I have been lurking this account without an account and it has helped me tremendously within the past month. I decided to make an account to continue leveling up in dating because in reality, I was not an expert and I was a HUGE pick me without noticing. I really was that girl letting my values go - I started dating at 22 and my first person was an emotionally abusive person and I blamed myself for the longest, then I had a thing with a REALLY LVM (I still cringe because I gave him a chance and I set the standard so low for myself), and then I tried to get with an old high school friend who really was a USER. In a way, I feel so disappointed with the fact I let myself forget about my values and what I was raised with to feel like I needed to fulfill a man's wishes/needs/commands to make them feel special when in reality, I was hurting myself and feeling so disgusted. I really cried today on my way to work because these things I was doing (all those pickme stuff) never correlated with my personal values nor my cultural values. I realized now I never should feel the need to let my values go nor do everything to make a LVM feel special because he isn't special at all. I am so ready to continue leveling up, but I still feel that shame and guilt - how did many of you get over this?