How do you experience self-doubt?
As not being good enough, usually.
Being embarrassed of myself. Feeling like my "true" self would be rejected, so I have to keep it hidden. Lack of belief in my own value & significance as a person, I guess.
What causes it?
Sometimes it seems to come out of nowhere. But it's often due to a comparison of myself with someone else or an ideal I have. I also can carry a sureness of being unlikeable or misunderstood or just judged negatively, which is probably some projection of my own self-criticism.
What do you feel inside? What do you do or show on the outside?
I feel....bad. I feel like unlikable, foolish, a loser, etc.
On the outside I apparently seem moody, irritable, & aloof. Instead of thinking I'm insecure, people may think I'm a snob or just grouchy all the time. I think it's some self-defense mechanism to appear to reject people or not care before they can get close enough to reject me (because I'm not "good enough").
What is self-doubt to you?
Not believing in my ability to do what I need to do to be who I want to be.
What is "self" to you?
Inwardly, myself is some unrealized ideal that feels repressed by reality or that I don't even know how to manifest in reality. Outwardly, I don't have a very solid sense of self so I can feel contrived when interacting with people, as if I'm straining to give a clear picture of "me". When people have impressions of me contrary to this image I think I've been cultivating, then it can throw me. I worry about being a fraud sometimes, like my self-view is delusional, so I can also go into overdrive to expose myself, to put all the warts on display.