How Living with Low Self Esteem is Stealing Your Life from You
If you’re living with low self esteem, you’re all too familiar with the negative voices in your head; the ones that continuously remind you that you’re different.
Then, because you believe them, you’re constantly struggling. You want to belong, yet the voices in your head continue to emphasize your differences.
So, you work harder and harder to measure up to the standards to which your critical voices demand you conform. It’s this persistent struggle and belief in the validity of these standards that keep you living with low self esteem. It’s a vicious cycle.
The effect of enduring an existence focused on dealing with low self esteem is that you never really live.
When you suffer with poor self esteem, your life is taken from you. It’s taken by the negative thoughts and voices in your head whose sole purpose is to sap the joy from life.
When you struggle with low self esteem, you’re more likely to suffer from depression or anxiety.
Depression and anxiety steal your passion for life. When you’re depressed or anxious you view everything through a distorted lens. The result is your ability to experience joyful living is snatched away from you.
When you’re living with low self esteem, you’re more likely to struggle with eating disorders.
The negative voices in your head have set standards for appearance or weight that cause you to have a poor relationship with eating and food. Whether you’re not eating enough or too much, your strength to fully participate in life is compromised. This is another way that living with low self esteem steals your life away from you.
The negative thoughts and voices can also lead you to beliefs about exercise that compromise your life experience. By excessively exercising, you rob yourself of the time and energy necessary to experience a full life. The result is similar when you choose to exclude exercise from your life.
Living with low self esteem often leads to substance abuse. The altered perceptions offered by alcohol and drugs can dull the negative voices (although sometimes the effects are the opposite). However, dulling is different from eliminating. The problems persist. And the effects of your low self esteem take more of your life away from you.
The effects of living with low self esteem extend beyond your life experience. All your relationships are negatively impacted too.
Your low self esteem compels you to hide even from those closest to you for two reasons:
- You’re afraid they’ll learn your secret – that you’re different.
- You’re attempting to avoid failure and rejection.
Because you believe the lies that the negative thoughts and voices in your head constantly tell you about how you measure up to others, you feel compelled to treat others as if they’re better than you. When you place yourself in this less-than position, your low self esteem steals more of your life potential. It can also set you up for becoming the victim of abusive relationships.
The negative voices that you’re living with thrive when you agree with them. When you find reasons why you aren’t good enough, you’re more likely to jump to negative conclusions about yourself and how others treat you. These conclusions reinforce your low self esteem and suck more of the happiness from your life.
Living with poor self esteem is excruciating and sad no matter how it manifests. You might not experience all the effects described here, but if you suffer from even one of them, it’s one too many. Your life and the lives of those you love suffer.
Luckily, suffering with low self esteem isn’t a life sentence. You can improve how you feel about yourself. I know this is true, because I’ve not only done it myself, but I’ve helped thousands of others do it too.
If you’re ready to take the steps necessary to become happier, reach out to me. I’m ready to help you turn down the volume of your negative thoughts and reclaim your life.
