Low Self-Esteem and Confidence

Self-esteem

What is self-esteem and why is it worthy of so much attention? Self-esteem is basically how much you value and approve of yourself as a person. Self-esteem is important because it is directly related to your overall well-being.

As we go through life, our self-esteem changes, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively, depending on the circumstances. This is common.

However, chronically low self-esteem is something that should be addressed. Low self-esteem drastically reduces the quality of a person’s life. But the good news is that it can be improved upon.

Together, let’s identify, challenge and reverse irrational beliefs about yourself to set you on a path to happiness.

Confidence

Confidence, on the other hand, relates to how much you trust yourself to face challenges and engage with the world effectively. Low self-confidence causes you to doubt yourself, avoid certain situations, be afraid of failure (to the point of not even trying) and be overly sensitive to constructive criticism.

There are three classes of self-confidence:

1. Situational: confidence depending on the situation or skill (e.g., public speaking or small talk in social settings)
2. Task-specific: confidence that relates to particular tasks (e.g. solving a maths problem)
3. General: your overall confidence in yourself.

Being self-confident does not mean that you are good at everything. It does, however, allow you to identify your weaknesses in a non-judgemental way and trust that one day you will overcome your limitations.

As with low self-esteem, there is hope! Low self-confidence is not related to your actual abilities, only your perception of them. Much of the time, these perceptions are faulty, which means that we can work on refuting them together in counselling.