When you have a child, who is battling self-esteem issues, it can be difficult to know what to do to help them. It can be a very delicate subject and take the time to address it properly is essential. The guide that follows provides you with a few ways you can identify if your child may be battling low self-esteem and what steps can be taken to overcome it.
Has Your Child become Withdrawn?
Someone who has low self-esteem often becomes very withdrawn because they don’t know how to handle how they’re feeling in a productive way. Pay attention to how often your child goes to their bedroom to be alone or how often they seem to be by themselves, away from loved ones. This can be a sign that they’re starting to become depressed and may have self-esteem issues that need to be addressed.
Has Your Child Stopped Seeing Friends?
If you notice that your child has stopped hanging out friends for many years, there is a good chance that they may have a problem with their self-esteem. You can help someone with low self-esteem by lifting them up and letting them know how great they.
You may want to take your child to do new things or encourage them to take part in extracurricular activities so that they can meet new people and be able to learn how to do something fun and amazing at the same time.
Does Your Teen Hate their Body?
Body image can greatly affect someone’s self-esteem. If your teenager feels that their body isn’t the shape or size that they want it to be, it can cause them to become very self-conscious about themselves.
Consider working with your child to lose weight if they’re overweight and feel self-conscious about their body. You could simply go on walks at night or join a gym and try workout routines together. You want to be sure that your child knows you support them in their journey to become happier and healthier.
There are some fitness clubs that offer workouts routines specifically for teens. Since their bodies are still growing, having a custom workout creed allows you to know that your child is learning how to do each move the right way to decrease the chances of him or her getting injured when they work out.
You also need to monitor your child’s eating habits to make sure that they are getting the nutrients that they need. Kids who feel that their body doesn’t look the way that they want it to can develop an eating disorder as an effort to lose as much weight as possible as quickly as they can. Pay attention to what your teen eats, when they eat, and how often they eat to determine if they possibly have an eating disorder that needs to be addressed.
Does Your Child Have Serious Mood Swings?
When someone feels depressed or self-conscious, it can cause them to be more irritable because they feel bad about themselves. If your child is constantly having huge mood swings that are totally unpredictable, there is a chance that they may be suffering from depression and need to see a psychiatrist right away. There are medications that your teen can take to help regulate their mood, decrease the symptoms of depression that they feel, and help them to better handle their emotions overall.
Has Your Child Had a Drop in Their Grades Lately?
When someone is being picked on or feels inadequate, it can make it hard to focus on everything going on around them. Children who have low self-esteem will often have a drop in their grades; they’re so worried about what everyone is thinking that they can’t focus on the tasks they’re supposed to be doing.
Puberty often leads to inadequacies that can lower someone’s self-esteem, make them more self-conscious about their appearance, and lead to them having a significant drop in their grades.
Does Your Teen Have Unexplained Injuries?
Unfortunately, some teens don’t know how to handle the way they’ re feeling and end up doing things that may lead to them hurting themselves in order to try to handle the pain that they’re feeling.
Some teens turn to self-mutilation, where they make small cuts in their skin to try to get a grasp of what they’re feeling. If you start to notice small scars, wounds, or cuts on your child’s body in areas that they are obviously trying to cover, you need to have a talk with them right away.
Has Your Child Changed Their Appearance?
When someone starts to have low self-esteem, they will often change their appearance as a way to try to make them feel better about themselves. When someone has low self-esteem, it can make them feel as if they aren’t good enough and can cause them to try to make changes to better fit in on a daily basis.
If you notice that your teen has completely changed the way that he or she dresses in a very dramatic way, there may be issues that you need to address.
You need to talk to your teen to find out why they made the changes in their appearance that they made. Set down guidelines as to what changes you find to be acceptable and which ones you do not. You need to set down ground rules so that your teen doesn’t dress inappropriately for their age and get any attention you don’t want them to get.
Knowing that they aren’t being judged by you and that you only want what’s best for them can make a world of difference when it comes to recovering from their low self-esteem. You want them to know that they are loved unconditionally and that they don’t have to hurt themselves in an effort to be able to grasp the feelings that they have.
