What Are the Symptoms of Low Self-Esteem?

People with low self-esteem rarely live their life to the full.
They distance themselves from others, and are thus denied thei
love and support. They rarely, if ever, make full use of thei
abilities. Instead, they end up brooding about the injustices ofnlife. Such people are a loss to themselves, their family and tonsociety. Some of them even take to crime, alcohol and drugs.

Invariably, people with low self-esteem are uncomfortable withnsuccess. They tend to believe that they don't deserve success,nand they have no clue as to how to savor success. At the samentime, they do not hesitate to blame themselves if things gonwrong. They take sadistic pleasure in telling the world that theynknew things would go wrong. This is an important symptom of lownself-esteem, and needs to be treated at the earliest.

People suffering from low self-esteem also have the habit ofnputting themselves down. They repeatedly tell themselves thatnthey are not good enough and that they are bound to fail. Over anperiod of time this negative self-talk turns into a negativenself-belief. More than that, they try and implant these seeds ofnnegativity in people around them. They also gravitate towardsnpeople who suffer from similar problems. The end result is thatnthey feed on each other's negativity, and become much poore
individuals than they initially were.

A high level of dissatisfaction is another indicator of low self-nesteem. There are people who spend all their time complaining.
They neither see a positive thing in others nor in themselves.
This cynicism eats away their self-belief, and erodes their self-nconfidence. In contrast, people who value their abilities enjoynhigh self-esteem.

Also, people with low self-esteem spend most of their timenbrooding about the past and worrying about the future. They don'tnspend enough time living in the present. As a result, they don'tnenjoy the present, even though it may be full of success. The netnresult is that they prevent themselves from enjoying life, andnmake themselves unhappy. It finally becomes a vicious cycle thatnfeeds upon itself, and prevents them from breaking out of thei
negative mouldnnsuch people are rarely relaxed and at ease. They keep looking forndifferent jobs and lines of work. The reason why they are alwaysnlooking for something else to do is that they are lack self-nconfidence. They drift from one crisis to another, and blame fatenfor their woes.

A few of them take to alcohol, drugs, food, sex etc to get antemporary "high". But this rarely helps them in the long run.
They fail to generate a sustainable feeling of happiness andncontentment.

People with low self-esteem also have problems getting close tonothers. They are not comfortable with intimacy and createnbarriers to prevent people from coming close to them. They don'tnlike to open up to people and to reveal their innermost thoughts.
They may be nursing some old bad experience with someone whoncaused them a lot of pain or who let them down when they werenmost vulnerable. By forcing themselves to live in a world ofnself-denial they are doing a great damage to themselves. Theynfail to benefit from the company of others, and keep entrenchingnthemselves deeper and deeper into their negative world. They maynultimately reach a stage where they may be declared beyondnsalvage.

But this is not good for society. People with low self-esteemnmust be helped. Their symptoms must be diagnosed, and helpnprovided if they have to be turned into useful members ofnsociety. This help can be given by family members, friends,nteachers or by trained psychologists.