Self-confidence comes from the way in which a person feels about themselves and how they measure their worth. It is affected by many factors that include their past and their present. For instance, a person may have been abused in their childhood, which could shatter their self-confidence from a young age. It is best to be aware of these factors so that you can avoid them from happening in your life or someone else’s. Here are the most common eight things that lower your self-confidence.
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Negative Experiences
One of the biggest factors that lower a person’s self-confidence is negative experiences that they may have faced in the past. These experiences can greatly impact how they feel about themselves. A common example is bullying. A person who was bullied in the past may have extremely low self-confidence. Bullying can also be in many different forms. Maybe it was at school or the workplace, but it can make one question their abilities or self-worth. These negative experiences can stay with a person for a lifetime and can make a person feel so underconfident that they may not be able to speak for themselves.
Trauma/Abuse
There are many different forms of trauma and abuse, they include sexual, physical, and emotional. People who may have undergone trauma or abuse can feel shame or guilt for having gone through it. They may question themselves or feel that it’s what they deserved, which can cause them to lower their self-confidence. It can stay with them for a long time.
Sometimes even their whole lives and make them feel unworthy of love, success, etc., which can greatly affect their self-confidence. Even if the trauma/abuse happened early on in a person’s childhood, it can still greatly impact them as an adult; the person may find themselves playing out the scenario in their head over and over again, making them feel terrible about themselves as a whole.
Bad Parenting
A lot of a person’s self-confidence has to do with how they were parented. This, too, can affect a person for a long period of time. If they were neglected by their parents in their life or constantly compared to others, belittled, etc., it could shatter their self-confidence for their whole lives. Many parents undergo mental problems or have substance abuse issues, which can be quite difficult for the kids to deal with. Due to that, they might not be able to give the children the attention, love, and care that they deserve, which can greatly impact their self-confidence, making them feel unworthy of their parent’s love.
Social Media
You would be surprised at how much social media is to blame for people’s self-confidence in today’s day and age. Most people are constantly on their phones checking their Instagram, Facebook, etc. What this does is that it leads them to compare their lives and themselves to others without even realizing it. You may start comparing your life to someone’s perfect life that you are seeing on social media.
It can even be the way that someone looks which could cause you to question your body and feel bad about it. Studies have shown that spending too much time on social media can lead to depression. This can greatly lower a person’s self-confidence, making them feel like they simply aren’t good enough.
Anxiety And Depression
Anxiety and depression have a direct correlation with self-confidence. People who suffer from either of the two are likely to be under confident. It even works the other way around. People who have low self-confidence are likely to suffer from anxiety and depression. If your mental health isn’t in place, then chances are that you’ll have low self-confidence. When you treat these problems, you’ll start to notice that you feel much more confident about yourself.
Body Image
The way in which a person views their body can have a great impact on how confident they are. This is especially for young women who sometimes have unrealistic expectations of the female body. A lot of it has to do with the media and how they portray the body. As a result, the person starts feeling like their body is not good enough, and this could significantly affect their self-confidence, making them feel unattractive and worthless. Many people also get fat-shamed, whether from people they know or from strangers, which can tremendously lower their self-confidence.
Unrealistic Goals
Very often, we set unrealistic goals for ourselves. It could be a list of things you need to achieve by the time you’re a certain age, etc. These lists and goals are mostly over ambitious and unrealistic. They set a great amount of pressure on an individual, and if they are unable to achieve it, they start feeling like a failure or a loser, which lowers their self-confidence. Many of these goals are due to the pressure put on them by society and others around them who make them feel like this is their life’s worth.
Toxic Surroundings
Who and what you surround yourself with plays a great role in your self-confidence. Many people are surrounded by negative peers who bring them down. If your surroundings are toxic, then it’s no surprise that you would have low self-confidence. These surroundings can include anything from your home to your workspace, your friends, or maybe the city in which you live. Make sure that you don’t hang out with people who put you down or make you feel not so great about yourself. Even if you don’t realize it, it can take a toll on your self-confidence, making you feel worthless.
Each of these eight things can significantly lower your self-confidence, making you feel worthless and not good enough. It is best that you are aware of them so that you can help avoid them in the first place.
