Can Self-Help Make You Feel Worse?
According to a study, people with low-self esteem felt worse after repeating positive statements about themselves. They were asked to say phrases such as “I am a lovable person.” Researchers found out that saying things like these only helped people with high self-esteem.
The researchers asked people with both high and low self-esteem to say the same statement and they measured the participants’ moods and feelings about themselves. In the low self-esteem group, those who repeated the mantra felt worse after while those with high self-esteem felt better after.
Paradoxically, those with low self-esteem were in a better mood when they were allowed to have negative thoughts compared to the time when they were asked to focus exclusively on affirmative things. The researchers suggest that overly positive praise and unreasonably positive self-statements like “I accept myself completely,” can provoke contradictory thoughts in individuals with low self-esteem.
Such negative thoughts can then overwhelm the positive ones.
