Insecurity: Definition, Causes, & 11 Ways to Cope

What Is Insecurity?

Insecurity involves an overall sense of uncertainty or anxiety about your worth, abilities, skills, and value as a person, conveying the message that you’re at risk or in danger of something or someone. That negative impacts of insecurity could be physical, mental, or emotional. Without security, you can’t accomplish full trust or function to your fullest potential.

Why Am I So Insecure?

Life experiences can affect a person’s level of insecurity. There could also be a biological relationship with insecurity being an inheritable trait passed down over generations and expressed through temperament and personality, or someone might have a mental health condition adding to their insecurities.

Possible causes of insecurity include:²

• Lack of family emotional support: People with a loving, supportive family are less likely to deal with insecurity
• Lack of physiological need satisfaction: When people are insecure in their food, housing, and safety needs, they struggle to move on to satisfying psychological needs like security
• Lack emotional intelligence: Those with low emotional intelligence can’t accurately monitor the feelings of themselves and others, leading to unhealthy relationships and less trust
• Lack of openness: When people aren’t open, curious, and comfortable with new people and situations, they note more stress and fear, resulting in lower security
• Lack of agreeableness: Disagreeable people tend to have more interpersonal conflicts due to not being helpful, supportive, or empathetic. These qualities produce a sense of risk in social situations and less security
• An underlying mental health condition: Mental health conditions like anxiety and depression have a bidirectional relationship with insecurity. Personality disorders like borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder also have a connection to insecurity.⁴
• An over-dependence on others: As people become dependent on people or relationships, their insecurity grows as they perceive risk in the relationship ending.²

Types of Insecurity

Insecurity can originate from several sources and branch out into multiple areas of your life. Because it has different origins and effects, one person’s insecurity can look completely different from another’s. Not all forms fit neatly into categories either, but some of the most common types of insecurity include relationship insecurity, social insecurity, body image insecurity, job insecurity, and insecurity of basic needs.

Insecurity in Relationships

With relationship insecurity, a person is unwilling to become vulnerable and willing to trust in others. An insecure person may have trust issues and be unable to trust what someone is saying or that they will follow through on what they say they’ll do in the relationship.²
These issues not only influence the individual, but also other person in the relationship.

Social Insecurity

Social insecurity typically involves a lack of confidence in one’s own ability to do well and succeed in social settings. Like other forms, social insecurity is mostly a creation of the person’s anxiety about what could happen in the future, rather than what has happened in the past. Often, social insecurity will overlap with the signs and symptoms of social anxiety.

Someone with social insecurity might worry about:

• Appearing awkward
• Saying something hurtful or inappropriate
• Not being smart enough to contribute to the conversation
• Not understanding  jokes

Body Image Insecurity

Those with body image insecurity will struggle to accurately perceive their physical appearance. Instead of having a balanced view of their characteristics, they may spend excessive time and energy worrying about how they look. Someone might feel insecure about their whole body, or they could focus on only one part like their nose, ears, knees, or teeth. Some people may feel insecure based on feeling judged by others, while others will judge themselves more harshly than anyone else ever could.

Job Insecurity

Job insecurity centers around a person feeling inadequate in the workplace. They may have overwhelming doubt, confusion, hesitation, and anxiety about their job, constantly feeling like a fraud. Students in all levels of school may experience a similar type of insecurity that leads them to question their intelligence, ability to craft a well-written paper, and apply knowledge as needed. In either case, people with job and school insecurity face problems including failing grades, poor work performance, and leaving tasks unfinished.

Basic Need Insecurity – Food, Housing, Health

Without enough food, housing, or health, it is challenging to succeed in life. When a person doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from, where they’ll rest their head at night, and how much longer their physical and mental health will hold out, they can’t devote enough energy towards other aspects of life. This high level of chronic stress results in physical hardships, as well as psychological hardships.

Signs of Insecurity

Some forms of insecurity are easy to spot, while others are more concealed. People who conceal their insecurities generally want to limit exposure to judgment, but avoidance behaviors only perpetuate the insecurity. The signs of insecurity tend to overlap with poor self-esteem and self-worth, and while some symptoms prove consistent, others change frequently and without warning.

Signs that you’re feeling insecure could include:^1,3

• An overriding feeling of inadequacy
• Low self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth
• Like they are unable or ill-equipped to cope with stressors
• Generally uncertain about the world
• Anxious about their relationships with others
• Poor decision-making skills and limited ability to choose quickly
• Being overly critical of yourself and other people
• Trying to portray yourself as overly confident to mask how you really feel
• Perfectionism to the point of never being satisfied
• Strong desire to be alone and avoid social situations
• Struggling to believe others and build strong relationships based on mutual trust and understanding
• Poor communication patterns that focus on the other person’s needs and wants more than your own

The Effects of Always Feeling Insecure

The effects of occasional insecurity are challenging enough, and the added consistency of always feeling insecure can significantly wear down someone’s self-esteem and worth.

Some common effects of feeling insure include:

• Never going for promotions at work and becoming dissatisfied with your job
• Thinking you are not good enough to seek out a happy relationship
• Settling for people and situations that don’t satisfy you
• Worry that other people are out to hurt you