[JimOfferman]

Welcome to the forums European38!

Rejection appears to be a big a problem for you and it shouldn't be, really. Rejection happens to everyone all the time and it doesn't actually say anything about you or your worth. How you handle rejection, however, says a lot about who you are. You can work on that. Try to find better ways to deal with rejection.

It takes time, but it can be learned. I used to be toppled by the slightest shimmer of a hint of rejection and now rejection bounces off me like Persian hordes bounce off Spartan soldiers (if you've seen 300, you'll know what I mean). The means by which I accomplished this are very simple: analyze each and every rejection. Is there something you can and -more importantly- want to improve to avoid such rejection next time? No? Let it slide... Yes? Change! Repeat ad infinitum.

Another thing you can try is to raise your emotional pain barrier a little. A very small child may cry about every tiny cut and bruise, but quite quickly it will learn that many a cut or bruise really isn't worth crying about and learn to suffer through those little things without ever making a fuss. Mommy's comfort is only necessary when it really hurts.

Your emotional pain barrier can be raised in much the same way. Decide which emotional pains are too small to make a fuzz about and learn to tolerate those. Take small steps. Doesn't matter if you're still wincing the first few times, sooner or later you will learn to control yourself just a little bit better. And then a little bit better still. And so forth.

I can tell you, the bar can be raised quite high.

You could be walking around naked with people stabbing in your chest and it wouldn't even sting!

(I mean naked emotionally, of course...)