Judy H. Wright asked:




Are you or someone you love overcome with low self esteem? A belief system which implies that you are less than others and not deserving of happiness is not serving you well. Each one of us is born with a gift or destiny. It is important that you find ways and means to build confidence and raise your self-esteem.

Build Confidence With Positive Affirmations

Our thoughts and belief systems are continually running through our minds. Are your thoughts mostly positive or negative? Thoughts are like plants in a garden, when you plant a bean (or positive thought) you get multiples of beans. You will want to plant a series of hope, success, happiness and enthusiasm seeds of positive affirmations.

Affirmations are statements of belief. Your subconscious does not grade or evaluate them. It just tries to make the actions of the individual (you) make them come true. The more you repeat a statement, the more the mind will hear the message and encourage your physical body to follow the encouragement.

Affirmations For High Self-Esteem

I am a worthy person who treats others and myself with respect. I am a successful problem solver and find creative solutions. I draw others to me who are kind, thoughtful and helpful. I take care of my body and mind so I can appreciate all my talents. I am brave, courageous, and unafraid to change ways and thoughts that are not working for my highest good.
Negative Thoughts and Low Self-Esteem Unwelcome

Our thoughts and belief systems are continually running through our minds. Are your thoughts mostly positive or negative? Thoughts are like plants in a garden, when you plant a bean (or positive thought) you get multiples of beans. You will want to plant a series of hope, success, happiness and enthusiasm seeds of positive affirmations.

Affirmations are statements of belief. Your subconscious does not grade or evaluate them. It just tries to make the actions of the individual (you) make them come true. The more you repeat a statement, the more the mind will hear the message and encourage your physical body to follow the encouragement.

Affirmations For High Self-Esteem

I am a worthy person who treats others and myself with respect. I am a successful problem solver and find creative solutions. I draw others to me who are kind, thoughtful and helpful. I take care of my body and mind so I can appreciate all my talents. I am brave, courageous, and unafraid to change ways and thoughts that are not working for my highest good.
Negative Thoughts and Low Self-Esteem Unwelcome

I have confidence in your ability to encourage a positive attitude and high self-esteem. You can do it. You are worthy of the respect of your peers, family and friends. Just keep planting positive affirmations in your mind and acting in a confident manner.

kara243 asked:


When do psychiatrists prescribe it to you? What are your opinions on anti-depressants? I have mild depression (tired all the time, negative thoughts, sad, feelings of worthlessness) and just wondering what level you need to be at to need medication.

Mateo Martins asked:




Depression is a psychiatric turmoil which manifests itself in varied degrees and indications. It differs in intensity, to a certain extent can be treated with psychotherapy and social support. This psychological condition can lead to frequent mood swings and disinterest to life in general. Life style disorders among youngsters and adults have made it rampant in today’s society.

The disorder is classified as slight, mild and severe depression. The slight problem can be overcome by time and effective support of the family to get over the anxiety of job loss or break in relationships. Mild disturbance is a short term disorder which starts with fatigue, restlessness, insomnia, and temper loss. But in some cases, the condition develops into severe mayhem. The patient lives with low self esteem and suffer from headaches and backaches, lack of focus, and gets weepy.

Symptoms and Causes

The indications and causes vary from case to case. The basic symptoms are anger, anxiety, stress, lack of focus on life, emptiness, loneliness, changes in weight, acute pain in joints and muscles, suicidal tendencies, and low self esteem. The causes cannot be attributed to a single target. Factors that are responsible can be varied in nature; it can be a genetic trait, due to trauma, stress, or negative thoughts. In today’s world life style disorder is considered to be the major factor attributed to this disease. A week willed individual with a negative approach to life gets carried away by trivial setbacks in his life. From childhood, he has learn to nurture a strong mind to face all odds in the stage of life

Risk Factors

A family history of depression or ******* can trigger this problem. Bad childhood experiences, low esteem, a victim of frequent criticism, after effects of prolonged illness, low economic status, and alcohol, drug abuse, separation of parents, divorce, fear of loss and failure tend to aggravate the situation.

Treatment

Medical journals are flooded with a lot of treatments and cure. Some are of the view that holistic approach like meditation, fitness regime, yoga with social support will enable him to soothe his mind and body. Research has proved that constant exercise help to activate the hormones. Anti depressant drugs are administered with the close monitoring of medical experts.

Tony Wedge asked:




Most people feel the weight of the world on their shoulders when it comes to the stress of their job. The stressful feelings of being in a job can overwhelm a person to the point of a nervous breakdown or worse. In order to understand why our jobs cause us a large amount of stress we first must internal and external factors in our workplace. Once these factors are identified we can then start the process of reducing or totally eliminating our stress in the workplace.

Internal factors of stress are feelings of despair, under appreciation, and dissatisfaction. These feelings are mental and triggered by the actions and reactions of others in the workplace. Internal factors of stress in the working are basically negative thoughts. Pinpoint the cause of these negative thoughts and counteract them with positive thoughts.

External factors are often considered minimal issues with easy solutions. External factors can be physical issues (contrast too low on your monitor) or environmental issues (the people who site in your area). While most external stress factors can be easily fixed, they are most often ignored. Think through a positive solution and talk with your supervisors to help resolve the issues.

Overall workplace stress can be eliminated but the first step is managing the factors you can control. Mentally prepare yourself for the entire day, not just the stress of the workplace. Change your route to and from work, the music you listen to, and the locations you take a break or lunch. Start exercising and limit your caffeine drinks. Find a new satisfying hobby you can look forward to after work. Finally, talk to someone about the issues surrounding your stress in your workplace.

If you feel you have exhausted all your avenues to successfully limit or eliminate the stress from your workplace, take the time to update your resume and find a better situation. Life is too short and spending one minute stressing about work is too much. Remember, tomorrow is a new day, a chance to make your work situation better.

Harold Cortez asked:




Depression is quite a troubling name for human beings. More than millions of people every year get affected by depression. The affects of depression may vary according to the types of depression. The most troubling forms of depression are major depression or clinical or chronic depression. The criteria for depression depend upon the signs and symptoms of depression, for example (If it is severe the criteria for the diagnosis is different as compared to the mild depression and vice -versa). Therefore it is very necessary to first identify the symptoms and then after diagnosis criteria. Following are the signs and symptoms that most of the specialists are looking for, for the diagnostic criteria of major depression.

For the diagnostic criteria of depression, a person has to exhibit five to six of the following symptoms for more than two weeks. Sadness, irritation, or anger whole day, you feel disturbed all the time. You might put on or loose significant amount of weight in only a few days. Your diet gets hugely affected; you might suffer from eating disorders as well. Loss of interest in all sorts of activities that gave you pleasure in the past. You would not even like to talk about your favorite activities. It has been noticed that people suffering from depression get easily retarded almost everyday. As a result of which sufferer is not able to perform daily duties, life gets completely slowed down. Fatigue or loss of energy almost entire day. One of the biggest symptoms is negative thoughts. Negative thoughts become a permanent part of your thinking. Even positive things appear negative to you. Feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness and guilt occur in your minds on regular basis. Suicidal thoughts are also one of the biggest symptoms of major depression. Sleeping problems such as insomnia and hypomania. Both are sleeping disorders that cause too much or too less sleep. Physical problems such as stomach pain, pain in the chest and headache is also another symptom. Consider this one as a symptom if the pain persists for more than two weeks. They also make sure that the symptoms do not meet the criteria of mixed episodes. The symptoms of depression that cause significant amount of stress at job, social life or friendship. Specialists also make sure that the symptoms are not due to drugs abuse or any other medicine. The symptoms are not because of grief. For example, after a death of loved ones, the symptoms may continue for more than month or two. They also make sure that symptoms are not due to impairment, mere worthlessness etc. These symptoms are not considered for diagnosis criteria because these symptoms automatically disappear with the passage of time.

Diagnosis needs to be done if you find more than five to six of the above symptoms lasting for more than two weeks. After proper diagnosis proper treatment method needs to be considered to get rid of depression.

Royane Real asked:




Are you worried that nobody likes you? Feeling that nobody likes us or loves us is one of the most agonizing and devastating feelings in the world. Feeling as if you are unliked and unloved is tremendously depressing, because human beings are hard wired to be social creatures. We need to feel like a part of a group, or a part of humanity, even though we also want to be appreciated as unique human beings.

If you have been feeling unliked by everybody else, the first thing you need to do is to ask yourself if it’s really true. Is it absolutely true that nobody likes you, and that nobody loves you? Or is it just a few people you’re worried about? Are you making your situation much worse than it is because you are putting yourself down, or imagining that others are hostile towards you?

Sometimes we get really down on ourselves, and we start to exaggerate all the bad things that are going on in our lives. For example, if someone snubs us or hurts us, we might expand the event to make it much more negative and extreme than what really happened.

Instead of saying to ourselves, “Well it looks like Judy was in too much of a hurry to talk to me today.” We say instead, “Judy didn’t want to talk to me. She probably hates me or thinks I’m stupid. Maybe she doesn’t think I’m cool enough for her. I’ll bet everybody is laughing at me behind my back, even though they pretend to be nice to my face. I probably don’t have any real friends, but maybe it’s because I’m sort of strange. In some ways, I’m not really normal. No wonder nobody likes me. Everything is terrible.”

Once you start to say negative things to yourself, you will also start to imagine a lot of negative thoughts coming from other people, even though you don’t have any real evidence. The negative thoughts you feed yourself will hurt you even worse than the negative things other people may say about you.

Once you start a chain of negative put downs of yourself, you will set off a cycle of depression and lack of confidence. Your self esteem will plummet. That is a shame, because it’s your own sense of self esteem and self support you really need to have, especially when it seems that other people may be saying negative things about you.

Let’s face it, it does take confidence to interact with other people. If you don’t have confidence in yourself, you won’t get the courage to mix with others. If you run into people who are bullies and intimidators, you won’t know how to value yourself.

The real reason we feel threatened when other people seem as if we don’t like us is because it can trigger our inner fears that we really aren’t good enough.

If you experience a situation where you feel that nobody likes you, it can be a signal that you need to like yourself.

Sally Chia asked:




When a teen is failing or doing poorly in school, parents may react with understandable frustration and try all sorts of strategies, from bribery to punishment, to get their teen to turn things around. When all things fail, tension rises and everyone becomes exasperated and at a loss to figure out the cause – and a cure – of the problems at school.

Depression, and not willfulness or laziness. Approximately 4% to 12% of school-aged children (depending upon their age) meet the criteria for being depressed, and since depression isn’t just experienced at home, it’s likely to affect a teen’s performance at school, too. Teenagers experiencing symptoms of depression usually have difficulty completing schoolwork and are at risk for academic underachievement and failure. Without early diagnosis and treatment, a teen is likely to have a negative cycle of depression > school failure > increased depression because of the failure.

School failure has a negative impact on a teen’s self esteem. A depressed teen is apt to have difficulty working to his academic and intellectual capability. He seldom completes his homework, and his test grades are likely to go down because he is tired and has trouble concentrating. To complicate matters, his teachers nay not recognize the symptoms of depression.

School may also be s source of stress for your teen. For a depressed teen, school may be the primary situation in which substantial demands are placed on her. Significant social stress might result if your teen has difficulty fitting in with his peer group.

Depression is likely to affect your teen in the following areas in school:


Ability to focus and pay attention. The depressed teen is often preoccupied with negative thoughts and feelings and finds it hard to put his full attention on schoolwork. Problems with concentration at school are one of the major complaints for teens experiencing depression. A depressed teen can improve his ability to sustain attention if he gets a good night’s sleep and feels rested.

Completing class work. When a teen is depressed, he has little energy to apply to activities that he perceives as being stressful or of low interest. A depressed teen may withdraw from typical activities and become resistant to teacher requests to participate in classroom activities. In this situation, it is good that the teachers can provide daily feedback to parents regarding a teen’s completion of assignments. It works better if this is used in a positive instead of a negative way, so that it doesn’t add undue pressure to the teen’s stress level. if he has a bad day, you can ignore it and try to focus on the next day being a better one.

Completing homework. Teenagers who are depressed often have great difficulty finishing their homework because they lack focus, energy and motivation. Most teenagers, of course, prefer to have no homework, but they do it because they know they have to. They’re also aware that if they don’t get it done, they may pay a price in the future. The depressed teen is stuck in an unpleasant here and now. He’s not thinking about the future, and when he does, it’s without much hope or interest. You might create a behavior plan to set up rewards for good homework completion. If homework continues to be a problem, you can try to enroll your teen in an after school homework program or suggest finding a peer study buddy.

Getting to school. Many depressed teens have difficulty getting up in the morning and going to school. Because they are tired and have a hard time dealing with stressful events, they may try to avoid school. You can help by encouraging your teen to develop good routines for going to bed and waking up. The less your teen has to think about what he has to do in the morning or at night, the better. The process should become automatic, so that it goes smoothly.

Peer Relations. Depressed teens often have difficulties that lead to social isolation. It’s another depression cycle. A teen may withdraw and isolate him from friends and classmates, leading to loneliness, which may perpetuate the depression. Having friends and social support system can be of great help to a teen dealing with depression. You should encourage your teen to attend after-school activities that teach a mix of social and academic skills, through activities such as non-competitive sports, special interest clubs or skills enhancement programs.

Milos Pesic asked:




Depression is a disabling condition that is described by unhappy feelings of hopelessness, which can be a result from stressful events, hormonal imbalances, or many other causes. Those people with depression tend to withdraw themselves from the world, get angry easily, and lose the interests once enjoyed doing – exactly changes in mood! Didn’t you ever wish that you can just take vitamins to treat your depression? Well, it may work for some people, but definitely not for everybody. There are actually several vitamin deficiencies that may lead to depression.

There are a lot of ways to overcome depression, such as change in lifestyle on top of medication and counseling and taking vitamins for depression. A change in lifestyle includes keeping healthy eating habit, proper exercise, and taking vitamins for depression. If these things are being followed, you’re treatment will be as effective as you want it to be.

Deficiency of certain vitamins has been shown to have some effect in someone’s mood, with which should be taken care of immediately by taking supplementation. Let us see what possible vitamins for depression are available that you can use to avoid both deficiency and depression. Here are some of the vitamins for depression that you might want to start taking to combat your condition:

Vitamin B-complex is important to keep us emotionally and mentally balanced. And since they cannot be stored in our body, we simply depend on our daily food and vitamin intake to replenish them. Unfortunately, B vitamins can easily be destroyed by alcohol, refined sugars, caffeine, and nicotine. Therefore, it is not surprising to know that many of us may be deficient in B-complex vitamins.

Vitamin B1 or Thiamine is being utilized by our brain to convert glucose or blood sugar into fuel for the brain to function properly. Insufficient supply of this vitamin can lead to fatigue, depression, irritability, anxiety, or worse, negative thoughts of *******. Also, deficiencies can result to memory problems, loss of appetite, trouble sleeping, and constipation. Just by simply consuming refined carbohydrates, like simple sugar eats away the supply of vitamin B1.

Vitamin B3 or Niacin deficient can result to pellagra, which produces psychosis and dementia, and many other symptoms. At present, many commercial foods already contain niacin, keeping pellagra out of the scene. But, sub-clinical deficiencies in vitamin B3 may produce agitation and anxiety, and mental and physical slowness.

Vitamin B5 or Pyridoxine helps in the processing of amino acids, which is considered to be the building blocks of all proteins and other hormones. It is an essential element in manufacturing serotonin, melatonin, and dopamine. Although deficiencies in vitamin B6 are rare, it can result to impaired immunity, skin wounds, and mental confusion.

Vitamin B12 is essential to red blood cell formation. Therefore, deficiency on this will lead to an oxygen-transport problem, most commonly known as pernicious anemia. This condition can possibly cause mood swings, paranoia, dementia, hallucination, irritability, confusion, or mania and eventually followed by loss of appetite, weakness, dizziness, shortage of breath, palpitation, and more.

Folic acid is needed for DNA synthesis and for the production of Sadenosyl Methionine. Usually this is taken together with vitamin B12.

Vitamin C is needed, especially if you are pregnant or lactating, or under a lot of stress.

Deficiencies in minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron and manganese can also lead to depression. So, make sure to take not only vitamins for depression, but also certain minerals.

Nicholas Finegan asked:




Low self esteem can have drastic effects on a persons life. Thats why it’s so useful to gain higher self esteem right now…

The effects of low self esteem include:

Negative Behaviors

This could be about your capabilities, your worth, past experiences or future goals. Anything any other human being has done you can do aswell, thats why low self esteem is insignificant. All it takes is for you to start using your body in new ways to make yourself feel better. The great thing about this is you can do this in an INSTANT! I mean RIGHT NOW, start using your body in positive ways. Do a silly dance and make yourself laugh. Good self esteem boils down to putting a smile on your face.

Negative Thoughts

Another useless trait of low self esteem. Imagine if you were charged for every thought that you had. For every positive thought you were given $10 and for every negative thought you were charged $100, would you still like to have negative thoughts? For the most part negative thoughts will **** your good feelings away and (as a metaphor) empty out your wallet or purse if your not careful. Stop negative thoughts or you’ll be emotionally broke for a long time.

Negative Feelings

Negative feelings are a result of having negative thoughts. If you have a negative thought you can guarantee you will feel a negative feeling. If you want to change this start having positive thoughts and you’ll start to have positive feelings. Purposely spend a few minutes a day to think some positive thoughts about yourself. It doesn’t matter how large or small, just do it! You’ll feel much better for it

With these three traits that make up your overall self image and self esteem, you can change these around and start using them in positive directions that serve you RIGHT NOW. Whenever you catch yourself moving your body negatively, thinking negatively or having a negative feeling, STOP, and do the positive opposite instead!

Start thinking positive thoughts, move your body in ways that make you smile! Doing these things regularly will allow you to feel good. With repetition you will interrupt low self esteem symptoms once and for all and wake up to the horizon of creating a happier life.

Mike Harvey asked:




One of the problems when you are worried about what people think of you is self consciousness. You feel as though your every move is being evaluated. This comes from focusing your attention inwards and becoming painfully aware of what is happening to you.

It makes sense then that one of the easiest ways to overcome this feeling of self consciousness, which is at the core of the worry of what people think of you is by getting outside of your head. By not paying attention to your damaging thought processes you will be able to reduce self consciousness.

Understand one thing. The less self conscious you are the easier it is to be yourself and join in with what is going on around you. The most powerful strategy you can learn to become less self aware is how to direct your attention onto other things, rather than your internal thought process. This way it breaks the cycle of you listening to your negative thinking patterns and allows you to escape from seeing the world through your negative filter.

Let me ask you something. When you’re at home watching the TV do you feel as though people are judging you? No, because your mind is focused on what is happening in the program you are watching. The same can happen in social situations. Your mind is too distracted to think the negative things that you have programmed yourself to think.

If you feel self conscious you will use safety behaviors to try to make sure no one else notices you feel this way. You’ll feel un-confident in yourself, listen to your thought processes and you’ll be in the anxiety loop. It’s time to stop and overcome your self consciousness.

The first thing you need to do is to decide not to allow yourself to think or dwell on negative thoughts. How? You have to imagine the thoughts coming into your mind, if it’s a negative thought that is not going to take you where you want to be, just imagine it popping out of the top of your head. Reject negative thoughts. The second part is to get outside of your head. Focus on what is happening around you.

I understand that this can be a difficult subject to understand and I must admit that it took me sometime. I am now nearly sixty six and for most of my life I have suffered from self consciousness, self esteem and decided if I was to improve my life I would read up on the subject and then try and help other sufferers around the world.