Why did I lose all my self esteem and confidence when I suffered schizophrenia. Is it part of it?

I am still finding it hard to build myself up. Is this normal? For a 28 year old women with what I have been through to have little confidence? Why don't others understand?

i believe its difficult to focus on what you want to achieve when illness occurs let alone obtaining it , but self confidence is something we all have but just dont know how where when to use it most times , believing i have it was my first steps ( although i had no clue how to use it ) Try to be more confident and find YOU ARE HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT YOURSELF! Loving and accepting ourselves is THE MOST CRITICAL FACTOR in experiencing joy,happiness, and success in life. When you really love yourself and you really love other people, you find that life is really an incredible journey where things flow, and no matter what happens you always find a way to enjoy yourself and you feel fulfilled. You MUST love yourself completely.
This determines your STANDARDS for what you are willing to accept or settle for. It determines how well you treat your body and your health, how much money you feel you deserve to earn or feel you can make, your belief in whether you can achieve your goals, how much others RESPECT you and how they treat you, and even whether people like you and want to be around you. People love being around confident people. You see, confident people do not feel the need to judge you or tear you down in order to elevate their own self-worth. They radiate a positive energy. You feel safe around them. You need to consistently and confidently take action to move towards your goals, and towards your ultimate destiny. People who lack in confidence often get 鈥榮tuck鈥? So you see, your entire DESTINY is shaped by your degree of confidence. True self-confidence comes from an absolute sense of certainty deep within, that you are able to handle anything life throws your way. Truly confident people exude calm, control, power, certainty. They care about people, and they make people feel good when they are around them.They never brag 鈥?after all, actions speak louder than words. People who brag are just masking their insecurities. People have varying degrees of confidence depending on what activity they are performing. For example, someone might be totally confident in performing a piano concert, or driving a car, but feel totally inadequate at a new job they鈥檝e started, or at flirting with members of the opposite sex. People with Total Self-Confidence, though, have complete belief in themselves. They never ask themselves 鈥淐an I really do this? What if this doesn鈥檛 work out? Am I good enough to pull it off?鈥?They know that if they really want something, and they are committed to getting it, it will happen. They know that it鈥檚 just a question of time until they鈥檝e mastered the skills and knowledge to make whatever they want a reality

The same thing happened to my mom. She had a huge bipolar episode almost five years ago and has had a lot of difficulties regaining self esteem. Part of it is, she lost a job due to her disorder, which has caused her anxiety in getting another job, due to loss of confidence and being scared of the same thing happening again. Basically, I think your loss of confidence is normal after dealing with a mental disorder. I think the reason is that a mental disorder causes you to not feel you can trust yourself, because it's harder to control your own behavior because of the chemical imbalance, which is a large blow to self esteem. As you learn to manage your disorder, your confidence in yourself will go up as will your self esteem. You can't expect others to understand. On the one hand are the people who are afraid of mental illness and on the other those who say, "it's all medical" and don't think it should affect self esteem. It's hard for others to relate if they haven't experienced what you have gone though. They can't imagine it, so it makes it hard for them to understand. All you can ask of them is that they respect your recovery process and hope they can support you even if they can't understand.

im not quite sure what that is. But i hear you. ALot of people have self esteem issues. Im trying to fix mine 2. I have been working out for the past month. Its helping. Try that or find a hobbie that will better you like a sport or something. It helps.

whatever you lost, can be rebuild back to your normal self.