Being too hard on yourself can cause you to feel mental and physical stress. Some signs you're being too hard on yourself include engaging in negative self-talk or having trouble sleeping.
You may have heard that it's not healthy to "stuff your emotions" or to deny you feel the way you feel. This is true. While it is important to find a balance between acknowledging your emotions and engaging in rumination, remaining in denial is not healthy either.
When used excessively, it is consistently associated with less motivation, worse self-control, and greater procrastination. In fact, self-criticism shifts the brain into a state of inhibition, which prevents you from taking action to reach your goals.
Signs You are Being Too Hard On Yourself
You give up on challenges quickly, fearing you won't be successful. You ruminate on failures long after they're over. Your self-talk consists of harsh criticism and generalizations. When situations don't go as planned, you blame yourself.
Write in a journal, go for a walk, call a friend, do some yoga or deep breathing… Anything stress-free that can take your mind off things and doesn't require too much effort from you. Feeling under pressure all the time can also be a sign of a mental illness, such as an anxiety disorder.
Why do we put pressure on ourselves? This is a question with no easy answer, but the most common reasons people put pressure on themselves are because they feel like they have to do well in a certain area of their life or they feel like they have to do well so that people around them will be proud of them.
If you're so future-focused that you don't spend much time thinking about what you've already accomplished — or what you're working on right now — you might be pushing yourself too hard. Do yourself a favor, and return to the present moment, where you can derive more joy from your job and be more effective.
Always being hard on yourself can also be the result of childhood trauma or adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). One way a child copes is unfortunately to internalise the experience(s) as their own fault, bringing on a lifetime of shame and low self-esteem until support for trauma is found.
Self-bullying arises from lack of compassion and kindness towards oneself. It is often engendered by painful childhood experiences that left a child with emotional scars.
Some of the many causes of low self-esteem may include: Unhappy childhood where parents (or other significant people such as teachers) were extremely critical. Poor academic performance in school resulting in a lack of confidence. Ongoing stressful life event such as relationship breakdown or financial trouble.
Low self-esteem may stem from experiences in early childhood. If you didn't fit in at school, had difficulty meeting your parents' expectations or were neglected or abused, this can lead a person to have negative core beliefs about themselves. These are ingrained beliefs a person has about themselves.
“Self-critical.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-critical.
Some people are naturally hard on themselves. They might have low self-esteem or grow up in an environment where criticism came often, and praise was rarely heard. Other times there are psychological issues that lead to a person being hard on themselves or a disorder that makes them have a lack of confidence.
Stress can cause mental health problems.
For example, if you experience lots of stress, this might lead you to develop a mental health problem like anxiety or depression. Or a traumatic period of stress might lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Self-peer pressure means imagining the thoughts of your peers — and their judgements on our actions — and changing your behavior in response to those thoughts.
Being hard on yourself doesn't belong to a specific disorder, but a disorder can affect your functioning and self-esteem depending on the intensity and frequency of your negative thoughts.
Pushing yourself past your limit while doing endurance training or excessive weightlifting may bring you a sense of accomplishment. However, doing so can lead to a serious condition called rhabdomyolysis. “Typically, in the strength training adaptation phase, you do create a little bit of injury to the muscle.
feel isolated — disinterested in the company of family and friends, or withdrawing from usual daily activities. feel overwhelmed — unable to concentrate or make decisions. be moody — feeling low or depression; feeling burnt out; emotional outbursts of uncontrollable anger, fear, helplessness or crying.
Common symptoms of stress in women include: Physical. Headaches, difficulty sleeping, tiredness, pain (most commonly in the back and neck), overeating/under eating, skin problems, drug and alcohol misuse, lack of energy, upset stomach, less interest in sex/other things you used to enjoy.