Your level of self-esteem has much more to do with how worthwhile you feel. People often mix it with the idea of self-confidence, which deals with your ability to do something successfully.
Low self-esteem can keep you from socializing and maintaining friendships. It can keep you from enjoying your life.
Self-esteem is something that develops slowly over time. Those affected by low self-esteem might lack assertiveness, lack social skills, or maybe walk into an area with their shoulders slumped.
Fortunately, there are several online therapy platforms available offering online therapy for low self-esteem. This article will explore what self-esteem is, its symptoms and causes, its impacts on our daily lives, and different online treatment options.
What is self-esteem?
Self-esteem is all about how we think about ourselves. It has a significant prospective impact on our life experiences and not the reverse. In other words, we can say that high and low self-esteem isn’t dependent on our success and failure.
Although low self-esteem isn’t an officially recognized mental health condition, experiencing it can cause mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. People having low self-esteem generally have a more negative perception of themselves and their ability to succeed in life. They may not believe they’re worthy of love, praise, security, or success. Even when these innate human needs are met, people who have low self-esteem may refuse them or find them hard to accept.
Symptoms of low-esteem
Symptoms of low self-esteem include:
- Self-doubt and indecision
- Feeling worthless
- Feeling unloved or disliked
- Anxiety about being rejected
- Fear of making mistakes
- Self-destructive behaviour
- Expecting the worse
- Not feeling able to stand up for what you believe
- Feeling undeserving of help
- Feeling anxious or depressed
- Consistent overthinking
- Fear of failure
- Hating yourself or feeling frustrated about who you are
What are the causes of low self-esteem
The causes of low self-esteem aren’t the same. It varies from person to person. But the most common cause of low self-esteem is the messages we receive growing up about our worthiness and ability to succeed. If we experienced childhood trauma, were bullied in school, or came from an unstable home without a robust role model, we are also more likely to have low self-esteem.
Impact of low self-esteem on our daily lives
Having depression, anxiety, negative thoughts, and feelings are bad enough, but experiencing chronic low self-esteem can negatively impact so many factors of our lives.
For example, if you’re in a constant state of believing that you’re worthless, it may be difficult for you to bond with others. You will not be in a position to sustain meaningful relationships. You may fear judgment and criticism, making it hard for you to express your feelings honestly.
Self-destructive behaviours
Studies have proved that there is a correlation between low self-esteem in childhood and addiction later in life. A study found that boys who grew up with low self-esteem were more likely to turn to drugs as they hit adolescence.
Study researchers consider low self-esteem as a kind of spark plug for self-destructive behaviours such as drugs. One should have a good sense of self as it is a fundamental need. Without its people may become pathologically unhappy with themselves.
Anxiety and depression
According to research, low esteem has also been correlated with increased rates of anxiety and depression. Although it is difficult to say whether low self-esteem causes anxiety and depression, working on your self-esteem is inevitably a great way to tackle any mental health condition you struggle with.
Treatment options for low self-esteem
Several options are available that are most commonly used for treating low self-esteem. Two of the primary methods are psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). Here we are going to explain both of the approaches.
Psychodynamic therapy
Psychodynamic therapy is used to help people identify and recognize the underlying reasons or causes for having low self-esteem. It also helps people connect past experiences to present ones that may influence their self-esteem.
Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT)
Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) helps clients identify thought patterns that influence their low self-esteem, thoughts, actions, and behaviours.
This approach also helps clients tackle their self-defeating thoughts and ineffective behaviour to turn out more confident.
For example, a patient constantly has a narrative in her mind that “I’m too much for people,” so anything and everything that happens in her life gets filtered through this narrative.
It has affected her interpersonal relationships and comes up the most often when she would/would benefit from asking for help. She may have a feat that asking for help with anything will be too much for anyone, and automatically they will leave or abandon her.
By recognizing this unhelpful thought pattern, she will slowly start to realize how much this negatively impacts her at work and in her relationships. She will change her thoughts, which will help her make small changes in her daily life and get support from people who would be happy to help her.
It is believed that CBT is the best line of treatment for actually clearing up a patient’s low self-esteem symptoms altogether. Many modern therapy platforms offer low self-esteem online, conducted by experienced therapists.
Is online therapy better than face-to-face therapy?
While many people opt for traditional face-to-face therapy for their low self-esteem, online therapy is quickly becoming known for being every bit as effective and all-around more convenient for most people.
Here are some of the advantages of online therapy for low self-esteem:
- Flexibility – in traditional counselling, you’ll need to schedule a meeting with your therapist well ahead of time. Online therapy offers more flexibility; it will allow you to talk to a licensed therapist at any time.
- Licensed professionals – in online therapy, your therapists have always licensed professionals. You will be getting professional therapy from the comfort of your home.
- Less expensive – in traditional counselling, a visit to your therapist will cost you between $70-$125. Online therapy platforms will tend only to charge a fraction of what these in-person therapists charge.
- Treatment from home – when you’re enrolled in online therapy, you will not have to take a shower, get dressed, jump in your car, and fight with traffic to get your appointment on time. Online therapy allows you to get treatment from home without any hassle.
In Conclusion
With so many options for professional online therapy platforms, it might good for some people to try out more than one and see what works best for them. So, whether you choose Betterhelp, Calmerry, Talkspace, or some other online platforms, keep in mind that it takes time for any therapy program to be effective with low self-esteem.
