According to the National Alliance of Mental Health, people who struggle with low self-esteem constantly view themselves in a negative light. Visuals staffer Luna Reichert has learned to combat low self-confidence through self-restorative methods, such as journaling.
Visuals staffer Luna Reichert reflects on her struggles with low-self esteem and how she is learning to overcome it.
Almost everyone has occasional moments in life where they struggle with confidence, but for me, it perpetuates my everyday life.
I struggle with low self-esteem.
Most people associate low-self esteem with outward appearance, I struggle with confidence in my personality. It is about who I am and how others perceive me.
It started when I began high school. When I was thrown into this new environment, all I wanted was to be popular and make friends. I found myself desperately trying to fit into the “popular” white girls friend group.
From there, the self-confidence struggles began.
Now I am constantly comparing myself to others. I’m always concerned about every single thing I do and I obsess over what people think of me. From that, I am able to pick out every little flaw of mine.
I hate how shy I am. I hate how uptight I am. I hate how all I do is worry.
Having low self-esteem is like I am constantly battling the negative voices in my head.
I waste so much time worrying about what other people think of me. Because of my low self-esteem, I end relationships with those who I’d wanted to get to know better and cause issues in pre-existing ones.
But coming to realize that confidence is something I struggle with has helped me tremendously. I can catch myself when I start to fall into a pattern of negative thoughts. Implementing methods to remind myself that I should be happy with myself has also helped, like every day writing down three things I did that I was proud of.
Getting rid of low self-esteem isn’t easy and does not happen overnight. Every day I learn to be a little more proud of myself and what I do.
