We have all felt guilty at some point, we know what guilt is. guilty feeling. If we have hurt someone, we have misjudged them, we have not managed a situation with enough left hand or patience, we have been unfair, etc., we experience this feeling in a specific and isolated way.
However, there are people who have a constant feeling of guilt, who tend to feel guilty and do not forgive themselves for the mistakes they make. They suffer a permanent internal feeling of guilt that is not adapted to an objective reality, but rather has a subjective, fictitious and pathological character.
dysfunctional guilt
If guilt helps us correct the error, modify certain behavior and move forward, with the aim of recovering emotional balance, we speak of functional guilt.
At the opposite pole, the dysfunctional guilt and extreme does not serve to solve the problem, but rather aggravates it, it becomes the real problem that can lead to states of anguish and anxiety.
Why does the feeling of constant guilt occur?
A rigid education full of reproaches, with a prevalence of punishment, may be at the root of this problem.
Different studies have considered the low self-esteem as a common denominator in people with pathological guilt.
Extreme guilt can be due to cognitive distortions derived from irrational interpretations of reality.
Symptoms of guilt
- Tendency to blame oneself.
- Unsafety
- Give more importance to what others want than to your own desires and needs.
- Constant feeling of inferiority.
- Anxiety, anguish.
- Recurring negative thoughts.
How Exaggerated Guilt Can Affect You
Dysfunctional guilt can:
- Harm your social life.
- Put family relationships at risk.
- Accentuate stress.
- Trigger health and emotional problems. Generally this alteration coexists with other disorders of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, etc.
- Run the risk of being manipulated by others through guilt.
7 tips to overcome the feeling of guilt
- See the situation objectively. You have to assume your part of responsibility, but also weigh the different variables that have influenced it.
- Opportunity to improve. If you are aware that you have done something wrong, which may have harmed other people, you have an opportunity to correct your behavior and improve in the future.
- Self-pity. To overcome feelings of guilt, it is essential to practice self-control, be able to forgive your own mistakes and not be mortified by them. Humans are imperfect, we fail and make mistakes.
- Being able to see the complexity of the situation. Circumstances often arise that are beyond your control and the situation is due to a lot of factors. You must be able to value their influence to relativize guilt and your responsibility.
- Apologize. Learning to apologize can be difficult, but it is typical of responsible people. If you are clear, better sooner than later. It will improve the vision you have of yourself and you will feel better.
- Turn page. Even if you have behaved with few ethical principles and feel guilty about what happened, you have to move on and turn the page. Of course, learning from what happened should serve to improve in the future.
- Explain the situation to a friend or family member and exchange opinions. Their point of view can help us better focus and alleviate the feeling of guilt.
The and treatments such as or can help solve this disorder.
.