Hey everybody,
I am new to this forum, so if I made a mistake by posting this in the wrong category or something like that, please let me know.
Okay, so this my story and I would like to ask if I should seek professional help (from a psychologist) or should I just re-examine the situation myself. Ever since I was a kid, I've had terrible self-esteem. Although I've had really good academic success and a ton of extracurricular activities, I have always regarded myself as a complete failure, I attribute my success more to luck or "it somehow worked out", despite many people telling me I am intelligent etc. My mother was / is a pretty unstable person and she greeted every single one of my failures (no matter big or small, usually small, like getting 95% on a test, instead of 100% or something like that) with a lot of anger and sometimes physical punishment. My father didn't care that much, as he worked as a ship engineer and he wasn't usually home and he has always told me "you can do want you want in life, I will not judge you". This fear of failure and tendency to devalue my successes caused my unwillingness to try out new stuff and to take part on different international science competitions (I just didn't believe I could manage it). But three years ago, I decided to move to a new country- Austria and start studying at the university of Vienna. I decided to do that, because I wanted to leave behind an environment I deemed as "toxic" to me- parents and family considering my academical success as expected and my failures-as a complete tragedy, but due to the sheer differences of what I have learned at school and of work and university here is considered a full-time job). Due to the aforementioned problem with university, a lot of my relatives have marked me as a complete failure in life (I am 22, by the way, I think that is way too young to declare somebody to be a complete failure), especially my grand-parents, who believe I am just wasting my life away and never take into account the fact I am sustaining myself completely and I still can't get over the death of my father. As I said, my low self-esteem is now even lower and I feel really demotivated most of the time. Since a couple of months, I have been having stomach pain and a couple of doctors have told me, that I don't have an ulcer or anything similar, it is just I am really stressed out and it seems my stomach is really susceptible to my mood.
My question is, should I seek out professional help? Am I really a failure for postponing my graduation, due to me working and completely taking care of myself and trying to take care of my family? I know some of my classmates will be soon done with university, but I am sure none of them had to deal with the death of a parent so early in his or her life and I am certain none of them have worked even a day in their lives. I just can't decide, if I am too hard on myself or if I am really not giving my best. I try not to care what others think, but when your entirely family uses every single chance to vex you, you can't be indifferent.