How Can Sustained Low Self-Esteem Lead to Depression?

Self-esteem is our overall, subjective perception of our worth or value. It describes your level of self-confidence in your skills and qualities. High self-esteem can affect your motivation, mood, and general quality of life. However, self-esteem that is either excessively high or excessively low may lead to poor mental health. 

Self-esteem has an impact on our decision-making, the quality of our relationships, our emotional health, and our general well-being. Healthy self-esteem involves a solid grasp of our abilities, a strong relationship with ourselves, reasonable and realistic expectations from ourselves, and an awareness of our needs and the capacity to communicate them. 

While healthy self-esteem can enhance mood, motivation, and quality of life, consistently low self-esteem can adversely affect all these factors. Moreover, low self-esteem can contribute to anxiety, depression, and thoughts of self-harm, especially among adolescents. Research shows that people with low self-esteem may be at a greater risk for depression. 

What does low self-esteem look like? 

Signs of low self-esteem can take a variety of forms. If you have low self-esteem, it is likely that:

• You often think that others are superior to you.
• You find it challenging to convey your demands.
• You might regularly feel anxious, fearful, and self-conscious.
• You may feel out of control and have a pessimistic attitude toward life
• You may experience a severe fear of failing.
• You may have a hard time receiving compliments.
• Setting limits and saying no could be difficult for you.
• You might prioritise the needs of others before your own.

Low self-esteem and depression

Depression is a serious mood disorder characterised by persistent feelings of sadness or low mood, loss of motivation and hopelessness. When someone has depression, they experience depressive symptoms for weeks or longer. 

To know more about depression, its signs, causes and symptoms, read our article: Understanding Depression: Signs, Causes and Types

Negative thoughts about oneself and feelings of worthlessness are often experienced in depression. Our fundamental self-perceptions—whether we believe we are deserving of good things or not—are connected to our sense of self-worth. It can be very difficult to feel good about ourselves or our lives when we inherently feel unworthy. Moreover, emotions of worthlessness are often linked to traumatic and painful childhood events, which can also be a cause of depression.

Low self-esteem may give rise to certain irrational thought patterns or cognitive distortions about the self, such as “I am unworthy of love and belonging”. Such thoughts can set off a series of events that can further draw us into a cycle of negative thoughts. The vicious cycle of negative thoughts is not only focused on the self, but may even be attributed to other people and shape negative core beliefs about the world at large. For example, in believing that “I’m not good enough”, you may also start believing that others think the same about you and that the world is harsh, difficult and unaccepting. 

Low self-esteem and depression are interlinked, and recent research shows that people with low self-esteem tend to pay attention to and replay negative thoughts far more than those with healthy self-esteem. This makes them far more prone to low mood, feelings of sadness and hopelessness, all characteristics to depression. Those with poor self-esteem are also far more perceptive to criticism and negative feedback as compared to positive feedback, further fuelling feelings of guilt, worthlessness, and self-doubt. 

Experiencing depression or low self-esteem can be lonely, difficult, and exhausting. If you are struggling with poor self-esteem or symptoms of depression, you can seek professional support for treating depression and improving self-esteem. Therapy can provide a safe space for self-acceptance and help you raise feelings of self-worth, and you deserve to feel better.