Self-esteem is how you perceive yourself. It’s how you think about your value in society.
Self-esteem has a big impact on your mental well-being. It determines the choices you make in life. When you consider yourself as a mean, immoral, useless, and corrupt person, then you have low self-esteem. When you think of yourself as a good, humble, respectful, and worthy person, you have high self-esteem.
How high self-esteem affects your mental well-being
When you have high self-esteem, you feel motivated to fulfill your personal dreams and achieve your goals. You feel driven to take care of yourself and others. You feel confident and do everything with enthusiasm. You tend to nurture positive thoughts and have a healthy relationship with others. You’re less likely to get frustrated during stressful situations and can tackle them responsibly. All these factors help you to lead a healthy lifestyle and spread positivity.
How low self-esteem affects your mental health
Low self-esteem makes you feel worthless. You may have high goals and aspirations but you hardly do anything to attain them. You feel bored, demotivated, and don’t use your full potential for achieving your goals. You feel incapable of achieving anything good in life. This is why you let all the precious things go away from your life. And, when you see everything slipping from your hands, you feel dejected and hopeless about everything.
You tend to have a negative attitude towards life and feel sad. Slightest criticism is enough to upset you.
You face problems in maintaining healthy relationships with others both in your personal and professional life. The corporate world itself is full of challenges. Since you have low self-esteem, it becomes difficult to face those challenges and give productive output at work. And, when you can’t work properly and you get negative remarks, your morale goes down.
Low self-esteem can destroy your mental peace and push you toward depression and anxiety. There is no consensus regarding what leads to the other. But this much is true that depression and self-esteem are interrelated to each other. And, in worst cases, you may need to consult a therapist or a psychiatrist for help.
Both depression and low self-esteem are problematic. In both cases, you feel bad about letting down others and yourself.
How to know that you have low self-esteem
The following symptoms can help you to determine if you have low self-esteem.
- You’re extremely critical about yourself.
- You have a negative attitude towards yourself, others, and life.
- You feel sad, depressed, and dejected.
- You tend to suffer from an inferiority complex.
- Even when someone appreciates you, there’s a hidden feeling that he or she is mocking you.
- You tend to think more about your failures than your achievements.
Self-help tips to elevate your self-esteem
It’s important to improve your self-esteem. Unless you love yourself, it’s not possible for you to have a good life or relationships. You can’t take care of anybody. You can’t have a meaningful life. This is why you should always try to improve your self-esteem and confidence. Here are a few tips that can help you build your self-esteem.
- Look at the brighter side: Think about the good things in life. Think about your strengths and qualities.
- Exercise regularly: Regular exercise helps to release your toxins and also relax your stress hormones.
- Don’t be over-critical: Mistakes are normal. Everyone makes mistakes. So, whenever you make mistakes, don’t be too harsh on yourself.
- Do what you like: Chat with friends who love and appreciate you. Read books and watch movies. Do what you love to do.
- Help others: Look at your surroundings. You will meet many people who are in worse situations than you. Help them in whatever way you can. You’ll feel good.
- Don’t focus on negativity: Don’t brood over the negative things in your life. If someone has behaved badly with you, then try to analyze his or her behavior from a different perspective. Think about why he or she has behaved in such a way? Is he or she unhappy?
- Don’t try to perfect: Life itself is not perfect. Then how do you expect yourself to be perfect? So don’t feel bad if you can’t do anything perfectly. It’s fine to be disorganized sometimes.
Don’t hesitate to seek help from a therapist
Many people don’t want to consult a therapist when they have low self-esteem. They don’t consider it a major mental issue. But that is a wrong step. A therapist can suggest Cognitive Behavioral therapy which works on understanding the reasons behind negative thoughts and low morale. This therapy suggests various ways to replace negative feelings with good vibes. And, that helps to boost your morale.
Conclusion
Low self-esteem leads to unhappiness. Studies say that low self-esteem during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood can lead to depression. In the worst cases, individuals take drugs and alcohol to feel good about themselves. But this is the wrong path. Drugs and alcohol can never make someone positive. They can’t improve someone’s self-esteem. Rather, they have a negative impact on someone’s body and mind. Too much intake of alcohol and drugs can lead to addiction later in life. In that case, individuals have to get medical treatment for substance abuse.
