How to regain confidence after depression
By
PsychReel
This article will discuss how a person can regain confidence after dealing with depression. For that, the article will explain how depression can impact the person’s view of themselves, and what are ways to regain a positive view of yourself when you feel better from depression.
How does depression affect your confidence?
Depression can affect how a person sees themselves and the world. It causes a person to have lower self-esteem and a decreased sense of self-worth. When a person is depressed, they can feel as if they are not worthy of anything good. They can also feel like they are incapable of doing things.
With all of that, a person’s confidence can be broken little by little. And as a person’s condition improves, it is important to find new ways to rebuild your confidence. Let’s discuss ways to rebuild your confidence after depression.
17 guidelines to regain your confidence after depression
To reconstruct your confidence after depression, can take some work. Let’s discuss 17 guidelines to what might be key aspects to do it.
Be honest with yourself
The first thing to do is, to be honest with yourself. Although you might want to appear fine, doing that can only cause you to avoid dealing with your depression. By embracing yourself completely, you may be open to understanding that there are good and bad aspects in everyone.
Be aware of the negative self-talk
Depression brings many negative emotions, and this can start to show in your thoughts or talk. And in time, this can take over your life. It can make you feel there are no good reasons to get treatment or even get better. Try to keep those in check, and know that the more space they have, the more you will feel controlled by it.
Understand the relationship between pain and depression
When you are depressed you can feel pain easily. This causes you to stay in the negative line of thought, and it can make you feel incapable of doing things. The sooner you realize how much of your pain is caused by depression, the easier it will be to battle it and allow yourself to live better.
Be grateful
It might be hard to be grateful for things when you are dealing with depression. You can completely lose track of positive things that might happen to you. To remember those things that happen, and that you are worth it, it would be a good idea to keep a journal.
A good exercise would be to write 10 things that you are grateful about in your life. Or remember things that made your day better. With time you might start to get a better notion of how many positive things you have in your life.
Be close to people and things you love
Although depression can cause you to isolate yourself, try to have around you people that are caring and supportive. Even though you can feel ashamed of sharing your thoughts and feelings, having people who are open to listening, you can feel less embarrassed, which can improve your confidence.
Look for things that might inspire you
Have videos and books that can inspire you. Those will be great instruments when you feel like you are losing touch with yourself. This may also be a great way to not go into a negative thought spiral when you can’t sleep.
Listen to music that brings positive emotions
Being in touch with pieces of art that bring you positive emotions can be a great coping mechanism. It can spark some hope in you that can go a long way in rebuilding your confidence.
Find a hobby that brings you positive wins
Depression causes you to lose interest in things, so starting to do something that can bring you at least a little enjoyment is important. And in the process of rebuilding your confidence, it might be good to try something that will give you small wins.
You can take up running, or CrossFit. Or even try and learn a new language. But having something in which you see and measure your improvement will help become more aware of how capable you are.
Try to look at failure differently
When you are depressed you can look at failure through a microscope. It can feel like you will be a failure in everything, so you tend to just stop trying. If you change the way you look at failure and realize that you only fail if you give up, it can help you keep motivated.
You need to look at failure as a process. Always have in mind that when you were a baby before you started walking, you had many falls, and only by insisting on it you were able to succeed.
Accept the good and the bad in you
Practicing self-acceptance is extremely important. In your process of rebuilding your confidence, you should try to embrace your strengths and your weaknesses. This can be a life-changing moment for you.
By embracing your weaknesses you can also put yourself to work on improving, but without making you feel like your whole identity needs to be good, otherwise, you are a bad person. It can give you a little of the “so what” attitude.
Be in therapy
Being in therapy can help you rebuild your self-esteem and confidence. Through it, you can separate what is real and what is not in this view you have of yourself, and improve that view.
If you’re facing this, it may be a good idea to seek the help of a therapist or other mental health professional. You can find a therapist at BetterHelp who can help you learn how to cope and address it.
Focus on your self-care
When you are depressed, you tend to abandon your self-care. It can be easy to eat or sleep badly, to not care for your body. But have in mind that your body is a machine, it needs care.
When you are depressed, it might be important to ask the help of others to deal with this. Ask friends to help you. It can be that they will have their meals with you or even help you work out, so you can sleep better. Make a list of things you think will improve your quality of life, and your self-image, and try to stick to it.
Question what you are afraid of
Try to understand what type of fear moves you. It can be that you are afraid of losing other people’s love and affection, or even afraid of being embarrassed. Once you understand what you are afraid of, you can stop being motivated by this fear.
Work on your finances
Having your finances in order can make you rebuild your confidence. It can make you feel like you can decide what you want. Having control over your finances is a great way to regain control over your life.
Organize your environment
In the same way as having your financial life in order, having your environment organized can make you feel more in control of your life. It can also give you a great sense of accomplishment, and make you feel that, even though some things are hard to control, at least you can do that to your environment.
Understand how lack of confidence work
Understand that believing you are lacking confidence, is the same as lacking it for real. If you don’t see your abilities, you might believe you don’t have any. So through therapy maybe you can discover that confidence has always been inside you.
Practice meditation
Have meditation and mindfulness as part of your life. This can help you focus better on the moment and the world surrounding you, instead of those negative thoughts that come to your mind when you are depressed.
Frequently Asked Question (FAQ): How can I regain my confidence after depression?
What are signs of low self-esteem?
People with low self-esteem can be sensitive to criticism because this confirms the negative things they see on themselves. Because of that, they can isolate, or become hostile when facing critics.
They also tend to focus too much on their problems and have trouble empathizing with other people’s matters. Along with that, people with low self-esteem can develop many mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety.
What causes low self-esteem?
Many things can cause low self-esteem in a person. It can be related to an unhappy childhood, in which people around them were extremely critical. Having low performance in school can also cause a person to have low self-esteem.
Going through stressful situations, such as financial problems, or being mistreated in a relationship can impact someone’s self-esteem. Along with that, many mental illnesses, such as depression, and living with chronic pain can cause someone to have low self-esteem.
What are the 3 types of self-esteem?
There are three types of self-esteem. People can have low self-esteem, high self-esteem, and inflated self-esteem. People with low self-esteem tend to not believe in themselves, and this can have a huge impact on their life. It can cause them to have poor relationships because they don’t believe they are worth a good one.
They are also people that can turn to drugs and alcohol as a way to feel better about themselves, even if momentarily. People with high self-esteem usually believe in themselves and their abilities. They are people that tend to fight for what they want and are fun to be around.
People with inflated self-esteem think they are better than others and usually underestimate them. This makes it harder for them to form positive relationships. They are people that always want to be ahead and can feel bad when they notice other people achieve something they wanted.
What are the main symptoms of depression?
Depression causes people to feel sad, with low energy, lack of ability to focus, and loss of interest in activities they used to love. Along with that, depression causes a person’s self-esteem to be lower, as well as their sense of self-worth.
People with depression also experience a change in their eating and sleeping patterns, fatigue, irritability, and isolation. Not only that, they can cry excessively, and consider self-harm, along with thoughts of death and suicide.
Does depression have a cure?
No, depression doesn’t have a cure. Mental health professionals tend to discuss that depression goes into remission. That is because people can feel like their depressive symptoms are better, allowing people to go back to their common life, but it is impossible to say a person will never develop another depressive episode.
That needs to be considered because people with a history of depressive episodes usually have a higher chance of going through another episode in their life. Once you talk about remission, it highlights that a person needs to keep caring for their mental health even after they feel better.
Conclusion
This article discussed how depression can affect a person’s confidence. It also gave a 17 pointer guideline on how to regain your confidence after depression.
If you have any questions or comments about this article, feel free to write it in the section below.
