When your self esteem is running low, it can be hard to keep a positive perspective on life. Self esteem is how much you value yourself. Behaviors, appearance and emotions are all parts of your self esteem, and it comes strictly from within. If you love yourself and accept who you are, and how you look, it’s considerably easier to see the role you have to play in life, and to recognize your own potential. Some of the root causes of addiction are anxiety and depression. When you struggle with your self esteem or body image, the longer the battle, the greater the effect low self esteem can have on the body and mind. Having low self esteem often leads people to tolerate an abusive situation that they would otherwise leave, battle clinical or severe depression and in most cases, turn to drugs or alcohol to try and cope. This only adds fuel to the fire, and continues the cycle of feeling poorly about oneself, and using more to cover up how you feel. A large majority of people suffering from addiction also grapple with extremely low self esteem at some point in their addiction battle. Here are four facts to help you better understand self esteem:

There are different kinds – Self esteem is how you feel about yourself, and there are different aspects to consider. You can dislike one part of yourself, but feel confident in other areas. Even people who appear to be extremely confident can struggle with self esteem issues.
Self esteem can change by the day – You can wake up feeling great about yourself one day, and the next day, you struggle to see anything good at all in yourself. The feedback you give yourself makes as big of an impact as the feedback you get from your environment.
Higher self esteem is good in moderation – while it’s important to boost low self esteem, a self esteem that’s too high can lead to overconfidence, or behaving with an air of superiority. Narcissists are an extreme example of this, and the damage it can inflict on people around you.
We do most of the damage ourselves – Sadly, the most common way humans react to failure or being rejected is to be harsh and self critical. We try to keep ourselves “humble” by being extremely hard on ourselves.

Having a healthy level of self esteem is drastically important when it comes to those battling addiction. Understanding the importance of this can help ensure you take better care of you.

Your story is waiting to begin with the rest of your life. Treatment is the beginning of the journey that changes your story. At Oceanfront Recovery, a treatment facility in Orange County, California, we believe that when you change your story, you change your life. Call us today for information on our programs for treatment, including our exclusive executive track. 877.279.1777