Everyone has one of the I never
should have gotten out of bed days. When you find yourself at the far
end of an emotional spectrum. When you lose your inner balance and
find that you cannot return to it that is the time to take action.
Most people feel bad about themselves from time to time. Low self
esteem can be triggered by an incident in the recent past or by the
judgment which you may have of yourself. You deserve to feel good
about yourself. It is not easy when you are under the stress if
having symptoms that are difficult or impossible to manage or when
you have a disability. The episodes in life draw you into a downward
spiral leading to lower and lower self esteem. The negative self
thoughts make you feel so bad about yourself and you may do something
that could only make you feel even worse.
Low self esteem is a symptom of
depression.
Manic episodes produce irrational
ideas which seem to be absolutely possible and will lead to great
success and rewards and the contagious optimism where life is
limitless and so along with it
your energy. Then a clearer picture
of your symptoms and how they affect your daily life and those around
you shows the devastating crash of depression which the maxed out
credit cards can not fix.
Suddenly you find yourself at the
point of the realization that life is not all that rosy and the
nightmare will continue to pursue you until you fear your own self.
he past seems to loam over your head and you reach the end of the
infectious high and sink deeper and deeper into a depressive state.
All seems lost and hopeless, bleak and dismal. You look at the past
few days, weeks, months of the high and you see that it was filled
with bad decisions and expectations. You wonder how you ever thought
of yourself as anything other than a loser, a person who could never
and would never do anything productive and if it was it would be
mediocre and not even impress your own mother. Life was filled with
half started attempts at things that you were never able to achieve
or even worthy of achieving. You think of your High School prom and
how you were never cheerleader material, never the valedictorian of
your class, never an honor student. Incapable of anything worthwhile
you wonder where life will lead you and why.
Before you go off the deep end
losing all to the depression.
Think of the chocolate cakes that
you consumed, all the cups of dark and sweet coffee that you deluged
your body with craving quarts of ice cream and candy.
Processed sugar is addictive and
contributes to depression
Junk food, foods containing a lot of
sugar need to be avoided. Taking good care of yourself and working at
taking good care of yourself will make you feel better about
yourself. Eat healthy vegetables and fruit; whole grain foods and
protein foods can lift your self esteem in time when added to a
constructive exercise routine. Do things that make use of your
talents and abilities it may be studying a language, playing an
instrument creativity builds self confidence and thereby lifting a
sagging self esteem. One way to boost your self esteem is learn
something new or improve your skills at something you may already do.
Pay attention to your own needs and
wants; get in tune with your body if you are tired of sitting stand
for a while or take a short walk, a moving body helps to make you
feel better and improves you opinion of yourself. Make a point of
treating yourself well everyday.
There are probably a lot of negative
messages passing through your mind about yourself. Many people have
these thoughts, these are learned messages many come from prejudice
and the stigma about mental disorders in our society. These negative
thoughts make you feel bad about yourself and contribute to low self
esteem. Become aware of the negative messages and develop positive
statements to replace them.
Self esteem is like Bipolar disorder
in that what goes down can go up and learning to balance your self
esteem leads to a balance in your life overall. Lifting self esteem
gives you the confidence to actively approach your mental disorder
and face it in an objective and hopeful way. To those struggling
with bipolar disorder or any other mental disorder the road to
recovery need not be hopeless the chances that a medication treatment
is positive and the prognosis is becoming better as the new
medications are discovered. Life with a mental disorder need not be
an end to life but can be the beginning of a new way of living.
