Stop Letting Others Take Advantage of You in 4 Steps Clearly, the third will help you develop strong self-esteem and more self-respect, but it can feel uncomfortable at first. When others take advantage of you, it can do one of three things: one, tick you off, leading to aggressive outbursts or internal anger at yourself (and them) two, feelings of hopeless and reinforcing the false belief that you don't deserve respect or three, guide you to act assertively and stand up for yourself. When you stop allowing others to take advantage of you and respect yourself, your self-esteem improves. This may sound like a simple example, but the truth is, each time you stand up for what's fair, you respect yourself. I felt this strong sense of unfairness and asked her nicely to change the price. It may not have been on purpose, but the gal at the checkout overcharged me for an item. Just the other day I noticed that I was about to let someone take advantage of me. Everyone needs to learn to respect themselves and stop letting others take advantage of us.