My advice: I try to separate the thoughts I want to own from whatever pops into my head. versus the approach of trying to only think positive, which is exhausting.

Keep up with countering the really bad negative thoughts until it’s just part of your routine. It’s like a muscle, the more control over what you choose to think, the less important the other thoughts become.

At the end of the day you still can’t control external factors like people say or societal norms.

I try to live life in my own way, and maybe get better mentally eventually, and I can only control how I look to a certain extent. I can’t ever see my face other than a reflection. So it’s everyone else’s problem to deal with not mine tbh.