New research reveals that individuals with anxiety and depression tend to focus more on their moments of low confidence rather than successes, fueling persistent low self-belief. Despite performing just as well as others and responding positively to feedback, these individuals build an overly negative self-image by discounting their confident performances.
I’ve experienced this same thing myself.
And I think the number one way to overcome this negative self-image is to continually reflect back upon one’s life and to become aware of and reacquainted with one’s successes that one often has forgotten about.
Overall, our findings offer a simple yet powerful message – that the persistent negative self-beliefs experienced by people with anxiety and depression are often illusory, and may be rooted in a dysfunctional view of how they evaluate themselves .
Dr Sucharit Katyal
But just to clarify. Just because something is illusory, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel real.