Do you need Self-Esteem to have Self-Respect or the other way around?

Question

This is something I am pondering on at the moment.

Self-Esteem is basicly your feelings and thoughts about yourself, and is developed throughout your life.
A low self-esteem can cause many problems like; Depression, Stress, and loneliness. This is just a very short list.
Showing Good self-esteem is to be able to feel worthiness, treating yourself right, treating others right, and so on.

Self-Respect is the respect you have for yourself as a person, or conduct. To respect is to regard, politeness, honor and positive behavior. This can be twords animals, people, and plants.
To respect yourself is to think positivly twords yourself as a person, who you are and what you are.


You know we all need self esteem and self respect to help keep us out of depression, but do you think they are basicly the same thing, or totally different?
And which one do you think we need more?

Hope to get some good answers :)

I know they both go together. :)

I study stuff like this all the time.

But if you think about it like... 'How can you get self respect if you dont have self esteem, or do you need to have self respect first to have self esteem?'

I think Ive confused myself hehe

Since they are both different, and not the same. Yet the go together,
Im pondering on how exactly that works

Answer 1

you have to have self esteem to have self respect i think. if i feel i am nothing..unworthy..etc.... i will allow others to disrespect me..and i may do anything to disrespect myself. women with low self esteem.. allow themselves to be battered.. or placed in prostitution. low self esteem ...will lead to people not dressing properly...or talking properly in public.. disrepecting themselves in that way.. trashy clothes..or trampy outfits. now what if self esteem or over the top...and it becomes cocky... then you think you can talk or do whatever you want.. and you still disrespect yourself. self esteem is the key..but self respect is vital. i think bottom line..they go hand in hand. great questions.. one of the best i have tackled.

Answer 2

I think that it is possible to have self esteem without necessary having the same level of self respect, although the more I think about it the more the definition between the two becomes blurred.

What I mean is, a person could have self-esteem. They could feel confident about themselves, feel that they are valued - possibly verging on the arrogant. But, does that nesessarily mean they have self respect? They may be rude, disrespectful to others, even cruel,maybe they self abuse or are dependant on drugs....but who defines this behaviour? If the person themself doesn't see that this is negative, does that mean they don't have any self respect? Could a person show negative signs of self respect while feeling that they have high self-esteem?

I'm sorry I don't seem to have answered your question very well at all. I think I may have just asked more questions! I hope you find some of the answers you are looking for.

Answer 3

I'll give you my opinion (if there's a right or wrong to this, I don't know what it is). Self-esteem has to derive from self-respect. One respects himself, or herself, as a result of their behavior, their accomplishments, relationships, feed back from peers. Esteem without respect would amount to false pride. One must have self-respect to accord himself any measure of self-esteem. Therefore, self-respect must come first else there would be no basis for esteem. As to the two being the same thing or totally different, I opt for the latter. There are people in the world, men for example, who work long and hard at a job, save for the future, own a home, raise families, and take part in civic affairs. They have self-respect as a result of such things as their loyalty, determination, and devotion. But, because they, perhaps, have never met their amtitions, or feel that they've never accomplished anything earth shaking, they, lack self-esteem.

Answer 4

I think of it like this...if you have low self esteem, then you don't feel good about yourself. If you don't feel good about yourself, how can you respect yourself?

You can feel good about yourself (and have high self esteem) but have no self respect (like sleep around with a lot of people when you know they are just using you - this is a form of disrespect for yourself).

So...I think they are two different things, but they are linked to one another. If you don't have self respect, your actions can lead to low self-esteem.

Which do we need more? Probably self esteem because everything is affected (your actions, decisions, etc) by the way you feel about yourself. It's the basis for the way you conduct yourself.

Answer 5

I think basically that if a person has self respect they will have good self esteem. I think the best way to build good self respect is to try and be what you yourself consider to be the best person you can be.
As far as my own experience, I want to like myself. so to me that means that it doesn't matter to me what others think of me, but how I view myself. I want to be able to face myself in the mirror every night and say "today was a good day, I did the best I could' and really mean it.

Answer 6

self-esteem is one worth abilities and confident ones will
self respect : assertive traning for those with low self esteem

Answer 7

I think you need one to have the other

Answer 8

They go hand in hand. You can't seperate them as they go together.