Whether you’re married or dating someone, a good relationship is reliant on many influential factors. Let’s talks about two significant factors here: the confidence and self-esteem of both partners. Relationships that have these two elements are more than likely to be healthy and satisfying to both partners involved. Yet, if one of you suffers from poor self-esteem, the potential for difficulties in your relationship is vast.
For the sake of healthy relationships, you need to be able to spot the potential signs of self-doubt in yourself. If you or your partner aren’t that confident or continually struggle with issues of self-esteem, you’ll need to address this head-on.
How Poor Self Esteem Can Lead to Difficulties in a Relationship
There are several problems which can arise in a relationship as a direct result of low self-esteem:
1.You Affect Your Partner with Negativity
There’s no denying that spending time with a person who has continued low self-esteem will begin to affect even the most confident of people. If you find yourself in a relationship whereby your partner suffers from crippling low self-esteem, each day can feel heavy, leaving you weighed down with their feelings of self-doubt. This is particularly so if you’re the type of person who feeds off the others energy, and this energy is consistently negative.
Naturally, a couple in a relationship will, over time, begin to reflect one another. Therefore, if one person is low and depressed, then ultimately this will be portrayed by the other person. It may not happen instantly, instead of building over time, and it may not be immediately noticeable. However, if both partners begin to have increased doubts about themselves and the other, the relationship can become consumed by prolonged negativity and doubt.
2. You Unknowingly Sabotage Your Relationship
If one of the partners lack self-esteem they may often feel as though they aren’t worthy. For example, if they’ve been traumatized in the past by a particularly lousy break-up, especially if they were cheated on, their self-esteem may be suffering directly because of this.
This can lead to one partner almost convincing themselves that they aren’t worthy of the others love and that, at some point, he or she will inevitably cheat on them because it’s happened before. This type of low self-esteem is toxic to any relationship but, when it’s left to build over time, can make it difficult for the sufferer to see anything past it. Therefore, when left unchecked, it can be the ultimate destroyer of a great relationship, thereby only continuing that cycle of low self-esteem. You see the pattern.
You could also be suffering from a fear of abandonment, which could be affecting the way you treat your partner. You could be self-sabotaging due to your fear of your partner leaving.
3.You Develop the Mentality of a Victim
The victim mentality is a mindset created by those who have encountered an unfortunate incident in the past but refuse to let themselves mentally move on from it. Though it’s understandably hard to build up confidence after traumatic events, it can have a knock-on effect, which one may not entirely be aware of. This means that the victim blames everyone or everything else other than themselves for anything that happens after that.
Worst of all, once one enters this mindset, they rarely take the initiative to work on empowering themselves, thus remaining stranded as the victim.
When this mindset prevails in a relationship, it’s potent and is one of the easiest ways to push a partner away. Though some partners may be tolerant and initially sympathetic about your experience, over time if they continue to see you doing nothing to help your cause, they may well begin to pull away from you.
4.You Increase the Risk of Panic and Anxiety Attacks
A partner suffering from low self-esteem may begin to question every word their other half says, examining all conversations and looking for some hidden meaning. Over time, this can lead to panic attacks as, at its worst, the one with low self-esteem will begin to pull away from their network of friends and family and, finally, their partner. By closing themselves off this way, when they do have to face something head-on, the potential for crippling panic attacks will present itself.
Re-Building Your Relationship Self-Esteem and Confidence
Even if you recognize that you might experience some low self-esteem in your relationships, I want you to know that all is not lost. If you recognize such symptoms in your relationship, there are ways to work on overcoming them.
The best way is to join Marisa Peer’s new 21-Day Meaningful Relationships Challenge.
Learn to be open and honest with yourself and your partner about how you’re feeling. With three weeks of daily training and an assortment of meditations and audios, you’ll work on improving the underlying causes of your low self-esteem within your relationship. Break down all the negative thoughts you have about love and relationships, and develop the confidence you need to thrive in your connections. This way you can work towards a stronger and stable relationship – the type which you both thoroughly deserve.
Find out more about this challenge by clicking the banner below, and be sure to secure your spot before it books up.
