Lisa Hayes once said “Be careful how you speak to yourself because you are listening.” Self-esteem is the confidence in one’s own abilities, skills, and appearance. Low self-esteem can damage yourself and others in a negative way. Even though decent or high self-esteem is desired, most people in the world believe they are not good enough. Low self-esteem causes and effects can be harmful to the human body.                                                                                              

Mental Health Issues
To begin, low self-esteem can lead to mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and more. Low self-esteem can also lead to activities someone normally wouldn’t do. One example from dosomething is that, “75% of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in negative activities like cutting, bullying, smoking, drinking, or disordered eating. This compares to 25% of girls with high self-esteem.” Another piece of evidence that supports this is from Susan Krauss. It states, “Clinicians use low self-esteem as one possible symptom when they diagnose the psychiatric condition of major depressive disorder.” These facts together prove that low self-esteem can be misleading, controlling, and provoking. Mental health issues are hard to talk about and hard to get rid of. Showing empathy when someone is upset or depressed can be a sign of kindness.

Social Media Can Impact Self-Esteem   
Social media can be a huge cause and pull into the pit of low self-esteem. Social media can often make viewers think less of themselves. Often they see a picture of someone else and criticize themselves because they don’t look as good as them. This abuses our emotions and most importantly, self-esteem. According to Daily Mail, the author Ellie Z talks about how posts on social networks only highlight the positive aspects in our life. This is significant because no one knows if those kinds of posts are real or are just an illusion. Ellie says, “More than 75% of people admit to making their lives seem more exciting on social media.” Posts like these can ruin the way we feel about ourselves, when really the account could have life or self esteem problems too. On heartofleadership, it mentions that about 98% of girls feel like there is pressure from external sources to look a certain way. Some external sources may include social media, magazines, and movies. Feeling this immense pressure from these sources can decrease confidence.

All in all, the effects and causes of low self-esteem can be very degrading for health and the human body. Listening to all the negative things in your head shuts down the mind and personality. Being careful about the comments can change you and make yourself a better person. Low self-esteem needs to be turned into high self-esteem.

Works Cited

Dailymail, Ellie Zolfagharifard For. “Welcome to Fakebook: More than 75% of People Admit to Making Their Lives Seem More Exciting on Social Media.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 1 Feb. 2016

McLeod, Saul. “Saul McLeod.” Simply Psychology, 1 Jan. 1970
“Posts about Brene Brown on Farah Bernier.” Farah Bernier,

“Statistics on Girls & Women’s Self Esteem, Pressures & Leadership Heart of Leadership.” Heart of Leadership

Whitbourne, Susan Krauss. “Is Low Self-Esteem Making You Vulnerable to Depression?”Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 26 Feb. 2013