Students at Mercer County Community College face many challenges, one of them being low self-esteem.
Dorothy Gasparro, a Senior Counselor at Mercer, says she sees many students with low self-esteem.
She believes low self-esteem issues arise because “We grow up in a society that tells children don’t pat yourself on the back and don’t toot your own horn. When the truth of the matter is that we need to be doing that because what we’ve done instead is beat ourselves up”.
A VOICE survey of 49 students found that 74% have struggled with low self-esteem and 14 of them said it affects their daily life.
Diana Rackowski, a Mercer student, says she has been struggling with her self-esteem since she was a senior in high school.
Rackowski says it stems from, “isolation from friends and just growing up and not really knowing what you want to do and who you are.”
According to the American Psychology Association, people who base their self esteem off of external sources are reported to have more “stress, anger, academic problems, relationship conflicts, and had higher levels of drug and alcohol use and symptoms of eating disorders.”
During stressful times, positive self-talk can be a self soother. It can take a negative frame of mind to a much better one. People have to remind themselves that they are better than they realize.
Gasparro works with students on reframing their negative thoughts and turning them into positive ones.
Rackowski practices positive self-talk, making sure she’s aware that everything will be okay. She reminds herself, “I’m great, I’m really nice, I’m really beautiful, everything’s gonna be okay.”
Mentalhealth.net asks those with low self-esteem to “consider how they may feel about things in their lives that they value” in order to understand what having high self-esteem feels like.
An example of this would be to imagine your favorite item. Then, imagine the pride you feel showing that item off and how looking at the item makes you happy. Now imagine that item as yourself and that’s what high self-esteem feels like.
Nunu Laster, a transgender student at Mercer, says she has struggled with her self-esteem since she was 14.
“I was born a boy and I didn’t feel myself. I wasn’t comfortable in my skin, in my body,” Laster says.
Laster believes that if you know of someone going through their own problems with self-esteem, then you should compliment them and let them know they are more than how they see themselves.
Support can be as simple as asking if someone is okay or saying you care.
People are encouraged to continue doing the things they love during these times. Even if they feel like they are losing the passion for it. If it becomes unhealthy, start over and try to find new activities to fall in love with.
Gasparro says “I think we just need to point out the positive and be grateful… I think gratitude is a huge way to turn self-esteem around, to be grateful for the things we have. So what we can do for others is to remind them of the things they have that are things to be grateful for.”
