One of the biggest challenges of the global pandemic has been the forced social isolation. Prolonged social isolation is a leading cause of depression and anxiety, and it is also known to cause long-term effects on self esteem. In this article, I will discuss how isolation effects self esteem specifically, and discuss some ways to work through this. When you’re not surrounded by others, here’s what can happen:
1. You Don’t Have People To Confide In
One of the most common reasons people isolate themselves is due to their lack of confidence in others. They don’t believe that they can confide in others about their problems. This is especially true when they feel that others will judge them. They worry that people won’t accept them for who they are and will talk behind their backs.
When people lack confidence in their friends and family, they begin to feel as if their problems are too big for anyone to handle. They end up feeling very alone in their struggles.
In order to combat this feeling of loneliness and social isolation, you need to figure out what is causing you to feel this way. Is it a lack of confidence in your friends and family? Is it a fear of being judged? Is it a fear of coming across as weak? Once you are able to identify what’s causing you to feel this way, you can begin to work on it. For instance, you can start to make plans with friends, even if you don’t believe they’ll come through for you. You can start to speak to others about what’s going on in your life, even if you don’t feel that they’ll understand. You can start to build up your confidence, and you can start to feel like less of a burden to others. We’ll dig into this further in the next section.
2. You Feel Like A Burden
When you lack confidence in your friends and family, you might worry that you’re a burden to them. Even if you don’t consciously think this, your subconscious mind might believe it. This sense of burden can then contribute to your feelings of loneliness and isolation.
This is why it can be so important to take a proactive approach when it comes to improving your social life. You need to be more assertive in making plans with friends or family. You need to be more assertive in sharing your thoughts and feelings. And you need to start to take control of your life in order to feel less of a burden to others.
3. You’re Not Working On Your Self-Esteem Issues
Conversely, low self-esteem is a major cause of social isolation. It’s a vicious cycle that can cause us to withdraw from others and isolate ourselves. It can hold us back from reaching out to others and making plans with people. It can cause us to feel like we’re a burden to others. And it can cause us to feel like we can’t be intimate with others.
The only way to overcome low self-esteem is to start working on your self-esteem issues. I will hopefully discuss this in more detail in a later article on building self-esteem. One of the biggest reasons people become socially isolated is because they lack self-esteem. They feel that they are not worthy of making friends, that they do not deserve to be loved, that they do not deserve to be happy, and that they do not deserve to have a good life. They feel that they are not good enough and that they have nothing to offer to others. This is why it’s so important for you to work on your self-esteem if you’re feeling socially isolated.
4. You Lack Confidence In Others
When you feel socially isolated, it’s easy to start to feel as if others don’t care about you. It’s easy to start to feel as if you’re no longer an important part of others’ lives. This can cause you to withdraw from others and start to feel as if you’re alone in the world. It can also cause you to lose faith in others, which can lead to more social isolation.
As we mentioned above, low self-esteem is a major reason why people feel this way. They are not confident in others, and they do not feel worthy of the love and support of others. This is why it’s so important to start working on your self-esteem issues if you’re feeling socially isolated.
Challenge Negative Thoughts
Challenging your negative thoughts is going to be absolutely essential to overcoming social isolation. You need to consciously work on changing the way you see yourself and the way you view others. If you want to feel less lonely and isolated, you need to start to see yourself in a more positive light. You need to start to see others in a more positive light. You need to start to see yourself as worthy of love and respect, and you need to start to see others as worthy of love and respect. By changing your thoughts, you’ll feel more confident in yourself and in others. You’ll feel as if you are worthy of love, and you’ll feel as if you are capable of finding love. This will help you to start to overcome your social isolation.
Overcome Isolation By Focusing On Others
A big part of overcoming social isolation is focusing on others. While it’s important that you work on your self-esteem, it’s also important that you start to pay attention to what’s going on in the world around you. You need to start to put yourself out there in the world.
Start to volunteer. Start to help people. Start to be kind to others. Start to be mindful of the people around you. Start to make friends. Start to connect with others. Start to form relationships.
When you focus on others, you’ll start to feel less of a burden to them. You’ll start to feel like they want to be in your life. You’ll start to feel like you aren’t alone in the world. You’ll start to feel less lonely and isolated.
Social isolation can cause your self-esteem to suffer, and vice versa, low self-esteem can lead to social isolation. In the midst of a global pandemic, actively countering social isolation is very important. In my next piece I’ll tackle self-esteem as its own topic, and some strategies for working on this.