He self-esteem level is variable throughout life, that is, the level of self-love and value that we attribute to ourselves is not defined in the metaphor of a straight line. Self-esteem is one of the most important ingredients of our personal development and emotional well-being. For this reason, it is advisable to listen to those symptoms that indicate that we do not love ourselves as much as we deserve.
Through self-esteem, one becomes aware of the important relationship that one maintains with oneself since this relationship is the pillar of the bond with others. For this reason, in this Psychology-Online article, we are going to discover what the characteristics of people with low self-esteem so that you learn to recognize them and analyze yourself.
Before analyzing the elements that make up a person with low self-esteem, it is important to learn to define . First of all, we question what the characteristics of self-esteem are, how we can define it and what differentiates low and high self-esteem.
Self-esteem refers to a psychological construct, as an individual property, based on how much we value ourselves. Self-esteem is based on self-image and the ability to love ourselves and appreciate us.
In this sense, a person with low self-esteem is one who presents difficulties in being able to appreciate all those characteristics that make it special. When someone has low self-esteem, they usually think that they are not enough and that they do not have the necessary abilities to function correctly, whether at work or in personal relationships.
Even so, most people tend to think that having low self-esteem is not that important, but the truth is that it can trigger more problems that are essential to solve in time. In this sense, the platform provides you with the psychological help you need, via chat and video calls, with online psychologists specialized in improve psychological and social well-being.
Low self-esteem can facilitate the appearance of many psychological disorders and problems. Here we are going to discover a list with the most common characteristics of people with low self-esteem:
- They are indecisive, they have difficulties making decisions, they have an exaggerated fear of making mistakes. They only make a decision when they are completely sure of getting 100% results.
- They think that they can’t, that they don’t know anything, that they are not going to achieve it.
- They are not valued, neither their talents nor their possibilities. They see their talents as small, while they see others’ talents as large and even exaggerated.
- Have fear of the new and avoid risks.
- Are very anxious and nervouswhich leads them to avoid situations that give them anxiety and fear.
- They are very Passivesthey avoid taking the initiative.
- They are isolated people, shy and they have almost no friends or very few.
- They do not like to share their feelings with other people.
- They avoid participating in the activities carried out at their study or work center.
- They are afraid to talk to other people about any topic, They feel continually evaluated.
- They depend a lot on other people to do their tasks or carry out any activity.
- They give up before carrying out or starting any activity.
- They are not satisfied with themselves, they think that they do nothing well.
- They don’t know their emotions, so they can’t express them.
- Because they have no value, lIt is difficult to accept that they are criticized.
- It is difficult for them to recognize when they are wrong.
- They handle a lot of feelings of guilt when something goes wrong.
- Given negative results They look for guilt in others.
- They believe that they are the ugly ones, the ignorant ones and that everyone else does it better than them.
- They are happy about the mistakes of others because they feel better that way.
- They don’t worry about their health.
- They are pessimiststhey believe that everything will go wrong for them.
- They look for leaders to get things done.
- They think they are uninteresting people.
- They believe they make a bad impression on others.
- They feel that They don’t control their life.
- They don’t like to make efforts because they don’t believe in their ability.
- They find it difficult to achieve their goals.
How do I know if I have low self-esteem? Next, we will show you the main symptoms of people with low self-esteem.
1. Negative self-talk
One of the characteristics of low self-esteem is negative self-talk. Throughout a single day, so many ideas and thoughts pass through your mind that, at the end of the day, you only remember some of them. However, if something defines the essence of low self-esteem, it is negative tone of that internal dialogue.
An internal dialogue that, in turn, produces unpleasant feelings and emotions such as distrust and insecurity. One of the thoughts that conditions a person with low self-esteem is “I can’t.” Thus, the limiting character is very present in the psychological discourse of those who doubt their own capacity.
If you are at this point, this may lead you to throw in the towel before you have even fought for the goals that are really important to you. Negative thinking leads to demotivation initial in the face of new challenges because the illusion soon fades in time with fear.
2. Fear of what they will say
Another characteristic of people with low self-esteem is having taking into account the opinion of others too much. A person with low self-esteem puts a large part of their security in the approval of their immediate environment. For this reason, one of the most persistent fears is the fear of what others will say.
The judgment of others becomes an element of vulnerability. Low self-esteem can be noticed in aspects as simple as avoiding showing certain opinions or always waiting for others to make free time decisions, for example, which movie to watch at the cinema.
People with low self-esteem also tend to idealize the attitude of those who project greater security in themselves. They fall into idealization because they personalize fears in the first person and assign qualities of absolute perfection to others. Every human being has fears and doubts, this is not what determines low self-esteem. What really determines this level of self-love is the type of response that the person offers in this emotional situation.
3. Self-criticism and lack of objectivity
The people with low self-esteem are hypercritical with themselves, since they exaggerate their defects and ignore their virtues. From this perspective, they are not aware of all the potential they have as unique and unrepeatable human beings.
In this sense, the individual can feed this existential position by focusing excessively on the traces of a previous failure, or simply seek chronic security in a comfort zone where everything is predictable, but not very exciting. By searching for this comfort zone in an almost chronic way, does not take on important challengessince the weight of fear of failure is as important a brake as that “I can’t” described above.
However, this attitude leads the person to say, “I’m unlucky,” when in reality, it is itself the one that conditions itself with a negative attitude. For this reason, it is very important to get out of this circle of negativity and remember that every human being can, through their intelligence, will and creativity, transform external circumstances thanks to their capacity for resilience.
4. Distrust and fear of failure
People with low self-esteem find it difficult to accept the praise they receive, they have a distrustful attitude to these positive messages. Furthermore, at certain times, they behave as if they were seeking social invisibility, that is, they adopt a background role so as not to attract the attention of others. The cause of this behavior is the fear of what people will say.
Insecure people with low self-esteem behave as if they were an antagonistic character in their own life, instead of being main characters in the movie.
Although in this article we define the characteristics of a person with low self-esteem, it may be difficult for us to identify ourselves in this list. For that same reason, the well-known Rosenberg scale was developed. This test allows us to identify with a few simple questions what level of self-esteem we present and whether or not we need psychological help.
If you want to make this scale in a way free and onlineclick on the following link: .
In short, why do we have low self-esteem? It is a question that is posed to us from psychology studies. The answer lies in the interaction of social factors, individual capabilities and the circle of social support we have.