[THREAD] I want to dedicate a whole thread to self-esteem and self-efficacy. Self-esteem is an evaluation of our own worth whereas self-efficacy is an evaluation of how well we can accomplish take and work. Whenever our mental health suffers, both of these tend to also
suffer. We often link them to depression and it makes sense given that during episodes of depression, we often lose motivation and see ourselves as worse than we are. However, all mental health issues cause a drop in these two not just depression. Self-esteem and self-efficacy
have been decreasing globally because we tend to value things that are very superficial and easy to lose when things don’t go well. For example, when we value ourselves in terms of our jobs, or grades, or how well we look, they can be lost easily. For example, even the best of us
can have bad grades or have bad work performance once in a while, or gain weight, or things that can affect our outward beauty. Because our societies value these standards, it is easy to lose our self worth, and it tends to be fickle. There are always unusual standards by
which everything is measured and it creates automatically a competition with peers. We have to be the best in school, the best looking possible or the best at our jobs. Anything less and we think we failed because there is someone better. We try to push ourselves harder to
compete in impassible standards that are always increasing. That means that any satisfaction of achievement is short lived because there is always something better to do. These standards set for by our societies and parents are never ending. Even when we are the best, we have to
outcompete what we just did. That means that burnout is constantly around the corner. And what does burnout create? Well it creates a lack of attention, temporary memory loss, trouble concentrating and a lack of productivity. Suddenly, the facilities that society values are
temporarily lost to us. That means that everything just spirals down even further because we can’t get the motivation to do anything and we doubt how well we would do things if we tried. Furthermore, we may experience traumas, or any other environmental difficulties that trigger
those symptoms as well. It is very important to move on from these impossible and short term ideals to tie our self-esteem and learn to love ourselves as we are. Our worth as humans beings doesn’t come from our achievements or beauty, but is something internal. The more we
teach that, the more we will create more balanced and happier generations of people. The key is to tie our self-esteem to something that doesn’t change in the short-term. By doing so, not only do we decrease our likelihood of going through this again, but we also create a more
robust self-efficacy in our tasks and work, which is exactly what society tries to value. We just go about it completely the wrong way. If you are in therapy right now, or even if you are reading this but not suffering from psych issues, it is still a good idea to slowly unlearn
your self-esteem to your school, work or body, and start learning to love yourself as you are. That can mean more self-care because you are worth it. Don’t tie your self-care to achievements. You don’t need to achieve something to do something nice for yourself. Congratulate
yourself or pat yourself on the shoulder for doing anything you are proud of whether it is taking a shower today or just simply getting breakfast for the first time in a while. When we realize that all the good small things we do that are right, we get an endless source of
pride and self-efficacy. Those are behaviours that we can start today and with time we will internalize them and they will act as a good protective factor towards our future mental health 😊
