Self-worth is crucial to any individual`s well being, so naturally the lack of such will
undoubtedly cause a variety of negative consequences, such as a reduced quality of life,
negative perceptions of ourselves, the toleration of mistreatment towards ourselves (such as allowing other people to mistreat us), neglecting ourselves, harmful habits (drugs, alcohol, eating disorders), lack of empathy (which may result in bullying and cheating), insecurity, lack of confidence and initiative, numbness or overwhelming negative emotions such as anger and/or sadness, doubts, negative thinking patterns, intrusive thoughts, panic and paranoia, suicidal ideation, feelings of insignificance, dissociation, lack of care towards the future, and can lead to mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety and dissociative disorders.
This negative outcomes result in the individual thinking they aren't able to do something, or that will never be able to overcome a bad situation, and it can make them stop believing in themselves. In turn, this affects the person's health, both physical and mental, making them prone to exhaustion due to stress and unease. It can greatly damage the quality of life, ruining careers and relationships as well as the person's perception of themselves.
This much is said by Dr. Kevin Solomons, psychiatrist and writer of the book Born to be
Worthless: The Hidden Power of Low Self-Esteem, where he explains the consequences of low self-esteem, how it can appear, and how it can be treated. His reliable testament on the value of self-worth has settled my view on the subject.
How can we improve our self-worth?
The best people to answer this question are the people who have had subpar self-esteem and managed to get out of it, so I went to Reddit to see if anyone else had presented this same question. Multiple people had replied with methods such as achieving things to be proud of, resorting to therapy, becoming comfortable in their own skin, stopping to compare themselves with other people, acknowledging one's own faults as well as their accomplishments, becoming passionate about something as a means to giving your best, forgive past mistakes and use those same mistakes to learn, pursue talents, exercise/sports, change of fashion/style, doing random acts of kindness, organization (cleaning, tidying up), meditation, reflecting on one's positive traits, and so on.
One thing that is common to almost all of of the replies was how much focus was on loving
oneself and the search for positivity. There is a great variety of answers because each person has a different way to make themselves feel better about the person that they are, so each method isn't guaranteed, but needs to be tested beforehand since every individual reacts differently. What may work for someone may not work for someone else, so it is important to keep in mind that one should never give up on bettering themselves, and that they should not be ashamed of their situation, nor should they be ashamed of their methods to develop their self-esteem.
By: Cristiana Sousa
Comments