Self Esteem

Self-esteem is how you feel about yourself. How people experience their self-esteem can vary over time and be dependent on certain life events, such as a job loss, relationship breakup, or poor grades, which can temporarily lower one’s self-esteem. It affects everything you do. Many people lack positive self-esteem because of negative feelings they picked up in childhood from parents or peers. Self-esteem can be damaged if you continue to believe the negative messages received early in life regardless of the reality of these messages. It doesn’t matter if you were attractive, well-behaved, said all the right things, got good grades and were sweeter than your sister. All that matters is what you thought about yourself at those times. If you had negative thoughts about yourself, your self-esteem as an adult is probably suffering. If you had positive thoughts, your self-esteem is probably stronger. Self-esteem can also be damaged if you act against your own sense of values, such as honesty and integrity. You may judge yourself too harshly for certain behaviors that go against these values. Low self esteem can not only lead to anxiety and depression but a negative self image may lead to some mental disorders like borderline personality disorder. In extreme cases, this disturbance in the sense of self can lead to periods of dissociation. However, low self-esteem is not an official mental health diagnosis. But because of the fact that it results in judgmental thoughts and distressing feelings about oneself, it’s easy to understand how low self-esteem and a negative self-image can lead to more serious problems. For example, research has found that it is often a factor in the development of problems like bulimia. A negative self-image can be particularly damaging during adolescence. One study found that it was associated with aggression, antisocial behavior, and