Many teens today are struggling with self-esteem issues. Teens who are dealing with insecurities vary from ages and gender, and they have their own unique reasons for having their insecurities. Self-esteem issues take many different forms and they come to people in different ways. These issues can be from the way you look to your intelligence and many other reasons. According to DoSomething.org, throughout high schools 44% of the girls and 15% of the boys are trying to lose weight. Due to self-esteem issues about 20% of teens will experience depression before they are adults.
Many of our students at BHS suffer from low self-esteem everyday and go on living their lives like nothing is wrong.
"I am currently suffering from BDD, which is body dysmorphic disorder. BDD is a disorder in which you look in the mirror and you mentally see yourself worse than what you are, and you think you look that way everyday of your life," said Cat Page ('22). "I try to push it aside because I don’t want to deal with my own issues because I don’t really know how to help myself. I am able to push BDD aside when I get ready in the morning and go to school like normal but at the end of the day, it consumes me, and I start to think this is really who I am and what I look like. I feel like people are afraid or ashamed to talk about self-esteem issues because of the backlash they would receive, but I do think that if more people talked about it we could all get the help we need.”
“I am currently dealing with self esteem issues and i have been since I was 14," Alyssa Kilburn ('22). "Some of the insecurities I have about myself are mostly about my weight ,they way I look and my intelligence . I walk down the hall of the high school and I find myself comparing myself to other girls and the way they look or how smart they are. I don’t feel like I’m good enough sometimes. I want to still believe the things I believe about myself but I want to be more like other girls I see. I try to deal with my insecurities by putting my religion and my morals first.”
There are not just girls dealing with these insecurities. Many boys also deal with these issues. A lot of people throughout the school find themselves keeping this hidden from other people because they don’t feel like they have a safe place to talk about this specific topic. If you are dealing with self esteem issues, you are not the only one.
Visit one of the counselors or a trusted adult to talk about your mental health in order to get the help you need.