Self esteem and insults

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A thread in the Love and Dating section made me think of this...

Are any of you insulted/hurt by things that nobody seems to understand why, yet perplexed by what seems to bother others? Did you ever get the idea as a kid that your self-esteem "worked differently" from others? Do you alternate between feeling greatly superior to others and greatly inferior, but almost never in between?

I get upset over things other people don't understand and I'm baffled by some of the things that upset others.

I don't feel superior or inferior to others. I alternate between important and worthless. It's not in comparison to others. The truth is that I'm neither important nor worthless. I just am.

Ah, I think I know which thread you got this idea from
I find I am easily insulted by comments about my physical appearance, but only certain things, not all.
This is probably because my self esteem is quite low about my physical appearance, so if for example I am told (as that man did), that I have 'apelike' features, it instantly stings because to me, it is akin to calling me ugly and is not a positive thing to say in any sense. Oddly, I can also look at it with hindsight, in the sense that we are quite close relatives of apes, and resemble them in certain ways, but I know that is not how the words were intended to be taken.

Intelligence is another thing that tends to get me riled up, if anyone explains something to me that I already know, or presumes I am somehow stupid. I think most people have some areas where they are more liable to feel hurt/insulted, as compared to other areas.
I also know of people who are not at all offended by anything, because their sense of self esteem is so very good and words just wash over them. I often wish I was that way. If a stranger says something nasty to me, it will barely affect me. It is only when someone I like says something that it might affect me.

This describes my level of self-esteem much of the time.

Yes, but I'm not sure why, although superior may be too strong a word. Maybe just more rational/logical/intuitive?

Important/worthless sounds right too. Though I'd think that if one feels worthless, it is easy to see others as worth more, while when one feels important, it's easy to feel more important than others. It's not that the sense of importance is based on putting others down, it's that even if I do see more greatness in others at the same time as I feel greater than normal, my self-perception gets more of a boost than my perception of others, if that makes any sense.

Also, you may have had the misunderstanding that I meant "superior" in some sort of moral sense, whereas I meant it in the sense of competence, i.e. a sense that I can do things that many others have tried to do but failed at.

And Graelwyn, you were correct that I got the idea for this from your thread.

Compliment me, and I'll assume you're just trying to be nice and it's not really true. Insult me, and I have proof that you're an idiot and I'm better than you.