If you are constantly feeling sorry for yourself, also known as taking pity on yourself or engaging in self-pity, you may be experiencing depression or another mental illness. Or you may simply have a negative mindset.

If you're completely focused on feeling bad about your own problems and complaints, you're feeling self-pity.

Self-pity can include ruminating over problems, feeling angry about what life has dealt you, craving the sympathy of others, and unfortunately sometimes falling into a pattern of one upping other people's struggles.

It is normal to have moments of self-pity, so if you feel the need to throw yourself a little pity party go ahead. Just like any other party, it eventually ends.

Self-pity is a feeling of unhappiness that you have about yourself and your problems, especially when this is unnecessary or greatly exaggerated. [disapproval.

Self-pity will keep you stuck in an unhealthy cycle of negative thoughts, uncomfortable feelings, and inactivity. And it will drain you of the mental strength you need to approach this challenge at your best. Sadness is a perfectly normal and often healthy emotion. The feeling of heartbreak can even be helpful to you.

The feeling of self-pity typically arises when an individual attributes failures to external factors perceived as uncontrollable. Although the primary focus of self-pity is on the self and one's own emotions, it has a strong interpersonal component as well.

• They Face their Feelings
• They Recognize Warning Signs of the Downward Spiral
• They Question Their Perceptions
• They Turn their Negative Thoughts into Behavioral Experiments
• They Reserve their Resources for Productive Activities
• They Practice Gratitude

A feeling of, or the indulgence in, pity for oneself. Feeling sorry for oneself. Victim mentality. Defeatism.

The feeling of self-pity typically arises when an individual attributes failures to external factors perceived as uncontrollable. Although the primary focus of self-pity is on the self and one's own emotions, it has a strong interpersonal component as well.

• Feeling like you are a failure
• Feeling like life is unfair
• Thinking you deserve bad things
• Not accepting compliments as genuine, but people just being nice
• Convincing yourself people don't like you
• Feeling like you're unable to change
• Reliving bad experiences

You can break this negative cycle by looking for opportunities to help others. One of the quickest ways to lift yourself out of self-pity is to find ways to lift others up. When you begin to help people make their lives more positive, you stop focusing on your negativity.

If you're feeling guilty for no reason, it can usually be traced back to your past. We all have an “inner critic”, but some of us have a much louder, harsher one than others. What your inner critic sounds like (and the stories it tells) has a lot to do with the kinds of messages you received growing up.