People tend to confuse taking responsibility with accepting shame and guilt. What’s the difference? Recognizing Consequences Taking responsibility is about self-awareness. You admit to yourself that some action you’ve taken has led to pain and suffering for you or someone else. When you realize fire burns your hand, and when you can admit you keep putting your hand […]
Overcoming Guilt
Your mother guilts you into attending a family function. Your boss guilts you into working late. What does it mean to be guilted into something? When you do something out of guilt, you’re not doing anyone any favors. Anything done out of guilt leads to resentment. Period. So when you loan your best friend money […]
Letting Go of Guilt
by James Robbins, M.A., LPC When you blame yourself, you experience it as guilt. When you blame someone else, you experience it as resentment. Guilt and resentment are equally exhausting and self-defeating. Both arise from the human tendency to oversimplify events, to assume suffering is caused by some identifiable human mistake or poor decision. You only feel guilty to […]
The Five Core Emotions – But Where Is Guilt?
by James Robbins, M.A., LPC Your brain “officially” recognizes five emotions: anger sadness joy fear disgust What about guilt? Guilt is suspiciously missing from this list because guilt is really anger in disguise. I often ask my clients: Who are you guilty at? Suppose you forget your spouse’s birthday. You already feel terrible, and then your spouse […]
Nearly 80 Percent of Depressed Individuals are Not Receiving Treatment. Try this Depression Self-Evaluation Checklist
Going through life depressed, is like going through life with a chronic case of the flu—yet 80% of depressed individuals are not receiving treatment, and likely don’t even realize they are depressed. Utilize this Depression Self-Evaluation Checklist; it’s the first step to knowing and finding help. Do you currently suffer, or have you recently suffered […]
