It's no secret that we're all bombarded with negative messages. We're too fat, too thin, work too much, not enough. Combine this with the fact that we are far more critical of ourselves than we would be of others, and you can see why low self-esteem is a common and dangerous threat to many of us. Maintaining a strong and healthy self-esteem will help an individual be happy, successful and well-adjusted, but the consequences of negative self-esteem can be very severe: depression, anxiety, fragile relationships and a lifetime of unnecessary suffering.