Self pity is a very debilitating ‘disease’. I have noticed that a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness go along with self pity. It’s a three-some which robs folk of life.
It’s like:
· being on a merry-go-round that does not go anywhere but round and round.
· Like a whirlpool sucking one down deeper and deeper into despair, discouragement, and disillusionment.
· Like a swamp, a quicksand – very hard to get out of.
Self-pity is not a healing feeling – it’s a “woe is me” feeling that focuses on how badly done by I am. It’s a collapsing in on oneself so our horizon becomes smaller and smaller and darker and darker. It declares “I am a victim”, “I am not to blame”, “I am in pain and you’re supposed to comfort me, rescue me, something”
The emotional pain of self-pity is intense and dreadful but it is not a pain that leads to healing. More often than not it deflects from the true source of emotional pain.
It’s as if  … if I can take off this weight of self-pity (like a coat) and put it aside for a while and then look at what’s underneath it, what’s being hidden by it then I will get to the true source of my pain. Doing this puts one of a path towards hope again.