Counseling & Psychological Services

Self-esteem is the way we see ourselves and how we feel about our ability to meet specific values or standards often derived from our families, culture, and media. Because many of us have high expectations for ourselves, our self-worth can often suffer when we don't meet up to these standards or values, and we can develop low self-esteem as a result. When our self-worth is based on impossible standards we get from media, we are especially vulnerable to low self-esteem. Changing low self-esteem is possible and well worth the effort.

Signs of Low Self-Esteem:

• Feelings of inadequacy
• Social withdrawal because you don't believe others could like or understand you
• Making comparisons with others in which you don't measure up
• Negative self-talk and self-criticism
• Striving for perfection and beating up on yourself when you don't achieve it

Things You Can Do:

• Make a list of those things you do well. Take the time to allow yourself to see the bigger picture of who you are, rather than over-focusing on the areas where you are not achieving as you would like.
• Avoid comparing yourself to others. Work toward making reasonable comparisons with yourself and see how far you've come.
• Set reasonable goals for yourself. When goals are based on perfection (e.g., the perfect performance, body, etc.), we never feel we are good enough, which can lead to depression.
• Reality testing can help you assess whether or not you are really doing as badly as you might think. Take the time to check out whether or not things are so bad. It might be that things are not perfect, but they are not really so bad either.
• Change your self-talk. When you hear the critic, learn to turn it off and turn on encouragement, like tuning a radio station to a different dial.
• Listen to what it is that's really important to you. Often this has nothing to do with the standards we are measuring ourselves by. Freeing ourselves up to pursue what we really value can lead to enhanced self-esteem.

Help is Available

It may benefit you to talk to someone at the Counseling Center. Stop by during our Initial Consultation hours Monday-Friday 8:30-11:00 a.m. & 1:00-4:00 p.m., or call (828) 262-3180. We can talk with you about your concerns. You may also learn more by checking our other links, or completing an online screening.

Crisis Services

If you or another AppState student is experiencing suicidal and/or homicidal thoughts or experiencing trauma in regard to a sexual assault, you may contact us after hours by calling the Counseling Center at (828) 262-3180 and select the option to speak with the counselor on call.