Why am I so Nice??

I LOVE PEOPLE. I wanna start off by saying that. People literally make my world go around. I have many many many friends. I treasure them all. I like talking to them, relating to them, making them laugh, doing good works for them, smiling, helping people out, etc. etc. ...basically, everything to make others happy. It's fun for me and it helps me to feel accomplished each day, knowing that I've made someone else's day.

There is one thing that I'm really bad at. Well, it's a good thing, and it's good for others, and it helps out others, but it's something that I like to do so much that sometimes it ends up being bad for me- I mean, like, helping everyone and hurting me. I love helping others out. I give rides to people, I offer advice, I am a matchmaker for MANY people, even if its someone I really like... I buy groceries for friends when they're struggling, I comfort those who stand in need of comfort, etc. Things like that are a very small portion of what makes me great, accrding to friends. I have a lot of love to give. I'm passionate about service. That's never a problem. I do it all the time tho, which is still not a problem, but I've developed a really good but bad habit of not knowing when to say "no."

Lemme explain this a bit. I'm the kind of person who helps others even when its inconvenient for me. If I'm in a room full of people and have some type of food and I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY, maybe even deathly hungry, I will not eat it unless I've offered everyone in the room some of it and everyone either takes some or rejects it. I get a really bad guilty conscience if I don't share ANYTHING. Its not the food or my hunger that matters at that point. It makes me full to know that everyone else's needs are taken care of before my own. Even if there's one crumb left I'll be satisfied knowing that I've shared.

Where my problem comes in is that I sometimes let people take advantage of me. I first offer a favor a few times, then the person starts asking for the favor as a habit, then it gradually gets to a point where they're literally depending on me and when I cannot provide them that favor, I lose a friend or they get upset and I feel like I've let them down and I'm the villian all of a sudden. It's wierd... I don't know how to react to that because my biggest weakspot is seeing others hurting or crying or sad about something, and knowing that I cannot help someone out makes me feel awful.

I think this is more something that I have to learn on my own. It's like, being Christ-like and selfless and all other good attributes but sometimes I have to back down and tell myself that I'm not Christ. I'm striving to be perfect but maybe I have the wrong idea of what perfection is... Anything less than my best efforts seem like a failure to me. My therapist says that its okay to be selfish sometimes- to help myself before others... but I'm having a really hard tie trying to grasp that idea. Wierddddd..... Someone leave an anonymous comment already!!! This time I need advice.