The World Health Organization has forecast that by 2020 depression will be the Western world’s second largest health problem, just behind heart disease.

Is seeking self-esteem really good?   We have been sold on the merits of the self-esteem philosophy only to find that it may have had the opposite effect. If the ideologies of the self-esteem movement are correct, then fifty years later, depression should be almost non-existent. After all, William James’ theories and struggles with his own depression are at the heart of the self-esteem movement. His teachings were more like a self-help guide to overcoming his own depression and foster personal success. James’ concepts of positive affirmation should have helped people feel better about themselves, achieve more, and make society a better place. However, this has not happened. Instead of reducing, depression has skyrocketed.

When you combine billions of positive-affirmation messages in thousands of school classroom over fifty years, you should expect some increase in well-being. We should be happier, but the reverse is true.

Yet depression has been growing like a spiritual cancer, effecting a much wider demographic. The growth in child and teenage depression is a new trend, crossing the cultural divide and affecting young people from most Western countries. The cause of depression is not simply a pessimistic world view but a systemic culture of praise hunger and praise seeking.

The depressed ones feel as if they are the losers in the praise game. In love with their image, they mourn the absence of personal value and significance as the praise game projects a low- or no-praise value onto them.

The spiral into the abyss may be as simple as “cool or not cool.”

Learn more in chapter 6 in the book Grace V Self-esteem

www.gracevselfesteem.com