Can you admit when you are wrong?

Can you admit when you are wrong?
If not to others can you admit you are wrong to yourself??

If you cant admit to being wrong, why not?

To do so would feel like utter self betrayal. The way to do it though is to affect contrition through gritted teeth.

My instinct is to deny, deny, deny. I will come up with a million ways to justify why I'm right, and that will come from a belief that I am right and not because I'm trying to convince myself. When I admit I'm wrong it's almost always done as pragmatic situation management.

My girlfriend has troubles with this. It's good to reassure ones self that it's better to look mistaken up front, than idiotic later. Also, if you think you're not perfect, and have a compulsion to be perfect, just watch the news. I rarely watch the news, but dam, if you're on this forum to recover, you are light years beyond most.

I have extreme difficulty with admitting it to others and myself. Even if I can verbally do so, I can’t fully embody and accept it. To the point I end up lashing out at others or trying to twist the conversation to make what I did seem less than what it is. I’m so concerned with protecting an image that at this point is damaged beyond repair and it’s not helping me or anyone else, but I just can’t seem to let it go. It’s as if any act to fix it feels like I’m being personally attacked by either others or myself. My ego seems to be exceedingly fragile. I question if I’m a psychopath a lot of the time as well. I don’t know why it’s so hard when I actually put in more effort doing toxic behaviors than going against them. It could be something as small as assuming what someone’s meaning as if it has anything to do with me, to getting snippy at others because I had a bad day.

If I'm wrong then I'll happily hold my hands up
If you wanna hide your problem from others then it's important you learn to pretend to swallow your pride a bit

Or else you'll be having narcissistic tantrums all your life and nobody will want to be your friend