Self-Esteem

“Self-esteem”, “self-image” “self-perception,” and “self-concept” all refer to the way we view and think about ourselves. As human beings, we have the ability to not only be aware of ourselves but also to place a value or a measure of worth to ourselves or aspects of ourselves.

So, self-esteem usually refers to how we view and think about ourselves and the value that we place on ourselves as a person. Having the human capacity to judge and place value on something is where we might run into problems with self-esteem. If you often think about yourself as useless, worthless, unattractive, ugly, unlovable, a loser, or a failure then you might have a problem with low self-esteem. Sometimes low self-esteem can be a problem in and of itself because it puts the person at risk for experiencing other problems such as depression, having persistent suicidal thoughts, eating disorders, and social phobia. We can systematically work towards improving self-esteem.