How to forgive yourself for past mistakes?

[sadtimes]

I'm 19, however when I was aged 13-16 I did a lot of really really dumb, naive things that I look back on a shudder with both embarrassment and shame. A lot of what I did was relatively harmless and I should be able to forgive myself and move on but I can't.
It causes me great pain all the time, I sometimes have small panic attacks whenever I think about them. I know there's nothing I can do anymore. I don't need to apologise to anyone, and anyone who I do I'm not in contact with anymore and have no way of finding them. I don't know how to give myself closure for these things.

Any advice?

[shakey1961]

Hi. Well... show me someone who has never done something when they were a young teenager and regrets what they did, I don't think they exist. We've all done daft things as kids/teenagers, it's probably a persons way of testing boundaries.

Soon after I started with my anxiety, especially when I was in my twenties, I used to think "What if I'd been like this when I was at school?" and I'd worry about it just a little. Then, I'd realise "Well you weren't like that at school so stop thinking about it".

With my non-anxiety at school, and your past mistakes that's not going to affect anyone, you have to leave them in the past.

Yes you will come back and think about them from time to time, but why let things from the past take up your time now? Just say to your thoughts, "It was a time when I did things I don't like now, but I can't change the past."

You're only 19, so it's relatively recent for you. Time, as always, is a great healer. It will fade as the years go by.