people who drop their esteem (also known as having low self-esteem) could experience any of the following:

• imposter syndrome - where the sufferer may fear that their true self may be found out, that they are flawed. ways to manage this, if left untreated, could be perfectionism or procrastination and it can be incredibly painful for the sufferer to navigate

• playing the victim - people with this manifestation might believe they are helpless when facing challenges and use self-pity to avoid changing what is challenging them and will rely on other people to save them or advise them

• the rebel - this can be when someone seemingly doesn’t care what other people thing of them and their sense of being ‘less than’ another comes out as anger or blame. they may act out with behaviours that attract the attention of the authorities

not holding one’s esteem can both be a symptom of and can lead to eating disorders, social anxiety, self-harm, codependency, depression and addictions

as with many things treatable in therapy, the family of origin is usually a good place to start to do the healing work required