The younger generations are more likely to have low self-esteem. A lot of people struggle with self-esteem. It prevents people from pursuing their goals. Self-esteem, which is also self-respect, starts at a young age. It’s bad just to start hating yourself and comparing yourself to others. Living with low self-esteem can harm your mental health and lead to problems such as depression and anxiety. Self-esteem can affect your mental health negatively and positively if your self-esteem is high.
Self-esteem is how someone sees themselves and the opinions they have of themselves, some people can have high self-esteem which is being happy with themselves or some people can be insecure about themselves and have difficulty in trying to achieve how they really wanna look which is low self-esteem. one of the problems with self-esteem is that if your self-esteem is low it can cause you to do badly in school and badly mentally, it can cause a person to be hopeless in life, they don’t try anything or do anything so it gets them nowhere in life.
Low self-esteem makes you think everyone is lying to you, so if someone tells you you are pretty or that you did a good job you’re not going to believe it; you’re going to think the opposite of what the person said. One of my interviewees, Amin Odeh, said, “I used to have low self-esteem, and I was insecure about my height. It prevented me from trying out for sports and I didn’t like how I looked and would compare myself to my friends.”
Unlike low self-esteem, high self-esteem makes you more confident and helps you with a lot of things. One example is having more satisfying relationships, performing better in school and work, and enjoying improved mental and physical health.
My brother, Hadi Mansour, has experienced low self-esteem and wants to share his experience and some tips. He said, “Confidence is key; if you keep going, you’ll make it. If you give up and don’t take risks, you won’t reach your goal and stay where you’re at.” At the moment, he has high self-esteem, believes in himself, and tries his hardest to achieve his goals.
People always set goals, just like Lina Mohammed. Lina has always had high self-esteem. She always believes in herself and never gives up, no matter how embarrassing the situation is. Lina quotes, “If no one cheers you on, you should cheer yourself on. It boosts your confidence higher than it was at the beginning. also don’t care what people say about you, focus on irrelevant things because listening to people’s opinions about what they think of you will hurt you.”
Setting and achieving goals brings a sense of pleasure and builds confidence. No matter how little it is, even finishing little goals will bring you satisfaction and happiness. Lina, my interviewee also quotes, “The best thing to do in life for happiness and confidence is to set goals, setting goals is a part of life and will keep your life simple and easy. Setting goals offers opportunities to manage your emotions better and builds a more positive self-image.”
In conclusion, your self-esteem should never be low; it can negatively affect your mental health. Low self-esteem can reduce the quality of a person’s life in different ways. Negative feelings such as constant self-criticism can lead to problems like always feeling sad, depression, anxiety, anger, shame, and guilt. While having high self-esteem is good and benefits you in a lot of ways, the higher confidence you have, the better you do in life, school, and work. Healthy self-esteem helps you maintain a positive attitude even when you don’t meet your goal, you can be open about feedback and growth opportunities.
