,
Thank you for taking the time to care about me. Your post just reminded me not to give up. The game of life is not about winning or loosing…..it all about trying. Thank You.
Yes, exactly! Do your best and don’t beat yourself up if you are not ready to move on or forgive…. we are all human, after all!
Yes Robin, exactly. In fact where did these ideas of ‘winning and losing’ even come from? We are all here to have our own unique experience, and we don’t have to compare ourselves to anyone. You are doing the best you can.
Am bitter against the father of my son..he hasn’t bothered to come and see his son from the time my son was born..I have been taking care of my son alone and I ended using all my funds for my business and education and I discovered that he has a daughter who is 2 months older than my son and he posts pictures of him and the daughter and he sponsors her financially…honestly am really bitter but I don’t want to be bitter anymore.
Am also bitter against my mother she is a narcissistic person I buy her simple cute gifts every time I visit her but she goes around telling people that am a bad daughter…my mother is well to do but I decided to distance myself from her.
It sounds hard. There might be a connection here. When we have a mother we don’t feel loved and appreciated by, we can grow up into an adult who unwittingly behave in ways that drive others away no matter how hard we try. We don’t know you, we can’t make any kind of diagnosis over a comment. But there does seem to be more than enough going on here – loneliness, rage, feeling ignored, even sadness – to warrant seeking some professional support.
I seem to be experiencing bitterness for the first time in my life. I did grow up with a number of challenges, but I always saw them as the lot I got and just kept going and did well. I became a doctor. I emigrated to pursue a specialty and a life in Canada. Arrived in 2009 and against impossible odds got into the system and into my dream specialty. During that years-long process I experienced racism for the first time; not overt, (i’m guessing because it may have legal ramifications), but pervasive and demoralizing all the same. During these 5 years of medical residency I experienced work harassment by someone in power in the last 2 years. Happy me became progressively sad, anxious, with a horrible sensation of inferiority all the time and being proven right continuously by poor exam performance and undue criticism. I needed help and received only humiliation. I saw a psychologist (mostly to help me with exam performance, used a few free sessions I could get) and my doctor gave me some anxiolytics. This in itself made me feel like a failure, since I did really hard work before and I was OK. Now I failed my boards and all my hard work from the last decade is wasted. Obviously my fault for not doing my very best, but I also feel my program should help. They will not.
Now I just cry and cry (it’s very recent), will face unemployment soon for the first time since I was a teen in med school in my country and I hate these people who would use my accent to treat me like less than the rest of my group. I resent the stupid system that favors numbers, rote memorization, toadying and cutthroat competitiveness as the virtues to pursue to be considered “good”. I resent these local kids who never practiced before and passed and now have the fruits of their effort rewarded. It seemed so easy for them! Now I am middle aged and a failure. I hate myself more than anything but I deeply resent all the medical apparatus in this country, it’s just insane to deprive someone of a living because of an exam. I may retake it (in a YEAR), but now I am damaged goods. And unemployed. I am doing everything I should be doing, but my career has been emotionally ruined for me by these things. I don’t even know if I am able to face the boards again.
Sateen, you are very upset right now. You are obviously a very intelligent driven man who has pushed himself hard his whole life and has never faced this sort of letdown. Made doubly hard as you were treated appallingly. So yes, let yourself be angry. Rage. Find safe ways to get that rage out that don’t drive away friends or cause you problems – journalling, a punching bag, long runs, whatever works. But then also know that this is a phase and not who you are. There are a lot of huge assumptions in here and cognitive distortions. “I am middle aged and a failure”. According to who? You have moved country, started again, you have taken a really hard course, made huge opportunity for yourself. And the first time it goes wrong you are a failure? As for age, many people change careers completely even in middle age. “I will face unemployment”. This is another assumption. You are a hugely intelligent person. There are jobs out there even without the final certification. Just to show you the power of perspective – someone else might say, great! I am totally burned out, I have had a terrible time, I now have a year to recuperate and live my life a little before I try again! Yes, that is a bit facetious, but at the same time, do you know the future? Do you really know what will happen next? (Fortune telling is another cognitive distortion – http://bit.ly/cognitivedistortionlist).That aside, let’s go back to the bullying. That is serious and can have real consequences, was the counsellor a warm, empathic person you trusted you could really talk to about this? Or just someone who bunged you on drugs? (Sounds like you might be in America.). We’d suggest you DO find a warm, empathetic counsellor you really trust to talk to, to work through all this perfectionism and the bullying. Or you might want to do a round of CBT therapy to help with the cognitive distortions. Another thing would be to consider starting a gratitude practice, proven to re-align perspective and mood http://bit.ly/gratitudepractise. If you do decide to take legal action over the bullying, we’d suggest you have that good counsellor in place first so you can fight your cause from a stable place. We wish you luck.
I’m aged 45 and battling with bitterness. I find myself angry at people over really petty issues to the extent that my voice even breaks as i try to suppress this annoyance. I avoid people as i am highly susceptible to anger. I lack tolerance when people are slow in seeing things i perceive too obvious. I pray about it every morning before going to work but as soon as i am out there people always ask me ” whats up with that angry look?”. i try to smile but not for long, my look reverts to “frowning” without any provocation. I want to be nice to everybody i meet but even when i mean good, my voice is all broken with bitterness. Even when im giving out instructions to subordinates i always sound angry
It sounds tough. And is it possible that you also have really critical thoughts toward yourself if you take the time to listen to your internal soundtrack? It feels like there is a lot of judgment towards self somehow too. Like you wanted to live up to some impossible standard of ‘goodness’ and failing that you’ve condemned yourself and it’s turned into condemning others. It’s not ‘the real you’, in case that question is tormenting you. This sort of build up doesn’t arrive from nowhere, and the fact you are searching for information and praying for change points out that you, who you really are, is tired of all this. We’d bet there is a lot of stuff that happened to you that you dealt with alone, unsupported, that you didn’t know what to do about. That kind of stuff builds up inside until it becomes inner torment that then starts to leak out all over our lives. You need support, to be listened to, and to be seen, to be fully seen, the you behind all these behaviours and thoughts you are trapped behind. We’d suggest therapy, simply because sometimes it takes a relative stranger with very good listening skills who is invested in us but who has no expectations, in order that we can be really free to let out all our rage an upset and disappointments. It can be a terrifying thought, to reach out for help, but you are obviously strong enough to be here researching so you are strong enough to take that next step and find help. What is the worse thing that can happen? And if it feels too overwhelming, start with short term therapy. We think you might benefit from a type of therapy called compassion-based therapy http://bit.ly/compassionbased. It helps us raise our compassion towards ourselves and then by default towards others, and it’s also known for helping raise self-esteem. But of course what matters is that you find a therapist you can grow to trust, and really look for just that glimmer, as we’d also bet you find it really hard to trust anyone at this point. We wish you courage.
I used the word bitter today to discribe how I was feeling about things not going my way at work. So I looked up that word and realized that this word describes me as a whole. It’s not just at work it’s in all different aspects of my life. Why don’t I get to have better? What could have been? What do they have that I don’t? And I dwell on so many different things I give myself a headache. My brain just won’t shut up! I think being a bitter person could be contributing to so many mental,soul and health problems. This behavior has hurt relationship with people because they get tired of hearing it. I don’t know how to change, how to program my mind to look at the good in life. So many people have it worse than me but I don’t think about that, or what I have that they don’t. I do look at others pictures on social media and feel sorry for myself. Why? I’m missing out on so much. Can I ever be rid of this bitterness?
Yes, Gloria, you absolutely can. But it won’t be an overnight thing. Bitterness is, as you intuit, driven by negative core beliefs and our thinking. So if we change our beliefs and our thinking then this starts to shift. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) might be a good starting point. http://bit.ly/CBTTherapy. It focuses on helping you recognise and change the negative thoughts that start the cycle of bitterness in the first place. But often, if we have a lot of bitterness and very negative beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world, we also have trauma in our pasts that is unresolved http://bit.ly/whatistrauma. If this is the case, you might also want to try a longer form therapy that helps you look at and resolve your past. Finally, we suggest you look into a gratitude practise, which is proven by research to change moods and wellbeing. http://bit.ly/gratitudepractise We wish you courage.
i think its bitterness that i feel, towards my husband. Every one likes him, he makes friends so easy and finds it so easy to join groups to have fun. I on the other hand have no self esteem and hide away in my house. my poor husband always offers me to come with him. I just cant do it. what is wrong with me. so i feel bitter all the time for such stupid reasons, i love my husband and know he loves me so why do i feel this towards him. he doesn’t know because i would never dream of telling him. just typing it out here sounds so stupid. its all me and my fault i do know that but i just cant get passed it. i have no friends because i am so stuck in my house for fear of rejection and any way how do you go and join groups? I know how my husband does it but i am too shy and too self conscious even though if i do go out i come across as an extravert but feel so much like an introvert in the inside. people think i have it all but they dont really know me at all. im so depressed and just dont know what to do to get out of this….
Carol, that sounds very hard. But it’s far from stupid. You are suffering from deep rooted shame and low self-esteem. It probably has nothing to do with your husband, it could stem from a childhood experience that left you feeling not good enough and, as you say, afraid of being abandoned. There is a good chance your husband already feels your hidden world anyway, and he might be happy to hear you explain all this, if you did it in an open, non blaming way. It could really clear the air. But on the other hand with this sort of buildup if we aren’t practised at communication it can come out all wrong and leave us feeling even worse. So a better option would be to talk to a therapist, a counsellor or psychotherapist or counselling psychologist. They could help you work through the charge around all of this, get to the root of it. And help you explore the best ways to communicate all this to the husband you love in a way that heals over damages your relationship. We hope you find the courage to do so. These feelings can definitely be healed. You can find a way through. It might not be fast, it might be tough going for a bit, but you can feel better and even in the future feel more comfortable in social situations – therapy helps you gain back your lost self-esteem. We wish you courage!
A Wonderful article!
Thanks!
I am overwhelmed and so confused. I am waking up to realize that I can no longer control myself when I drink. Things happen and the guilt and shame the next day is so depressing. I am caught in a repetitious depressing hopeless cycle. I am finding out that I am full of bitterness and anger. I am going to make a list of all the things so I can get them out of my mind and I am going to stop drinking. I have too much bitterness and shame to risk adding fuel to the fire with alcohol. I am going to pray that the Lord will bring me help and restore me to the happy balanced person I really am.
Hi Jan, anger is quite common with alcoholism. Like any addiction, drinking to excess happens because of feelings that we don’t know what to do with, or want to avoid, and because there are unresolved experiences or traumas behind these feelings. And until we really decide to deal with all of it, the addictions tend to continue. Would you consider reaching out for some counselling? We think you’d find it really beneficial. All the best.
I have a lot of trouble overcoming the bitterness in my life. I feel like I have valid reasons for being upset, but I have so many reasons *not* to be that it probably balances out. I also think my bitterness is ruining my perspective of life, as well as moments when I could be happy but instead feel disgusting inside because I’m so bitter.
I come from a poor family, so I’m jealous of everyone at school with their smartphones, how they’re always going to see movies, and the like. And since I’m not superficial and don’t gossip, I have trouble making friends, so I’m very jealous of everyone with friends. Even though it’s a bit my fault for not being so outgoing, I still blame everyone else for not trying harder. Also I hate it how my younger siblings always get to do some things before I do, like learning to drive or mow the lawn or watching mature movies. Some of my siblings mimicked the passions I had, and they would get carving sets and or hoop skirts or art materials instead of me. Since I was little my family forgets to call me for dinner, and I won’t know until it is all gone or packed up. I don’t fit in with my siblings either – they share the same favourite bands and games that I don’t care for and have similar personalities. My mom told me I was stupid and treated me like a liar, my older sister said my body was shaped unnaturally and that I sucked at singing, I used to get in trouble when my brothers bullied me, my younger sister treats me like dirt. Although most of my siblings would be sorry for the things they said, those things still stick with me and make me bitter. Also I’ve always lived in the shadows of my older sisters.
All that being said, I have many things to be thankful for. My banjo teacher is like a dad to me and gives me lessons for free. My grandpa takes us out for shooting practice, motorcycle rides, and icecream. I’m doing well in school and even won an essay contest. I have two friends and even though they don’t get along and I can’t see them outside school, they’re weird and crazy like me. My mom shows appreciation for my help by buying me sweets and I know she cares about me. I have a job that I love (with free lunches) and my bosses value me. Some of my jealousies are either hypocritical or just dumb.
Hi there, thanks for sharing. You sound like a sensitive, self aware and intelligent young woman who suffers from feeling really unloved and from a mind that is addicted to negative thinking and seeing all that is wrong. And yet you realise this, and follow it up with gratitude. We’d imagine that that is the real you, that person who sees the good side, and that all this negativity is something you were taught. You probably grew up with people who are always negative and complaining. Let yourself be you. Let yourself continue to see what IS working and go from there. You seem like a powerful creative person somehow, who will get through all this. Being a teenager is hard, it’s a rite of passage. It’s normal to be judgmental and hypocritical. You are human and learning. But one day, in the future, when you have left home and are independent, you will honestly wonder why you ever thought so little of your good self.So stop being so hard on yourself and just accept you are doing the best you can.
I left my husband of darn near 30 years, two years ago. We are both in another relationship. He is unrecognizable to me. Doing things I wanted to do with him. Hanging out with her friends, holding hands, kissing, hugging, etc. His girlfriend is a multiple social media poster, who tags him in every one of them, and I swear to you we would make fun of those couples. Now he’s not only one of them, but to the extreme one of them. I’m having trouble shaking the bitterness that she gets the version of my husband that I wanted. It’s such a struggle because I don’t want him. But I hate that I have to deal with this new him and share my two kids with him. Unfortunately I have projected the bitterness onto them at times as well. I want free from caring about what he does, but when I find out he took her on the vacation I wanted to go on, it runs pretty deep. I have a great life now, and a partner so supportive, who would do anything for me, that I honestly don’t feel like I can live him or anyone until this bitterness is gone and I am free. Problem is, here we are a year after his relationship, and it’s still going strong. Thoughts?
Hi Tessa, it sounds tough. And you are perfectly human to feel upset and bitter about this, who wouldn’t, so do try not to judge yourself. Unfortunately, in long term relationships we get entrenched in patterns that keep us both in a box. We effectively can lose our good sides, not because of the other person, but because of these strong patterns of relating that take over. In an ideal world couples therapy would have helped you break up in a way that allowed those good sides to finally show, so real peace could be found before the breakup, but here you are, moved on physically if not emotionally. We would indeed highly suggest you seek some support over this, not because we are a therapy company, but because anyone would need support here and the sooner the better because as you say, it’s affecting the new relationship. Also, these relating issues can link back to childhood, you might find this is even bigger than just him, which is why it can feel so overwhelming. A quick comment or reading a book isn’t going to solve this. And counselling or therapy would also mean that the relating patterns that led to your other relationship ending can be worked on to ensure they don’t resurface in your new relationship. We wish you courage!
I am very bitter, and wish I could stop it, but every day I feel more bitter. My parents were very abusive. I was born prematurely because my mother didn’t want to do bed rest and I suffered seizures and brain damage because of it. I was abused very badly as a child and my father got caught and was cut out of my life, but my mother was given complete custody and she was just as bad. I was forced to see a child therapist as a kid who told me what I told her was “safe” and then told my mother, who would rage at me later. My father met me as an adult and hates “disabled” people. He said disabled people should be lined up against a wall and shot. In my life I have been beaten almost to death, abused in ways I am not saying here, and then as a young adult there was virtually no help until I crashed. I have been trying to rebuild my life but I scream at night. I am in physical pain a lot too. I was kept artificially alive as an infant and then handed to nutcases, and people in my community who were required by law to report it told me as a child they knew what was happening but couldn’t report (long story). I got bullied- rocks thrown at me and even burned with cigarettes. And it just got worse from there. I would stop feeling bitter maybe if I could get a handle on screaming at night, sleep, go outside without panicking and fix my immune system problems and brain damage, but as hard as I try I can’t seem to rise above or get out of poverty. It’s like I was kept alive to be abused and now am being kept alive to live in poverty. So many people knew I needed help as a child and so many turned their backs on me. I used to run away and try to hide under the neighbors crawlspace and the neighbor found me once and kicked me out without a jacket or shoes. I was neglected so much I didn’t have glasses, was pulled out of school and fell behind, had to care for my own injuries and even was left in bed after a beating and kept fainting for weeks. I try hard to forget all of this, but I am so sad, and I can’t see a way to move on. I feel like I was born just to be a punching bag for my parents and for people in “the system” to make money off of while not helping. I saw my father hanging from a noose when I was 2 and screamed hysterically and that saved his life, but even after that he was cruel to me. Almost every night, I scream most of the night, even with medication. I just wish I didn’t have to wake up anymore, but I am phobic of death, so I am trapped here. I am tired of panic, nightmares, shame, flashbacks and feeling terrified most of the time. So yes, I am bitter. I am not really bitter at my parents though, I am bitter at the “professionals” who made money off my suffering and threw me to the wolves and made my situation worse. But I also know I will never get justice or anything close to it. My friend tells me to stop daydreaming about revenge, that is pointless, to move on… but I feel so broken and traumatized that just waking up is a struggle. People tell me to be “grateful” for what I have and I think it is hard to be grateful when you are in so much pain you dread waking up. I just wish those doctors had let me die as a newborn. Even as they were trying to save me, they knew I had would have a low quality of life, and yet they kept me alive anyway, and that’s without them knowing about the abuse I would face. I wish they could have just let me die, and I think that thought so much that it’s almost constant, and that makes me bitter. A lot more went on then I have written. Too much. I should have died multiple times as a child and its almost a “miracle” I am still alive, and that just makes me bitter at God, too. I have a counselor and he tells me to try and live in the present, but that is hard when you have flashbacks and panic attacks and nightmares about the past on a regular basis, when your brain is damaged and you are too traumatized to read a book or watch a movie and you can’t sleep even with sleep medication because your screaming wakes you up all night. So yes, I am bitter. I resent being here, because if people had simply left me alone I would have died and been spared all of this garbage. But they made money off my life, and I suffered because of them. If I could wave a wand and not be bitter, I would, but I feel renewed bitterness every time I wake up. SO, I don’t know how to get it to go. I would give up all the “good” things in my life if I could go back in time and just be allowed to die as an infant. I realize that sounds weak, but I am weak.
You claim you are weak and faulty, and yet you are intelligent and strong enough to write out this very long very detailed and well written story. We think you have far more resources than you realise. But to use them to actually get ahead you’d have to give up something, and that is being the victim. No matter what horrible things happened to you – and, unfortunately, we live in a world where really horrible things happen to people, rape and torture and abuse and terrible, sickening injustices – but no matter what happened to you, you STILL have a choice here. If you choose to be a victim you can never progress as we can’t have power and be a victim at the same time. It’s not possible. So either you become a person who had terrible, awful things happen, yes… but now accepts they have choice and power to choose their own life ahead (intelligence, for example, that is clearly a gift you have) or you stay a victim and spend your entire life bitter and using all the energy you have in telling this story again and again until you are blinded from anything else, and exhausted. yes, why wouldn’t you be, it must be exhausting telling this again and again. Your choice, your move, your life. Sorry if it’s not the ‘poor you’ you might have wanted, but we think you deserve better than that.
I have clumsily stumbled into a beautiful life despite the many missteps that my anger and periods of low self worth have caused me to make. I recently married a wonderful woman -who my daughter playfully said is “out of my league- and we are expecting a child in June. Ours is a bountiful life. Of course, I struggle with negative thoughts constantly: imprisoned in recollections of past insults, humiliations and what I perceive to be injustices. I am often tormented by anger and wish I had stood up for myself more than I did. My Achilles heel is the perception of mockery and laughter. If I feel I am being stared at or ridiculed, I tend to react with rage, often concealed because the ridicule also engenders a morbid fear. So the humiliation is compounded by the ignominy of my own cowardice. I want to prevail above my own bitterness so as to enjoy the life I have. Sometimes I feel as though I am trapped behind a glass barrier that is permitting me to observe the life around me while preventing me from becoming fully engaged in it.
Hi Ned, it’s great that you can see the good and the bad, so we feel you are more balanced than you realise. But it seems like there is some some impostor syndrome going on here. As if you expect at any minute someone it going to say, ‘gigs up! We know you are a fake, and don’t deserve this!’ And that this belief inside of you is so strong your daughter has picked up on it and reflects it back to you (we don’t actually believe your new wife is out of your league, just that you have taught your daughter to think this way without realising it. We’d imagine you probably often put yourself down in little ways, that she grew up around that). First of all, we’d let you know that most if not all successful people feel an impostor at some point (or often). But you speak of rage and fear, and allude to past experiences. And it’s clear you suffer from low self-esteem. We’d wonder what the roots of this inability to just let yourself be happy is about, and what things happened to start this cycle of feeling mocked. Those would all be worth exploring with a therapist and could alone lead to breakthroughs (compassion-focused therapy (CFT) might be interesting for you, or a therapy under the humanistic umbrella, we’d veer away from the traditional heavily analytic therapies like psychoanalysis or even psychodynamic though, it could just encourage your overanalysing). We also spot some rigid thinking patterns. These might be a personality trait. Some of us are born with a tendency to be an ‘observer’, and to approach life with analytics instead of intuition and emotion. Some of us learn this from our parents. Some of us develop it as a coping mechanism. “If I just keep things at a distance with analysis, then it can’t hurt me….”. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a short term therapy focused just on helping you with cognitive distortions http://bit.ly/cognitivedistortionlist like black and white thinking, can be a great help. It could be worth doing a round of CBT before committing to a longer form therapy that deep dives. You might even benefit from some clinical hypnotherapy. There is also a new technique called brain working recursive therapy (BWRT) which can in some cases help quite quickly with self-esteem and stage fright/ anxiety (it’s as if your feeling of always being watched is giving you a sort of existential stage
fright). Finally, it’s okay to give yourself permission to be happy and successful. No matter what anyone else said or thinks, you are the person who decides that now. Best, HT
I thank you for my chance to reflect on Anger and Bitterness. When having that much patience you do at some point want to blow up but just can’t you have to wonder if you’re anger and bitter. So acknowledging faults is a key step I thought. I scanned some Bible reference but they imply you are mad at people. I am not that foolish. Anger and Bitter feelings can be from anything, most often things likely not the fault of any said individual. But anger and bitterness is a self-consuming spiral. Very frowned upon and not recommended. I, personally will not forgive anyone for my anger and bitterness because no one is to blame, I am just a negative person. It can’t be the fault of others you are not pleased. It is petty in the long run I’ve always thought feelings like it but I definitely came to rash conclusions Anger & Bitterness was my case. Turns out, I’m somewhat right again! “Get in where you fit in.” Do not bring down others because you simply cannot conform to regular society.
And if you ever feel Anger or Bitter, think hard if you really are. If you ever think, you’re Angry and Bitter, be sure to take a good minute and assess what it will do to you keeping that downward spiral consuming you. Do not lay blame, do not make accusations. Do not be spiteful. Merely keep it in, do not let it go, and when breathing won’t work; let it boil. Then, think hard if you are Angry and Bitter. Then, keep your cool, assess your immaturity, see how bad you made a fool of yourself, count your mistakes…and take a 30 second time out and check yourself before you seethe in anger and bitterness. Perhaps understand, you are not where you should be in life and look forward. Others are not to blame for your anger and bitterness.
Be merry in the fact you only messed up so much, and do not further the problem you find not to your liking. Do not cast lots, do not cast blame. Do not, ensue the matter further.
That, helped me. It took 30 minutes to face the truth, and took a few days wondering if I was upset. In the end, I made few errors…a couple mistakes…and tested my composure poorly. But, so be it! I won’t be so susceptible to it again. Nor be snide in my future self. That is the key to identify. Do not be snide in your actions. Angry and Bitter you could make terrible mistakes in life being crude. I luckily caught myself this time around. I thank you for your site.
A UK site to boot! No way! Pudup!
Sshh! I super wasn’t even here right now and totally am not piss angry bitter stupid. I’m not in college, I’m not dealing with these parameters…
Not a problem. In fact, shameful to be so petty and immature. Very disgraceful to be so upset. But, I refuse to accept certain truths that allow me to be so rash. I don’t have the class to simply not worry such matters. In fact I do have such class and won’t let my stupidity override my aspirations.
Thanks so much,
-smart man
Hi there. From what we can gather you are really hard on yourself, and judge yourself a lot for having anger. You shouldn’t. There is nothing wrong with anger healthily expressed, and it’s normal to feel anger. It helps us set boundaries and take care of ourselves. It’s only when anger becomes rage or when we repress it that issues start. If you do have anger issues, they actually DO often come from somewhere. Most often from a childhood where you didn’t feel accepted as you were and were not shown unconditional love but had to ‘earn’ love by being ‘good’. A child deserve love no matter if they are sad or angry or happy. If you might have had a difficult childhood that caused your anger, consider therapy, it’s very helpful. Otherwise, use our search bar to find our articles on anger, we think you’ll find them useful. Best, HT.
I have been hurt by a lot of people including those l love very much.l am not able to forget no matter how hard I try.l also didn’t have the best of childhoods.l had a stingy father.l have also had bad experiences with few men l dated.this has left an indelible mark in my mind.l have a good husband but he doesn’t show love to me the way I expect.this makes me remember bad experiences.l also have bad neighbours around and my heart beats so bad whenever l see them.l need help.
Sounds tough Dora. Sometimes our childhood gives us trust issues and sets our mind to always scanning for danger and what is wrong and we can’t see what is working and right. So it leads to anxiety and depression amongst other things. Unfortunately even the best person in the world can let us down, as people are different, they have different perspectives and expectations and might not understand ours. Are you ready to reach out for that help? Counselling would be a very good idea if you had the courage. It will help you build up resilience, raise your self-esteem, and learn new perspective. Best, HT.
I’m upper 50’s, happily married female, but I feel very bitter towards all who let me down. I am very social and am always reaching out to people. I don’t get a lot of reach back. I try to remind myself I am the outgoing one and friends I like are somewhat introverts, and maybe it’s just their nature to not reach out. I had an older brother who purposely humiliated me a few Christmas ago, in front of a large family. He was trying to teach me a lesson because his way is always right and mine was not. I was so hurt and spent most of that Christmas crying. I chose to not attend family functions anymore because many of them were in on it, and no one ever apologized. One heartfelt apology would have done the trick. And yet I know I only learned to apologize from others…because it was never taught in our family. My logic is I am being so ridiculous and spoiled, but my emotions take over and I am furious with most people these days. Trying to read articles, journal, everything to better this but nothing is working. Some days I feel so much dread and despair to continue on. How stupidly ridiculous am I????
Great article. I read it because I remain angry. My husband left me for another woman. A friend. Since he left he has been aggressive and angry. He speaks really badly to me and tells me I deserve to be spoken to whenever I point it out. I am struggling to find my power in our relationship with him, We have three children together and have to continue to relate.
Hi T, not ridiculous at all. Except in the way you seem to have a hidden belief that you have to be the good, gracious, forgiving person to be accepted and liked.You see it’s clear to us you are very, very uncomfortable with being angry or not perfect or not happy go lucky. This is your carefully constructed persona. You’ve probably relied on it for a long, long time. Here’s the thing that might be hard to hear. You are probably the only one who believes in it. People are smarter than we realise. They can probably sense the cost of this persona, the bitterness you feel toward them, the seething repressed anger. And they can probably very much sense you aren’t being authentic. That you are playing a role. Believe it or not, this turns people off. It keeps them at a distance. This might, deep, deep down, even be why you created this persona in the first place. Often if we are inauthentic but live out a pleasing persona it’s as we fear being really seen or judged for who we are. The truth of the matter is that we are ALL human. we are MESSY. We are angry, sullen, bitter, mean, nasty, AND lovely, loving, joyful, happy, and kind. And what other people seek is NOT some perfect jolly person. But a person who is comfortable with who she is, who they can trust to accept them as they are. So the reason you feel bitter is that you don’t accept yourself and therefore CAN’T accept others as they are. Can you see how this works? So here’s the other truth that might be hard to digest at first. This is not about liking or forgiving or accepting any of these other people. It’s about turning it all around and learning to actually accept and like YOU. Just as you are. The furious, raging you. The inner nasty you. Those parts are actually necessary and useful. Without them you don’t know how to stand your ground and set boundaries. We’d suggest you look into what’s called ‘shadow work’. Looking at your ‘shadow’ side and learning to embrace it. You can learn more here http://bit.ly/shadowselfHT. Finally, we would highly recommend therapy. This sort of ‘pleasing jolly person’ persona with a deep rage beneath is more common than you think, and relates to childhoods where we had to be pleasing and ‘good’ to get the love we should have been given no matter how we were feeling or behaving. Best, HT.
Mandy, that is seriously a tough thing to navigate. In your case, it’s perfectly normal and healthy to feel bitter and angry. The thing now is to simply not judge yourself for feeling so. Anger is not always bad, sometimes is useful, it helps us continue when we are feeling overwhelmed and helps us set boundaries. Perhaps you need to be angry back if it’s how you really feel and let him see what it’s like. If that feels wrong, then consider letting it all out on paper. Promise yourself to rip the paper up after (so your mind feels safe to let go) and write out all the angry, wild, and childish things you want to say. Write it fast, it doesn’t have to be legible. Then rip it up after. Other things that can help involve (safely) punching pillows. Regarding finding your power with him, you are free to make choices here. Forget about being ‘nice’. What makes you feel safe here? Do you want to now only communicate through email or text? Or to have a go between, such as you both choosing one family member to convene for you and do the drop off/pick up for kids? Or only speak through a lawyer? Find the solution that works for you and him right now. And do not overlook a counsellor, it can be a godsend to have someone impartial to rant to and to help you stand in your power. Best, HT.
A lot of the responses in here are garbage. Unless you have truly had something happen to you , you will never truly understand what it is like to be bitter and angry. You just don’t get it.
Hi John, we understand you are angry. When bad things happen to us, it’s a natural response. But thinking nobody else can get it is a defense mechanism, helping us hold onto the anger, to hide from the fact that behind the anger is often a lot of sadness, too. It’s a huge assumption on your part to assume only you go through bad things and suffer. And a way to keep yourself alone and isolated. In our experience, most people go through at least one terrible thing in life. And given that at least 1 in 4 people experience sexual abuse, for example, there are many, many, many people who have the right to say they understand, if you let them. We’d also point out that most therapists become therapists because they have had to suffer themselves, and develop compassion and empathy for those who suffer. You are doing research on bitterness. Doesn’t that mean you want to move past it? A first step might be accepting that you aren’t alone in suffering. That others around you are suffering, too. It can be hard, as that means we can’t feel as sorry for ourselves as we want to, but it’s useful. Best, HT.
I am feeling very bitter because all the things I tried for the last 15 years did not worked out especially the last four years. I worked my butt off and everything backfired in my face. I did not bring in any money for the last four years and I feel worthless. If I die today or tomorrow I will not mind because except for my wife nobody cares. Your articles are excellent. I realise that I have a big urge to give but just want some recognition or appreciation which I do not get although I wrote 40 posts on a website in four months. The posts were really not bad as I got my info from the web. Life is just not worth it anymore.
Christo, sounds like you are going through a tough time. But there are some interesting things in your comment. There seems to be some black/white thinking and assumptions going on you might want to take some time to question. Nothing worked out? Is that really true? In our experience, life is consistently all things – good, bad, up, down. Is it not possible that in 15 years some things DID work out if you think about it? As for not bringing in money and feeling worthless. That’s hard. But it’s also hard to hear you judge your value based on money. In summary, it feels like your brain is on what is called a cognitive distortion loop. http://bit.ly/cognitivedistortionlist The brain can be like faulty software, addicted to negative thinking. When this happens the best things could happen right in front of us and the brain would discount them. But you are NOT what you think. You are much greater than your thoughts. Have you ever tried some counselling? There is a type of therapy you might find useful. It’s short term, you don’t talk much about your past, you just learn how to reprogram your brain to think in a more balanced fashion that doesn’t leave you falling into depression. It’s called cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). It doesn’t involve a warm therapist/client relationship though. It is clear you are struggling to source your esteem from yourself and want it to come from outside of yourself, which never works, but which tends to come from childhood. So if you had the courage to try a longer form of therapy, such as one that comes from the humanistic school of thought or even schema therapy, it could involve working with a therapist who has a warm, supportive relationship with you that you might really find helpful. Otherwise, you might want to start a mindfulness practise. It’s a challenge at first, true. But it’s a free, easy tool that in the long run is shown to help with stress, anxiety, and the ability to be present and grateful for what is working in life http://bit.ly/mindfulnessallabout. Finally, read our article on self compassion. It’s a great way to raise self esteem. And you deserve to show yourself some ! http://bit.ly/selfcompassion. We wish you courage. HT Best, HT.
Hi,
I have not been able to let go of my bitterness for every injustice done to me so far in my life.
I have never had a happy childhood. My parents never cared or loved for me. I was always the neglected one whereas my brother was the one getting all the attention, love and care. My mother always suppressed me and put me down. I felt all alone during my childhood. I even attempted suicide when I was in my high school. I never got any confidence to speak to people or stand up for myself.
I look very ugly, I am very short and I don’t have any charming personality to make any friends but I always thought my good behavior would compensate for my ugliness. I did manage to make some good friends owing to my good, soft and timid behavior but in adulthood, I suffered because of unrequited loves. No guy ever liked me or loved me. I was not upto the standard of this society to be in love with.
Ultimately, my parents got me married to a stranger. I was subjected to more abuse and mental harassment there. My husband and in-laws would gang-up against me and inflict all kinds of torture on me. I spent many years of my life taking that harassment. I was always shunted between my parents and in-laws house. No house felt like my own. Thankfully I had a job and this job gave me opportunities to explore new things. I was so low on confidence that it took me a long time to come out of the control of all these people. But I was able to over come my fear and I took a job opportunity to leave my country and work in Europe. That gave me enough strength to know that I can live alone. After that, there was no stopping for me. I took my own decisions and explored everything that life had to offer to me. And I got the courage to stand up for myself and not take any more of the injustice done to me.
But all these struggles have built a resentment within me. I feel angered of being treated so badly for so many years. I feel angered of not finding true love because I realized love is based on physical beauty. I was rejected by so many guys even though I loved them truly that I am very bitter . I cant let go of this bitterness and anger and live a peaceful life. It has done a really bad impact on me.
Hi there Santy. First of all, give yourself some credit, this is an amazing story, how you got out there and found your own life in the face of all that. As for feeling bitter, it’s okay and even normal to be angry. The issue is to not spend time judging yourself for that and instead use the energy that wastes to instead find ways to process the anger. We’d highly, highly advise you seek the help of a talk therapist, who could create a safe space for you to work through all these emotions. Yes, we are a therapy company, but we don’t push everyone to therapy. It’s just that your issues are deeply rooted, it’s a long complicated history, and a lot to navigate alone. So in this case it’s highly advised. Self help is great, but in some cases we need support. You are a courageous woman. Can you use that courage to make the big step of seeking support? Best, HT.
What a lovely article and site! I love all your enumerated tips. Just great to keep in mind in any situation…But especially I find useful your idea of challenging “the story”. Do I even want the thing I keep repeating to myself is “missing” or “damaged”? I feel bitterness over my sister’s choices and past behavior. We had quite a dysfunctional family growing up and she handles it by isolating very often. Makes me especially sad at Christmas, when my mom is hurt most by her absence and my kids miss her. What helps me is to focus on all the love I can give and all the love I receive from those who are present. Not ruin the moment because others do not have the behavior I desire. We can create new traditions. I can attempt to lift up my mother and sister without my happiness being tied to how they respond. I do my best to leave it in God’s hands. When I ask for his help, he sends comfort in extraordinary ways. Thank you for all the wonderful reminders you listed in your very thorough article.
Hi Lisa, glad it helped! Good for you for recognising that you want her to behave as you desire (we have an article on expectations in relationships you might like, use the search bar to find it). Sounds like you both have different coping mechanisms. Neither is better than the other, we all have different perspectives and ways of coping. What works for you, giving, doesn’t work for others, who need to step back in order to manage. And you seem to get that when you say ‘without my happiness being tied up to how they respond’. Best, HT.
So, I’m nineteen and for just over a year now I’ve had ME. It’s a chronic illness that can have me in bed all day with muscles seizing painfully, dizzy and photophobic. There’s no treatment available where I live.
I’d just started uni, and there was/is so many exciting things to do, but within a month of arriving, I could barely leave my room without feeling light-headed and exhausted.
I took a leave of absence just before the pandemic hit, but am back at uni and already falling behind. I was a straight A student in high school and it was crushing when I failed an exam last winter.
I’m just so angry at my body for betraying me, and I don’t know how to let it go. I can’t cook for myself, can’t walk for more than five minutes without needing to rest, can’t read a screen too long without my eyes streaming.
I’d already had a shitty childhood, and it feels like my bright future has been taken from me. I’m all too aware of the consequences of bottling things up, but I don’t know how to deal with this.
Hi Jas, are you in the UK? There is more and more treatment available here now, including psychological treatment. Note that you mention a shitty childhood. ME is a real medical neurological illness, finally recognised. But it’s also recognised that there is a psychological element and that psychological treatment is useful (it’s not just ME that this is true for, research is finally showing more and more that the mind/body/emotions are interconnected, not two separate things). If you are in the UK your GP can recommend you for free psychological treatment over the internet so you don’t have to be in a certain area to receive it. Note that we have articles on the site about chronic fatigue and neurological illnesses such as this article about the connection between chronic fatigue and depression https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-and-depression.htm. In many cases ME is far from a life sentence. We think you still have a lot of say over what your future is. Best, HT.
After reading all of the other postings here, my heart goes out to them. Thank you for this forum.
It’s hard to know where to begin, but I will try to be brief. I’m very bitter about the time I’ve lost in my life. Both my parents passed before the age of 8, and having to grow up faster than other children led to more maturity but more observation. Now in my early 40s, it feels like this life is an alternate dimension where I just don’t fit in.
Being caring, honest, full of integrity, compassionate, loyal, hardworking and other positive traits have been cornerstones of my life… but the actions of others have derailed my goals so far in relationships and my career. One thing that I hate to observe is…that some people just get neglected in this life, and that hurts to see and experience.
You’re probably going to say.. why do you feel that you’ve lost time? Well in my entertainment career people age out and are judged on other subjective things. Lots of people with so much talent have quit around my own struggles through the business because they just couldn’t take the neglect anymore. I persevere because I believe I belong… Even though it’s very difficult to continue pursuing a career by doing things that don’t seem to matter. And I’ve gotten to the point of speaking my mind more because I don’t want any more time to be taken from me. But that means I risk being blacklisted or worse. But the neglectful silence remains 🙁
Your advice in this forum has addressed individuals going through the bitterness.. but what about holding others responsible for their part to play in it? The majority of people who have posted their struggles in this forum want vindication or validation to let go of bitterness. You may say that will never happen… but I believe we spend too much time teaching individuals how to accept what happened and working through it only themselves instead of holding others accountable and teaching those who hurt how to own up to their actions. You may call that fruitless, but I call it a way to be able to move on.
Yes I am a victim, but not without reason or understanding. There’s a difference. But when your integrity feels lost in this world, you’re standing on the sidelines, and you come home to an empty bed every night? It’s extremely difficult to live in the moment with brief positivity gratitudes. It gets to be a very lonely world for an extrovert when you lose your friends and family because they can’t return phone calls and other correspondence. Again going back to need of accountability.
No I don’t want to hear your recommendations of counselors, because everytime I talk to one? I’ve tried everything they’ve suggested and have heard “well I don’t know what to tell you” more than I can count. I’m the most willing to talk open book that you will ever meet…and I’ve had enough self reflection for multiple lifetimes. So save me from the behavioral therapy links as well.
I have hopefulness in my heart…but that only goes so far with daily disappointments that I don’t seek out but still happen. We compare ourselves to others because that’s the modern society human condition… not rather an unfair comparison when all I want is a normal life. Or who knows what normal is but it should be easier than this.
Hi there Scott, there is an awful lot going on in this comment. It’s very clear you mean to be helpful, we don’t doubt that. But you start out very nice and complementary, and by the end you are lashing out. In the middle there are assumptions where you tell us what we will/ won’t say/think. We point this out not in any way to judge, but to be helpful. You see, we wonder if there is a discrepancy between the way you think you come across to others and the way you actually do come across that is affecting your connecting with others and contributing strongly to that loneliness. You say that “Being caring, honest, full of integrity, compassionate, loyal, hardworking and other positive traits have been cornerstones of my life”. We aren’t doubting that these are your values, although certainly a lot to live up to. And here you are coming across as quite angry and even slightly aggressive. Sometimes if we are furious and want others to ‘take responsibility’ it’s because we are hooked on the idea of they are bad/ we are good. And to maintain this idea, we have to constantly live up to the idea in our head that we are the ‘good’ guy. It’s a lot to live up to, for any human, and means we have to unconsciously block things out to maintain our own self image. We end up less self-aware than we realise, which can make relating complicated. The other option is to admit that we are as flawed as every other human. And to offer ourselves self compassion just as we are, sometimes compassionate and kind and fun, other times angry, sad, confused, sometimes mean and horrible, even… basically, human and imperfect. Only then can we start to soften and have self compassion for others. Yes, even, maybe, one day, for those who did things that hurt us. You can definitely find a way to analyse this and write it off, also. You can put us into the ‘bad guy’ ‘doesn’t get it’ category. That’s up to you. But at some point this game you are playing of ‘me against the world’ is going to have to be given up, as it’s taking all your energy and holding you back. Best, HT.
I was told being angry and bitter was normal after my wife of 28 years leaving me for a stranger on facebook. She split our 2 kids and stated she did not want our son, took my daughter and moved away. For months after she told me about the other guy and wanted a divorce, I tried to get her to go talk to anyone with me or by herself, but she refused. I finally gave up on trying. it has been over 3 years since the divorce and I can not let go. I took a financial hit, so she could take care of the kids and after she got the money she left my son and ran. I live in an apartment, gave up a business, land, ect… and she is prospering with this new guy. I am slowly moving forward rebuilding, but the I feel the bitterness is slowing me down. She gets to get what she wants and I have to work harder just to maintain. She did this to me and she gets a pass? I feel like I have gotten better, but then the bitterness rears its ugly head.
Hi Dallas. These sorts of things take time. What we would ask is, have you sought any tools to process all this anger? Instead of waiting for it to pass we’d suggest being proactive. It’s also possible this situation has snowballed onto other unhealed issues stretching right back to childhood, which can be the case if our rage and bitterness are particularly high. Look into tools of anger management and consider counselling. Having a safe space and a confidential ear to work through our bitterness an be tremendously powerful and helps us move on a lot faster than if we go it alone. And you are absolutely right, bitterness does hold us back and slow us down. Others sense it and can steer clear leaving us lonely, or we can find ourselves snapping at colleagues, for example. So it does merit being taken seriously. Best, HT.
So I come from an abusive home ..Jesus,I could still remember when I was four and my mom was pregnant and one certain night my father drove me ,my pregnant mum and my elder brother from the house because of a little issue..we slept outside that day..so fast forward to when am seventeen I left home in a disguise of staying for a few weeks with my uncle who was stinking rich while my father sorted my admission to college but actually I had real intentions of living with the man..like my plans were to stay with him for as long time as I could to afford me to learn his business as an apprentice and in return when am done for those years he would settle me …and mind you I was just seventeen and fragile and quiet …So logically I got to my uncle’s and three weeks gone I was asked to return to complete my papers . .. That’s when I spilled the beans and they were so mad especially my mum she couldn’t think of what would happen to me in the open word..what I mean is ..like i have never left her sight for anything.. literally.But I knew what I wanted,we were poor as church rats and nine in the family,someone had to forfeit the funs and games and quench the stench of poverty..
In my uncle’s house was not as I had thought..her wife hated me so and I did not know why..she would seize any moment to degrade me and what ever it was I did ,even as little as spilling water she would run the news to every living being associated to me and by morning am shamefaced for chrissake ..I didn’t take long before she was able to convince the others and her husband that I was a freaking devil . ..
Thats when it all started
I never knew joy..they were always at my back ..they laughed.they scorned,I wept..it wasn’t easy I was 17 and ordinarily a person would think am much older because I have features of an adult than a teenager
Am 21 now and I think I have passed those days now because I chose to take my life back .I grew ,although they were times I cried to bed ,my dad still hurts my mom,and I had once tried suicide
Most times when I see those people,yes all of them I just wish they could disappear although I have learnt to fake smiles as if all is all …and in all this the one dim happiness I have is that it won’t take long before I leave here ..the thought of it settles my soul..
Joseph, that is a lot to go through. It’s really hard when we are young and at the mercy of the decisions of adults who are not living out their good sides and we feel helpless. Be proud of yourself for finding a way forward and having a plan. Often when we get away and can finally make all decisions for ourselves it helps immensely. But this sort of childhood, which was unsafe and had violence, means we can suffer issues as adults and have anxiety and depression or have troubles with relating and trusting. Right now you need to focus on becoming independent and getting away, we agree. If in the future you are struggling with moods do seek support if you can. Counselling can really really help with difficult childhoods. We wish you courage. Best, HT.
Great article! Thank you, finally some action steps I can move forward on.
Glad it was helpful!
First off, May God bless you Harley for this article and all of the other articles – and your time consuming and tedious choice to respond to comments. It is probably because of those responses your article came up in my google search for how to overcoming bitterness even though I’m on the other side of the world, and I will be eternally grateful.
This evening I went to a barbecue and met a man. He asked me what I did for a living and I told him, but when I asked him he didn’t want to tell me, and I had to keep guessing. He through curveballs to confuse me and eventually I figured out he was a political public figure. I was annoyed and mentioned it to another girl I met there who was offended on his behalf and kept saying he was ‘a good guy’. I couldn’t understand why this bothered me so much, but it made me decide to stay permanently single, and not to date, or socialize with people my age anymore at parties and events. We had decided to keep in touch but after that I decided I never wanted to see her again.
I could feel the resentment weighing on me and after some pondering/reflection, I realized I was triggered by his behavior to remember my ex fiancé. He played those types of games and was emotionally abusive and manipulative, and would also do those things as a way to embarrass me or make me feel stupid or less than him. But everyone also considered him a “good guy” and would defend him just like she did. But I ended up looking stupid in front of everyone when he left me at the alter (or never showed up). Which was a game that I still played by continuing to see him and believe him that he was just tired and depressed but still loved me. Until I finally loved myself enough to move on.
Anyway, that’s when I realized I was bitter, because instead of looking at him as his own person and being annoyed but letting it go, I looked at him and felt like I was back with my ex, and stuck in this inferior and degrading relationship that I was trapped in for years.
Your article helped me a lot. And reading the comments you made for other people did too. I think bitterness, shame, grief, and rage, are some of the hidden emotions my brain is hiding, because the real rage and bitterness is not at my ex or the stranger I met tonight, it’s at myself.
I wasn’t triggered by him per say, I think I was triggered by my actions because I did the same thing that I used to do with my ex. 1) I engaged with his nonsense. Instead of just saying “I’m not playing this game, I’ll just decide your a janitor and move on” or even better just call him out for his socially inappropriate behavior and move on, I let myself engage and be tricked to look stupid in front of a group of people. Again. And then 2) instead of just trusting my instincts to move on I talked to someone else about it and asked her opinion and she rejected my thoughts and defended his, which caused me to offend and not value myself, by not trusting my own instincts.
I don’t know how to forgive myself. I’m really interested in trying to have more self compassion. I’ve overcome so many abusive relationships, BPD, foster care, physical illnesses like cancer and epilepsy, I have gone through over 20 years of therapy, and recovered and survived over 25 suicide attempts, I mean I am proud of myself (at least I think) and I know I’ve always done the best I can with what I had, but I must be bitter and resentful with myself for looking like a fool for so long and in front of so many people, and for trusting their judgment over my own.
What other things can I do to help my brain know that this pain is okay to feel, and that I’m sorry? I’m truly sorry that subconsciously I still don’t trust my own judgement yet and that I care more of what others think than myself but I’m working on it. Does that make sense?
Hi Alexandria, so here’s a few interesting things to consider. First of all, you are really identifying as your behaviour here. But you are so much more than that. When we experience childhood trauma, our brain is affected. It can be over reactive, as you are aware. The brain of a traumatised person is so trained to scan for danger that it is triggered far more easily than others. But you are actually not your brain. Think of a computer. If there is a bit of tricky software, that does that mean the computer itself is not acceptable? No. It means there is a glitch but the computer is just fine. Or you can think of it like ‘you’ versus ‘You’, little you versus capital Y big you. Behind all of our thinking, our reactions, our behaviours, (little you) there we are, the real us, powerful and full of resources and knowing (big You). Some might call it the Higher self, or the God self. The point is that the first step to developing self compassion is to develop the habit to step back and see the behaviour without identifying with it. “Oh, there goes my brain again, assuming everyone is against me”. Not, “there is something wrong with me as everyone is against me.” This might seem small, but it’s huge. the more you can create that space, and feel out the bigger ‘You’ behind it all, the less you judge, the less you will feel trapped in these behaviours (a mindfulness practise is also a great idea here, fyi http://bit.ly/mindfulnessallabout). Over-identifying, on the other hand, can really ‘glue’ us to ways of being, if that makes sense. Next point – yes, you are very wisely aware that you care too much about what others think. But we’d also gently suggest that you also assume you know what others think. And assume they care about what you do and think. This is normal for a sensitive person. But you’d be amazed how often this simply isn’t the case. Most people are so self-obsessed they forget about you and what you did/said or didn’t do/say minutes later. And that man might not have wanted to share his job simply as he was embarrassed, or didn’t want to be treated differently based on his job, it might have been about him, and nothing at all to do with you, but you assumed it was about you. So we’d say read up about assumptions (use the search bar to find our articles on this, we have a few). When we train ourselves to constantly catch our thoughts and question them, then seek a more balanced realistic one, we can, with time, stop sending ourselves on self-shaming spirals. If you had the courage, CBT therapy helps you do exactly this. It’s a great short-term therapy to help you stablise if you have a traumatic past before you do a longer, more deep-diving type of therapy. CBT can also be helpful for BPD (and we have an article on other recommended therapies here http://bit.ly/BPDtreatment). Finally, trusting our own judgement if we come from trauma is a long-term goal. It comes and goes. Sometimes we struggle with it. And that’s okay! Every minute is a new chance to try again. You’re on the right road, that’s what matters. We wish you courage! Best, HT.
I feel bitter because my friends tortured me too much as a kid, and I never got over it or the problems that grew out of it. I’m still in that experience half the day 20 years later and it’s hard to think that other people are different than the people who were deliberately consciously torturing me, because it was several groups of people I got stuck in with who did this to me one after the other, and they were always my closest friends. I see the way people are and I don’t believe that the majority are better than that if they had power to treat me like that with no consequences I think most people would especially christians.
Hi there. So when we experience trauma one of the long term side effects is actually what are called ‘cognitive distortions’. Our mind gets stuck in strong ruts of negative thinking, and we convince ourselves our negative thoughts are ‘facts’ when they actually aren’t. These include things like black and white thinking and assumptions. http://bit.ly/cognitivedistortionlist In a way this sort of rigid thinking is a defence mechanism. It’s there to protect us from any sort of further hurt. But it backfires as it also leaves us lonely as it drives others away, leaving no space for empathy, and stops us from even seeing other people at all. Did you also know that there is a short term form of therapy that focuses just on helping you recognise such thoughts and change them so they stop leading to you always feeling depressed and always making negative choices as if you just can’t stop yourself? It’s called CBT therapy. And it doesn’t even involve going over the past, plus, it’s proven to lower anxiety. As for christian sects, interestingly, they use black and white thinking as well, which as we said lowers empathy and blinds people. In summary, we get it. Hard experiences can leave us hardened. But this means you are actually letting the experience win. The way to really win is to learn, against all odds, and often by getting support, to still be open to life, others, love, and joy. That is up to you. Best, HT.
I am getting older now 67 and find I have grown a root of bitterness. I successfully overcame many things in my life including sexual abuse, emotional and even some physical abuse. I worked years as a psychiatric nurse helping others, was saved and baptized in the Holy spirit. I was a very happy person. But then my ex husband who was schizophrenic was given joint custody of our 3 year old daughter. I had not.let him be alone with her because I saw him slap her around as a baby. She went to visit and came home a different child. I took her to counseling and she had been sexually abused. I screamed at God and felt betrayed. I had to do what was legal and He did not protect her. Shortly my ex called me from jail feeling suicidal. I repented and asked God not to harm him. She was a difficult child after that, not really wanting to connect and quite oppositional but we made it. When she was 7 I remarried a wonderful.man from church. Well the church I went to did not believe in that, called his ex wife and on her description of him they told me if I married him I was kicked out. I did so anyway and our marriage has lasted longer than the church did. Later as you probably know the government and insurance companies virtually stopped paying for psychiatry, hospitalizations and most counseling. I no longer fiund my job rewarding with a revolving door for patients I changed to home health. I enjoyed this as well but Government changes put a lot if pressure on those companies and we had to do huge amounts of paperwork, enough that it made helping people difficult. I branched out and became a Medicaid provider with my own business as well as teaching at community colleges. We had several foster children that were teens that we helped during this time. My stepson was giving his mother a lot of trouble. My husband had had heart surgery and when I called to tell them the reply came as a lawsuit for increased child support. He was unable to get to court but God was with us and kept the child support the same when my husband wrote a letter about why he could not attend. Eventually the younger stepson got violent with his brother. My husband and I felt he would end up in jail without a father as a role model. The judge agreed and we were given custody. We kept him in school and out if trouble but unbeknownst to us he was emotionally abusive to my daughter and sexually abusive to our son. Again I was angry at God and at the son but I forgave with the help of church, my husband and just getting on with life. Several years later our son told us he was gay. Another time of anger but eventually after prayer God told us just to love him and we have. He has since gone to college and is out on his own. The last few years of his high school we moved to Alabama. Then kids at the school emotionally and physically abused him for being gay. Most churches in the area are very fundamentalist and a favorite subject was homosexuality. That was usually coupled with hell. Several.pastors here seemed stuck in the subject leaving us cowering wondering what each sermon would bring. My son ran the government overheads and sound system at church. The last one I later found had a young son who told his father he was gay. After a year of incessant preaching,about it, a bout with cancer on my part and of my husband having to retire from heart disease we changed churches. Unfortunately I asked for prayer to overcome the pain from the preaching and my son becoming gay. Being fundamentalists their view of God was one if wrath and after a year the pastor finally told me it was God punishing us for our sins. That did not go over well with me. We continued to go to thrive meetings but my grief seemed to consume me. There was no area church that thought differently and we are in a sparsely populated area. I decided I could not bear to hear this every week and knew it was the best they were capable of so we quit church. Prior to that time.my job as a home health nurse changed with Obama care implementing pay for performance. In other words if a patient gets well fast they pay well but if they have more needs are elderly or have mental illness and do not improve rapidly they wanted them discharged. This discouraged me as I was mental health and dementia certified through medicare. I was given the more difficult patients but pressured to see more, discharge them within weeks when they could have done well with more help. I also had about a 200 square mile territory. I set a limit on the number of clients I could see and agreed to work full time. Within a week they gave me many more than that agreement and I did not have it in writing. I became depressed workng 12 to 14 hiurs daily and my Dr recommended I take time off. I was also having very high BP anxiety atracks and episodes of double vision. After some counseling and a few months off I had to apply for SS disability. Miraculously it was granted to me so I could retire. I have trouble with retirement but took up gardening and raising sheep. I feel very isolated, church seems to be torture because of the literal interpretation and condemnation taught in the south. Then along came covid and the isolation that goes with that. I am now extremely angry at the government and their recent policies which have hurt so many by closing businesses, making counseling unavailable because the law says it must be given by a company with over 50 employees. So if I want counseling I would have to.pay for it. I find myself angry at the lies cheating untrue news open borders and general disintegration of our country with rising crime increased poverty many who have no integrity and try to steal from people on line by phone scams and even when we hire help. I find myself wishing I could just die and have it over with. I do not know if we will ever see our grandchildren or my family again because we are elderly and I am concerned about flying cross country. It made us ill several times even before covid. My husband still has heart trouble I have had several surgeries. Life just doesn’t seem to have much of a future for us. I am watching the country I love fall apart, I have little purpose in life except to be with my husband. How do I stop being bitter over the country going down the tubes, inflation, isolation, repeated health issues and surgeries, such hatred over homosexuality or other sin beingbthe.main subject at church II instead of love encouragement and fellowship. I am not a good actor. I tend to be be y open about a living God, miracles in our lives and need to reach out to those who “do not prequalify”. All.of this has really.messed up my relationship with God. I do not trust that things will go well but am determined to stay with Him. I live in fear of illness and death of my husband, inflation causing financial.problems – we have had in NE thus far. I know being with God is not a Rose garden but I have no reserves left and fear the worst.
Hi Karen. What we take from all this is that you are terribly lonely with nobody to really talk to. Which is tough and can often leave us unable to find ways forward, just left with our thoughts going around and around in our head. Negative thoughts can actually be highly addictive, as much as any drug! We’d gather that you have told this story many times, sure it is the only ‘truth’. The real truth is life is always a mix of good and bad, never just one or the other. Even at the worst moments there is something going on that is okay, even if it’s just that we are alive and breathing and in decent health. But when our mind is addicted to what’s called ‘cognitive distortions’ we literally can only see the bad, our brain is trained this way and we need help to see that there is more beyond the blinders we’ve got on. Most religion certainly doesn’t help, if we can be so frank, with it’s focus on dividing life into black/white and good/bad, and also encouraging judgement and fear, we suspect Jesus would be horrified at what is done apparently in his name and how much despair religion has caused when he preached a religion of love and joy and hope. God also never said you had to go through a church to access him or have anyone else’s approval. How much better would you feel if it actually didn’t matter what anyone else thought? As it doesn’t, try to remind yourself of that. We are sure God, should he come down during these times, also wouldn’t care at all what someone’s sexual choices was, Jesus himself walked with people from all walks of life without judgement. We understand that the church serves as helping people feel less lonely, but if the price is feeling terrible all the time we aren’t sure it’s a church worth attending. Finally, we aren’t American, we are in England. Again, it’s clear you need someone to talk to, and that really despite all these problems the real problem if feeling disconnected and like you don’t matter. It is important you gather up all the willpower and courage you can to find something that helps you feel connected again and reminds you you DO matter. No matter what that looks like, do what works for you, regardless of what others think. If you were in the UK we could offer many leads, but we don’t know they way that all works in your country, but we do know there are mental health charities in America like in the UK. For example a quick google shows there are things like this free help line for those over 60 https://www.ioaging.org/services/all-inclusive-health-care__trashed/friendship-line. Why not give them a call and see if they can help you find free to low cost mental health services in your area of some sort of support group? As for free tools that can really help, mindfulness requires commitment but is proven by research to help with anxiety and depression and is free and easy to learn http://bit.ly/mindfulnessallabout. We also have a great article on ways to find low cost to free counselling that can serve as inspiration. http://bit.ly/lowcosttherapy 67 is an age when some people start all new things, it doesn’t have to be an end, if you don’t want it to be. Best, HT.
I’ve earned every bit of my bitterness, and I have no desire to change. I’m going to be that way until I die and that’s that.
Then that’s exactly what will happen, as what we decide is the way it is, is the way it is. The human mind is a powerful beast. Curious why you’d end up reading an article on how to overcome it, though. Maybe this isn’t your real desire? Something to think about. Perhaps on a certain level you wonder if maybe you’ve also earned to be at peace? Best, HT.