Services
Low self-esteem
What is it?
Self esteem is the extent to which you value yourself. Good self-esteem is important for us to function in the world. Our self-esteem is made up of how we view ourselves physically (our image), how we rate our abilities and talents and how we evaluate our successes and failures. Self-esteem is about loving ourselves despite our human flaws and imperfections. It is about accepting ourselves just as we are.
 | Low self-esteem is a feeling that most people experience at some point in their lives. This feeling is usually transient and the individual can pick themselves up again and move on. Deeply rooted feelings of low self-esteem can feel like “I am not good at anything”, “ I am a failure”, “I am not worthy” etc. It is when you cannot recognise your own value as a person. |
What are the symptoms?
The signs of low self esteem are different for everyone. They could include some of the following:
- not feeling good enough
- not feeling likeable
- not feeling successful
- feeling anxious, tense or unhappy
- comparing self negatively to others
- feeling powerless
- needing lots of reassurance
- being easily influenced by others
- being withdrawn or uncommunicative
- being over-sensitive
- blaming others for my own problems or failures
What helps?
Taking a holistic approach can be effective when working with self-esteem. What this means is looking at your physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual life to see what needs to shift in order to improve your self-esteem. For example, this could include identifying and re-evaluating your negative self-beliefs, reviewing your value system, developing coping strategies and helping you develop and build relationships. In some cases your low self-esteem could be as a result of a difficult past, this may need to be worked through. Your diet, exercise, mode of relaxation will form part of the treatment.
For further information on self-esteem, please refer to the following web pages:-
* http://www.spunout.ie
* http://www.bodywhys.ie
* http://www.aware.ie
* http://www.samaritans.ie