This right there! Learning to stand up against abusers is very useful, I wouldn’t drop the friends directly as it can be a useful learning situation. Best case senario you stand up for yourself and they change their behaviors, second best, they don’t change but you now have the confidence to not take abuse and the next friends you make are gonna respect you.

If you are interested to get more technical with your thoughts, read on cognitive biases and CBT. It really helped me, but I realize it might not be for everyone. Doing so helped me to deconstruct my limiting beliefs and build new thoughts pattern (a new belief system) that are better suited for my enjoyment of life. I think life is all about evolution, each of my flaws and each conflict is a opportunity for character development. I think confidence comes from the knowledge that failure isn’t the end, it’s actually an opportunity to learn. If you don’t let it discourage you, you will get better until you can archive what you are aiming. If you don’t make the same mistakes over and over again, you’ll see a considerable shift in your thoughts, as you’ll notice you’re improving with each step, and eventually, you’ll notice your self-esteem rise. Chose what are the basis on which you determine your own self-worth, and work on that. It’s not immediate at all, but over time if you repeat something long enough, it’ll become true. For exemple, I previously based too much of my self worth from external validation and when I started this exercise, I thought it would be impossible to change that, but over a span of 1-2 years, I am not longer paralyzed over what people think of me because I kept saying to myself that I shouldn’t worry about what I couldn’t control. I am certainly not immune to the opinions of people around me, but it doesn’t stop me anymore from doing what I want and say what I think (in a respectful way). Hope it makes sense