In principle, what you are saying is true. "I" am destroyed. "I" am this, "I" am that. But you are just assigning words to something you are causing to happen yourself.
Are you the thing that is suffering all of these emotions, or are you the thing that is capable of being aware that you are suffering?
The reason it is so confusing, is that you actually feel that you are not the emotions, which is correct. They are happening to you due to excessive compulsive thinking about why others don't match up, and possibly where you also don't measure up to society.
If you have adjusted your life to have less content over time, your identity will have gone through a crisis. We identify and feed self-esteem with our activities. It is a feature of group-psychology, embedded in us at a very young age.
After some years of self-defeatism, the Ego will strike up its voice and tell you to measure yourself against others one last time. It can only do this with the implied dualism and educated structures in our language and schooling.
The confusion in all of us comes from the fact that our characters are only what we 'think' we are. Our minds assemble a whole 'thing' out of many parts, including memory and fear of the future failings.
First of all, from my own experience, I had to separate the thought from reality. Knowledge from intellect. I realised most of my behaviour was copied, especially the bad stuff. To fix that, I had to change the language in my head.
I had to realise IF I had to think to myself to know something, it probably wasn't worth thinking. Out of concentrating on what this actually meant for me, I noticed my true position.
I'm not the thinking voice in my head. That happens to "me". I'm not the memory stored in my brain. That also happens to me. I'm not what I think society thinks of me. That is also external to the real me.
I am the miracle (and so are you) that is capable of being aware of all these things in each moment. When we use what we have been taught to use habitually, memory, and apply that to each moment...reality is destroyed. All that is left is a subconscious desire to be different.
Become an observer to yourself, but not a commentator. Then when you have found your rightful place, become an observer to the world and recognise that most of it is in the same place you were. They just don't know it yet.
