One time someone complimented my hair and I impulsively decided to use the old joke, “Thanks, I grew it myself!” and they didn’t laugh and the rest of the encounter was 10x more awkward than it needed to be. >_<
You could try: “thank you but it’s not for sale” next time.
“Put me in the screenshot”
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/02/nx-s1-5442506/hard-to-accept-compliments-comic
This piece from National Public Radio (U.S.) helped me get more comfortable with accepting compliments by giving another perspective.
People complimenting you are giving you a little present without expecting (or even wanting) anything in return.
For years, my trained response was to smile and say thank you. It’s good enough in the moment and it leaves you free to ruminate on it later, but sometimes it’s enough to interrupt an anxiety spiral.
I like to reframe it as ‘if I don’t take their compliment, I’m implying they have bad taste’, and the guilt from that helps fight the guilt of getting what feels like an underserved compliment.
I am working very hard on this and I’ve found what works best is to say thank you/thanks/appreciate it, etc. And then if I try to say anything or add to that, I will aggressively tell myself to shut the fuck up. Just shut the fuck up. They don’t care where you got it. They don’t need to know anything else. If they want to know, they will ask. Just shut the fuck up.
It gets a bit mean in my head sometimes but it’s working I think.
This is, to my mind, excellent advice. If a casual acquaintance compliments you, acknowledge it (even if you disagree) and move on (unless there’s reason to delve further into it, which there sometimes but rarely is). If you’re very close to the the complimenter, things might be different, but that requires a high level of confidence both in yourself and your friendship.
The thing I would add to this philosophy is, if receiving praise and in the right environment, it can be a good thing to distribute the praise. For example, if you worked on a task and your co-worker helped you, then someone says you did a good job - loudly and positively acknowledge the contributions of the other party, even if they didn’t do that much.
In my experience, this will get you a reputation for sharing credit, so others will want to help you; the individual you’re crediting will be grateful for the acknowledgement (results may vary); and saying someone else is good will often help to mitigate the embarrassment of acknowledging that you might be. The only downside to this approach is that if you spend enough time down playing yourself, others might start to believe you … So be careful, it’s a balancing act.
I can only accept them when they mean it.
But when it’s obvious that they don’t and are just saying it to make me happy it gets difficult.
