A common component of feeling worthless is a sensation of helplessness and insignificance. Such emotions are frequently a prevalent sign of depression, but they can also be brought on by trauma, low self-esteem, abuse, neglect, or challenging circumstances that threaten one’s sense of self.
It can be quite distressing and challenging to go about daily life regularly when one feels unworthy. If you believe that nothing you accomplish is proper or that your efforts will be in vain, it may be difficult to stay motivated to work toward your goals. It is crucial to learn coping mechanisms for these challenging emotions and to seek assistance when necessary.
It’s much more likely that you have experienced being told that you aren’t worthy if you are having problems with your self-confidence as an adult, and you may still be carrying around some of those old feelings.
Reasons for Feeling Worthless
Numerous causes might contribute to feelings of worthlessness. There may be a connection between upbringing, social experiences, explaining style, traumatic occurrences, and mental health issues. You might be having these feelings for a variety of causes, including:
#1. Adolescent Trauma
It’s possible that you went through traumatic situations as a child that still affect you today. Childhood maltreatment, abuse, and neglect can all contribute to the emergence of feelings of worthlessness. Children who experience maltreatment or who are regularly reprimanded by their parents or other caregivers may feel unimportant as adults. These early interpersonal traumas have been related in research to subsequent emotions of worthlessness.
#2. Considering Bad Things to Be Your Fault
You could blame yourself for bad things that happen by blaming your own behavior or traits. Depressive symptoms, such as a sense of worthlessness, may be more common in people who are prone to attributing bad things to internal reasons.
#3. Former criticism
You might have endured criticism in the past from others. People may also come to believe that they have no value after having unpleasant situations in which they have been humiliated or subjected to criticism.
#4. Having trouble managing stress
You might be struggling to manage stress. A person’s ideas of oneself can be negatively impacted by both short-term and long-term stress. After suffering a significant setback, such as financial difficulties, a divorce, or a job loss, you might feel worthless.
How to Stop Feeling Worthless
#1. Start Meditating
It’s crucial to acknowledge when emotions of worthlessness enter your head. What particular ideas do you have at this moment? For a second, try to find an uplifting notion in your head. One couldn’t be found, could it? Don’t assess your worth. Your thinking is foggy. Your mental health is probably suffering right now if you feel like negativity is taking over your thoughts. The moment is not now to assess your worth. Instead, make use of this time to focus on restoring mental control. Giving oneself a focus point outside of your mind is the main goal of meditation practice in order to get your noisy, toxic mind to quiet down. To assist you in resolving this, try the guided meditation provided below.
#2. Show Your Gratitude
Expressing appreciation is an effective strategy to overcome feelings of worthlessness. Take a moment right now to think about all the amazing things that are happening in your life. Do you have the ability to wave your hands around carelessly? Can you communicate with other people? Have you got access to a place to stay and food? We take so many simple things for granted every single day. We frequently overlook the fact that when we treat someone harshly, they will likely do the same to us. creating a poisonous atmosphere as a result. It’s crucial to increase your level of gratitude for that person if they are the cause of your feeling unworthy. What does that pessimistic person do that is so fantastic? You’ll naturally start bringing out the best in your loved ones, friends, and coworkers if you change your focus to the positive things they do. hence bringing out your greatest qualities as well. And thankfulness is where it all begins. Try this love kindness meditation if you’re having trouble with the exercise.
#3. Keep in Mind That The Story is Still Ongoing
Before the story is over, we frequently start to feel unworthy. Perhaps you recently lost a contest, or despite your seniority, you were passed up for a promotion. In the end, you’re still here. Your tale is still unfolding as long as you are still alive. Moments of failure or adversity might be viewed as the devaluation of your worth, or they can serve as motivation to work harder and bring out the best in yourself. You are in charge of writing the biopic of your life; if you want to be the protagonist, you can still make it happen. But keep in mind that every hero encounters a foe, challenges, and doubters. The fact that the hero initially didn’t stand a chance before pulling off a miraculous feat and accomplishing what others said was impossible is what makes the hero’s journey so fascinating in the first place. Therefore, consider the obstacles that make you feel unworthy as the center of your story rather than as a setback. Even though you haven’t yet achieved your major victory, you can.
#4. Act Righteously
Climb out of your toxic and depressing thoughts whenever you feel worthless and try to live a little. Helping others is the simplest approach to improving yourself and feeling good about yourself. What can you do to brighten someone’s day right now? How can one make their life better? Is there a chance to be kind when you’re on social media, shopping, or waiting in a drive-through? It makes you feel good about yourself when you make other people feel good. Therefore, by making an effort to make people happy, you immediately cease feeling unimportant. It’s a simple method to improve your life and make yourself feel better about who you actually are. Never underestimate the impact of a good deed. We frequently become fascinated with ourselves while we’re at our lowest points, including our suffering, sadness, and even our value. But the shift from “I” to “We” is what really helps you get out of your own head, making you wish you had tried this sooner.
#5. Workout Harder
Consider training longer and harder if you’re struggling to accomplish lofty goals or feel useless since you failed at something. For instance, if you feel unworthy because you weren’t promoted, start researching the characteristics of those who do. Spend more time reading books and viewing YouTube videos about the subject of your class if, like many others, your sense of worth is based in part on how well you do in school. Focus on the component of actually learning and comprehending the content you learn rather than dwelling on the memorization of facts. Sometimes all it takes to get things back on track and succeed again is a small shift in strategy. Asking yourself who you should learn from can make you feel less valuable if something isn’t working for you. Learn more about them, and try to imitate their best qualities. You’ll then begin to rebuild yourself.
#6. Kill Your Ego
Your ego may be a negative aspect of yourself. If your ego has been wounded and you’re feeling useless, think about murdering your ego. We frequently aspire to triumph, surpass those around us, and rule the world (much-ha-ha), but once we start achieving these goals, we quickly come to the realization that we are truly unhappy. Both success and failure make you unhappy. That’s because you are only a very, very small part of existence, and it isn’t about you. You get to share it with billions of other people and animals, which is a beautiful experience. Why then do you constantly strive to be the best? You can still have life goals even if they are not connected to your ego. Being overly competitive just serves to highlight how far off-course you are. Because people who don’t care about becoming the best genuinely succeed in life. And they’ll be grinning through every high and every low in their lives. Consider taking a step back and looking at the wider picture since your ego is making you miserable and making you feel useless.
#7. Find the Lesson
The moment to look for the hidden lesson is when you’re at your lowest and feel unworthy. It’s both amazing and awful to be at the very bottom. The painful part of it is already clear to you. The amazing thing about this challenging path, though, is that it gives you a great chance to reinvent yourself as someone new, stronger, healthier, and happier. During this difficult time, you can decide to spend money on some mental books. Learning how to rewire your brain and start you off in a more positive direction will help you understand what triggers negative emotions like feeling unworthy.
#8. Take Stock of Your Successes
Look back on your life and consider all of your accomplishments when you are feeling unworthy. Believe it or not, you’ve done so much good that you forgot about it. Positive experiences can still occur despite the fact that, for some reason, because of the way our brains are formed, we tend to remember bad events more vividly than positive ones. Perhaps you organized a birthday celebration, and everyone who was invited came. Or perhaps you aced a test for which you diligently studied. Perhaps you discovered that the kind act you performed had a greater impact and benefited more people than you had anticipated. Or perhaps you volunteered for years to aid those who required more assistance. You may have even carried out the scariest deed known to man, demonstrating to yourself that you are capable of facing your anxieties. Make a list of all the good things you’ve done in your life. Think about it very carefully. If you’re unsure, ask the individuals you care about the most for advice on how you’ve supported them.
#9. Displace Harmful Thoughts
A bad feeling of worthlessness may and should be replaced. What are the ideas that are currently running through your head? Put them on paper and write them down. Write the exact opposite good thought to every negative one. Remember to look for support for your negative thoughts as well. When we have a bad idea, we often invent stories or “facts” to support it, but there isn’t any proof to back up what your toxic thoughts are saying about you. Put your attention on saying some of the encouraging things you’ve replaced them with. You’ll gradually see your life changing if you repeat them every day, at least multiple times. If your mind is continually thinking good things, it is impossible to feel useless.
#10. Look for Expert Assistance
Any traumatic experiences, relational abuse, or familial issues that make you feel unworthy can be resolved with the assistance of a trained counselor, social worker, or psychologist. You’ll learn how to let go of challenging relationships and situations by seeking professional assistance. Additionally, you’ll learn how to quit feeling unworthy because you’ll have a witness who refutes your negative self-perception. For instance, if you tell a counselor that you are useless, they may tell you outright that this belief is false or they may ask you for proof and demonstrate how it is false.
Conclusion
It’s not difficult to make the transition from having low self-worth to increasing it. You can certainly learn how to do this in a matter of months. The first thing you need to do, though, is to take back control of your thoughts and stop allowing them to run amok in your head. You can laugh or cry based on your thoughts. They may also give you the impression that you are important or that you are completely unimportant. In the end, a new you can emerge and truly know your value with the use of meditation, a gratitude practice, some professional assistance, and some fresh ways to view the world.
Feeling Worthless FAQs
What does self worthless mean?
When someone has low self-worth, they tend to judge or evaluate themselves harshly and place a generally low value on themselves as individuals.
Can anxiety make you feel worthless?
Low self-esteem is a common problem for people with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). They could not think highly of themselves or have low self-esteem. This may be a negative sign of GAD with long-term effects.
What is it called when you feel worthless?
Daily feelings of worthlessness or insignificance are a prevalent feature of depression, which can have many diverse causes. Even those without a mental illness can have overwhelming feelings of self-worthlessness, however, it is one of the hallmark symptoms of depressive disorder.
