low self esteem

[MargaretNoelle]

Please read and offer tips. I have been struggling with this for awhile. Thanks so much in advance! I'll keep it brief.

 

I have known that I have had poor self esteem for awhile now. It is starting to effect my life more and more as time goes on. I have a feeling it is embedded in me because of my childhood experiences.

 

Here's the thing- I am a college student. If I go to the school counselor, they would send me to an off-campus counselor and I would have to tell my parents. I am petrified of telling my parents or friends that I constantly struggle with this. A few people have seen through my act (one friend, a boyfriend) and told me I have low self esteem, but I don't think even they realize to what extent. And I told them they were wrong.

 

I am just way too embarrassed to ask for help and I don't want people to know. I feel like therapy is the only way to resolve it at this point. Its going to sound ridiculous (completely) but I almost consider taking something like anorexia or alcoholism (two things I've dabbled in) and turning one into a major visible problem just so someone sends me to counseling, without having to find out that my real problem is self esteem. I know its crazy, but its all I can think of. I'd be way more embarrassed to admit a self esteem issue than a form of addiction.

[Lovelybird]

I think everyone struggles with self-esteem thing, just different degrees. if you have low self-esteem, then you have many negative thoughts about yourself, those negative thoughts are like old pictures constantly remind you that you are not enough.

 

First, I think you have to realize those old pictures in your mind are not really truth, or if you experienced something bad in the past, that cannot be always your future, nor can be who you are. nor how other people treat you can say who you are, that only say who they are

 

whatever your issue is, I know many who have more tougher ones overcomed it. sometimes I think if Joyce Meyer had that tough childhood (she was sexually abused by her father), and overcomed it and have a happy successful life, then my issue seemed invisible.

 

Joyce Meyer wrote a book The Penny, talked about her childhood, and how she overcame those bad experiences and bad self-esteem through grace of God. She is quite inspiring.