I have low self esteem. For a long time I was never aware how bad my perspective on life and myself truly was, and so I just kind of went along with the flow of things. I am a middle child. I often felt overshadowed by both of my sisters, and felt stuck in the middle, and problems started to arise because of it. Without a healthy outlook on life I tried to take my life a few times, thankfully, without success, and I have been in undergrad longer than most people have been in school. I've had many problems, and many difficulties in expressing myself. It's like I have painted a red flag on myself showing how socially and mentally inadequate I am compared to my peers.
I study art right now. Art is hard, and hard to make money in. I guess when you are overshadowed so much you don't really care. My drawing skill isn't great, and extends again to my level of confidence in myself.
I want to start going to self-help groups at my school. I see a shrink every 2 weeks or so, but I need something more substantial and concrete to help increase my confidence in life and living. What can I do? And what do you guys do about low self-esteem?
To be honest, it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference if you were oldest or youngest child, each of them have their advantages and disadvantages.
Do you at least enjoy making art? I suppose art has two aspects to it, pure (drawing) skill and ability to be creative. I don't think you necessarily have to be great at either to make good art, but obviously both can be trained and you are probably better at it than you think you are (you probably know that).
We as humans can express ourselves in many ways, if you find it hard to do it in a social context, maybe try to do it through your art. Use your experiences in life as inspiration, no matter how difficult that might be. Art can be considered an alternative form of human communication, perhaps one you may be able to utilize better than others exactly because you are not good at communicating in a normal context.
Anyway, I still suffer from not being able to socialize properly even though I am somewhat confident of myself, although it's probably easier the more confident you get. I stayed in school very long, wasted 3 years of my life for no reason other than that I didn't want to go. But now I am trying to do better... and I suppose I have been doing better as I've finished my bachelor within the set time. So I suppose chance for the better is possible. But I'm not sure what made me able to accomplish it, other than just doing it.
In second to last sentence, that should be change not chance. Still too early in the morning for me...
You feel overshadowed?
If that causes you low self esteem, I think that you should just break free from the bonds; such as friends, family people that overshadow you etc.
Now, I'm not telling you to break all ties, but just grow more independent; throw the past behind you and look forward. Whenever you go out and socialize, you won't remember about those that overshadowed you and they won't have as much of an influence as before.
>>5
Well, I think the problem is that I don't just feel overshadowed at home. It's something I take with me everywhere. I haven't done art long, so my expectations are a little much, honestly. I tend to do that. Compare myself to everyone without thinking about myself.
Independence is something I want, and i'm moving towards it slowly. It takes time.