Its a side-effect of depression, and its one of the most dangerous causes thereof as well. Especially during depressive episodes, maintaining your self-esteem can be quite hard to do. There are many things that can bring your self-esteem down, and there are ways to try and minimize them. That is not what this is about, however. This is about what to do to keep from dropping your self-esteem, how to try and keep a positive attitude about yourself.

There are a few ways to do this. The simplest is to make a list of things that you like about yourself, or things that you feel that you are good at. Even if this list is short, the important thing to do is to make the list and focus on the length, not how long you feel that it should be. Focus on things within each list and, if you can, expand on them. By making sublists, you will be able to add to your main list and have specifics to remember about why you are proud of each item on your list.

The second way to do it is to borrow and modify an idea from George Orwell. In 1984, he talked about the three minutes of hate. Modify that to three minutes of love, or any other such time. Take a little time each day, go to your mirror and tell yourself how good a person you are. Pick one or a few things to focus on and spend time encouraging yourself. This should help you keep your self-esteem high.