Going through life with poor self-esteem can be a real trial. When you genuinely believe that you’re unworthy of praise, affection or basic kindness, doing your job effectively and maintaining personal relationships are liable to prove downright impossible.
Although low self-esteem often stems from deep-seated issues that can be traced back to childhood, there are numerous behaviors we engage in as adults that contribute to this problem. So, if any of the following behaviors sound familiar, there’s no time like the present to get a handle on them.
Remaining in Abusive Relationships
Although many of us are adept at recognizing abusive relationships, we often turn a blind eye to signs of abuse in our own relationships. For example, when a friend, family member or romantic partner mistreats us, we’re likely to minimize this behavior or write it off as an isolated incident. We may even convince ourselves that we deserve to be abused.
Suffice it to say, none of this is conducive to high self-esteem. The more we allow people to walk all over us, the more likely our self-esteem is to be negatively impacted. So, if you’re currently involved in any abusive relationships – be they friendships, romances or work-based acquaintanceships – you should strongly consider extricating yourself from them.
If you’ve been with someone for a long time or have developed a codependency, breaking away from them is liable to seem difficult. However, if the other party isn’t willing to take responsibility for their abusive behavior or work with you on getting the relationship back on track, it’s in your best interest to leave.
Excessive People-Pleasing
Those of us with low self-esteem often have tremendous difficulty saying no to people. Because we think so little of ourselves, we tend to believe that everyone else’s wants and needs should take priority over our own.
Not only can excessive people-pleasing prove extremely detrimental to healthy self-esteem, it also stands to facilitate a vicious cycle. If certain people ascertain that you can never say no, they won’t hesitate to take advantage of this. In other words, the longer you engage in excessive people-pleasing, the more people in your life will come to expect this of you.
When you engage in people-pleasing, you’re likely to have the best of intentions. After all, it’s only natural to have the best interest of the people around you at heart. However, consistently going out of your way for others to the detriment of your own self-esteem and mental health is extremely ill-advised.
While there’s nothing wrong with lending a hand to friends, family members or other loved ones, this should never be done at the expense of your psychological well-being.
Refusing to Address Mental Health Issues
Unsurprisingly, low self-esteem goes hand-in-hand with an extensive variety of mental health issues. So, if consistently poor self-esteem has been a problem throughout your life, there’s a good chance that other mental health problems are afoot. And if you’ve never sought to address these problems with a mental healthcare professional, they’re unlikely to just go away.
So, if you’ve never taken part in therapy, counseling or other forms of mental healthcare, now would be a good time to rethink this. A knowledgeable therapist can do wonders for your self-esteem and leave you wondering why it took you so long to tackle your mental health issues in earnest.
If cost has served as a deterrent to seeking out proper mental healthcare, look for therapists and counselors who charge on a scale. Additionally, some community clinics provide mental healthcare services free of charge.
In addition to providing you with invaluable advice and treatment recommendations, a good therapist is liable to recommend certain lifestyle changes. For example, they may advise you to take part in charity work or actively help people in need in order to boost your self-esteem.
Among other things, this may entail taking part in blood donation events. As evidenced by type O blood supply demand, blood donation is particularly important when it comes to rare blood types.
To say that poor self-esteem can have a profound impact on your life would be an understatement. Since the quality of one’s self-esteem has a direct effect on how outgoing, confident and happy they are, there’s little wonder as to why waning self-esteem levels should be corrected ASAP.
However, in order to get a handle on low self-esteem, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with some of the behaviors that are known to cause it.