I'd use the term "insidious," rather than "invidious."

I don't find self-esteem cumulative in some way but more a constant choosing of what is more comfortable/easier. My husband and I were talking about fears/phobias/habits yesterday; he hates driving through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel when the traffic is two-way as he says the lanes are narrow and the big trucks, etc. coming the other way are over the lines. When we were coming up to it coming back home from our grandson's birthday he noted out loud what time it was and was relieved that it was before 7:30 p.m. as that's when the sign said it would become two-way; I looked at the next sign and it said April 30-May 4, it's only Weekday nights and yesterday was Saturday (as well as only being 4:00 in the afternoon :-) so I called him on it and he went into his tirade about big trucks being over the lines, and asked didn't I feel the same :-) and I explained I wasn't afraid of tunnels (which he bristled at, claiming not to be afraid either :-) and had never had the problems he described and found the lanes "normal" sized, not too narrow and people not over the lines, etc. and further pointed out that if there had been a lot of accidents they wouldn't keep making it one-way week after week. I then started thinking out loud about how he must have had a different experience than I had and that one experience was scary so from then on, next time up on the experience he only remembered the scary stuff from the last experience instead of looking at all his experiences or the possibilities and choosing more independently of his one scary one and gradually the choices "against" the tunnel when it is two-way and "why" were such that he had this huge "myth" inside his head based on a single scary situation he probably doesn't even remember but has added "evidence" to as he has gone along. When we were in the tunnel, sure enough the woman in the lane to our right was one the "line" (but not over) and he said, "See!" but I pointed out if someone were coming toward her, opposing her, she'd move back over closer to her tunnel wall on the right rather than risk hitting a car head-on. He was taking something that didn't apply (since he was behind and to the left in another lane and could adjust his speed so he had total control over whether he or she hit each other) and using it in evidence in a completely different situation.

I think I do that when I actively choose to represent myself as not good enough or discourage myself from trying, etc. There's probably plenty of ways negative self-esteem happens without my noticing it but if I do notice it, I think I'm choosing it for myself and I really don't "have" to; the self-esteem isn't the problem, it's my deliberate choices for what is easier or more comfortable. I think then that I'm "pitying" myself and I don't like other people to pity me so why should I tolerate it in myself? So something is "hard" or "scary" -- big deal, not a reason I shouldn't think it through and act in a positive fashion.