Do you wonder if you suffer from low self-esteem? Self-esteem is the confidence you have in yourself and in your abilities. It's how you see yourself. One of the most common long-term effects of being bullied is low self-esteem.

When someone repeatedly makes you feel bad about yourself, it's hard not to see yourself in a negative light. When this happens while we are young, it becomes even more detrimental. We don't need people trying to put us down when we're still trying to figure out who we are.

Being bullied as a child causes you to lack confidence. You begin to think that you're not worthy or good enough. These feelings can stay with you for a long time after the bullying has ended. It's difficult to feel good about yourself again.

What's worse is that you might even come to dislike yourself. You may think that if only you were good enough people might treat you better. As a result, people with low self-esteem try to not make mistakes in order to be more accepted, which can cause you to become a perfectionist.

What also happens is that your perception of how others view you becomes distorted. You think that everyone is being critical of you even when that is not their intention. Or you might think that someone who is being nice to you isn't being sincere.

The infographic below shows the common characteristics of someone who has low self-esteem.

Now I don't want you to worry if you feel like a lot of these characteristics describe you. Another thing that happens when you have low self-esteem is that you lose hope. I want you to have hope that you can have a healthy self-esteem again. Honestly, self-esteem is something I still struggle with myself, but I have been able to come a long way. I'm confident that you can do the same.

In the next post we're going to look at ways in which you can start to rebuild your self-esteem, so look forward to that. In the meantime, have hope! It takes time to rebuild self-esteem but it is absolutely possible.

Please leave a comment and let me know if you have any stories or questions.

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