I used to have such bad feelings and thoughts when I first became psychotic, and then my family abused me for it which made things worse. Does SZ cause those feelings of worthlessness and despair?
I guess it depends. I usually feel worthless because I have such a hard time starting and/or finishing tasks/assignments.
Think it probably can, I know for me I think everyone hates me and is attacking, which beats the hell out of your self esteem add in all the trauma around you and what your own mind add’s it’s horrid
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Schizophrenia may not be the sole reason for your low self esteem but it is a large part of it. When you can’t trust your own mind it tends to make you feel bad. Or stigma can cause low-self-esteem too. Being rejected because of our disease can make you feel pretty bad and feeling bad can become a part of your personality.
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My self esteem is poor due to Sz…!!!
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Yup it does, and if the symptoms don’t do you in the side effects of the meds will. It’s a lose lose situation.
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I feel pretty low about myself due to my schizophrenia. The symptoms and the constant worry of what people think of me really lowers my self esteem.
Some of the posters seem pretty proud of their thoughts and attitudes to me. Is that just the non-sz ones?
I think people are able to open up and be more carefree on this site then their usual selves. Also I’m sure not everyone with schizophrenia has low self esteem or anxiety etc.
Everyone on this site is sz (some are bipolar with sz symptoms). Some have just come a long way.
In general sz will hurt your self esteem, especially in the beginning.
Not everyone is sz here. Some have psychosis on other illnesses like bipolar or major depressive disorder. Some are parents, some are undiagnosed but think they have sz. It varies a lot.
And @Twang I’m sz or sza or whatever my pdoc prefers at the moment, and I’ve very proud of my rational thoughts 
Definitely caused low self esteem especially when I was in the Army. At that time, though, I didn’t even know I had SZ, although I knew something was wrong with me, mentally, that made me incompetent at any Army job or MOS (Military Occupational Specialty). I felt bad that I was a “liability”. Really hurt me a lot because I just wanted to be good enough but never was. In the Military it makes things extra complicated because you can’t just quit/leave like you would most civilian jobs. So I was sort of stuck in a rut spiraling downward for a while. Got to a point where I wanted to die.
Of course it doesn’t help when “neurotypicals” have no clue what SZ is and just assume it’s an intelligence problem and constantly insult me in that way, you know. Many people can be as cruel as you can imagine.
The fact I’m alive right now I consider a miracle, if you know what I mean.
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my opinion of myself was very low for 10 years