Negative thinking comes from many things and often leads to poor self-esteem, which then leads to isolation from others, which puts more time into negative thoughts that leads to depression.
Negative thinking can come from things such as not being good enough, not getting the praise that you think you should be getting, and abuse to name a few. When not being told you are good enough, you often feel like you are not good enough. When you are used to being told you are good enough or getting praise for your accomplishments, and it stops or you are not getting it from others, this can lead to thinking that something is wrong with you or you didn’t do good enough. Abuse can cause a lot of damage to a person’s self-esteem and self-worth. Constantly being told how worthless or useless you are or even being isolated because of abusive parents can make you feel pretty bad about yourself and your life. This all can start negative thinking, which will lead to poor self-esteem.
Self-esteem isn’t just about physical characteristics such as not being pretty enough or skinny enough, it also includes mental representations of ourselves and abilities such as respect, assurance, pride, and dignity. When you have high self-esteem the possibilities are endless of what you can do. You will feel good about yourself and deserving the respect of others. When you have low self-esteem, you put little value on your opinions and lack of confidence. This can often make you feel like you are not worth other people’s time and will begin to isolate yourself.
Isolation is where it gets dark and scary. When you start to isolate yourself from other people, you are left to only yourself with those negative thoughts. In isolation, most people also start to lose interest in hobbies, teams they may have been on, and any other activities involving friends or family. This leaves you with a lot of time to think about those negative thoughts and also be alone with them, which only escalates the problem. The thoughts get darker, scarier, sadder, and further pulls down the already low self-esteem to what is called depression.