Eaten alive by guilt. Please help!

As far I can tell, guilt is the common thread underlying all the symptoms I’ve experienced over the last year. My “delusions” are heavily infused with themes of guilt. It is not a delusional guilt insofar it is based on my past behaviour (nothing illegal in case you’re wondering). My docs have tended to interpret this guilt as a symptom rather than as a root cause of anything, but there is something to say for the legitimacy of guilt, particularly when one is actually guilty of the things he feels guilty about. I don’t think I’ll ever be ‘cured’ or whatever is it that I have until I have come to terms with my guilt. I have tried forgiving myself, but I’ve been unable to. Has anyone of you experienced something like this crippling guilt? Not do I not feel human, but I’m beginning to suspect that my human body -the appearence of a ‘material’ body at any rate- is that of an abomination, but that I’m tricking others into accepting me because I telepathically have constructed this body, thus hiding the monster beneath. Any suggestions will be welcome.

I don’t really feel guilt. Maybe give an example of what you feel guilty about and I can tell you why you shouldn’t

I rather not go into too much detail. I could have been a much better person at certain critical points in my life. It’s odd, we blame “society”, or “Judeo-christian” morality for trying to ram guilt down our throats, when in actual fact I find that society is trying to tell me not to feel guilty. But I know that I am and I’m unable to forgive myself. The only reason I haven’t executed myself is to prevent my family from suffering

There’s no need for you to execute yourself. Whatever you feel guilt about is not worth committing suicide over.

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Are you watching porn? That can cause guilt or doing drugs whatever it is you would need to stop doing it.

I’d start by saying that your emotions are not rational unless you make them rational. You may have made mistakes but everyone does, you can’t change the past. Feeling guilty is emotion you are accepting, but it’s not useful and only causing yourself suffering. If have the mindset that you want to make your life better, then removing the guilt is key. Recognize the guilt as useless and irrational and focus on what you can do today. The guilt is only there because you accept it. Don’t accept it. Hate the guilt, the guilt is the enemy … you don’t deserve it

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No. Nothing to do with porn.

Drugs 15 characters

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I hear you, and I have been through this in my head for months now. I guess I’m wedded to my own ethical standards, because (I can’t go into details) past behaviour rewrites ontologically the world we share with others. I am an abomination, but anti-depressants and ironically, guilt, keep me from harming myself.

No drugs, and nothing against them, I just feel too old for that ■■■■. Only booze for me.

Booze can do it too

That I don’t feel guilty about.

Forgive yourself for what makes you feel guilty and move on because you have to. You need to consciously reject the guilt when you feel it and recognize that it is not to be accepted as a valid emotion. You give power to the guilt and you can take it away

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I’ll keep trying, but had no success so far. I’ll raise this at my next appointment with the doc

Try to find the cause of your guilt. Is it the spirits? Or something else would you feel guilty if you never had been diagnosed never had the problem of what the doctors call schizophrenia?

One time I did something (It wasn’t a rape.) that made me decide that I had forfeited my right to exist in moral society - the world of friendly handshakes at church, the world of shared jocularity, the world of decency and nice conversation. There was a long, dark night where this realization was crushing me. A lot of it was due to alcohol. If anyone has ever experienced the shakes after a ten day drunk they know what I am talking about. Basically, it has been time that has taken the edge of my guilt. I’m still racked with guilt, but I wouldn’t trade my life with anyone. I like it the way it is.

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I hate guilt with a passion and that’s how I avoid it. I don’t accept it. No one can make me feel guilty. I accept who I am and what I’ve done. Guilt is an insult.

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I honestly don’t know when one things begins and another ends. The finer points of causality increasingly escape me.

I’m glad you’re eventually able to move forward

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OMG…I can totally relate, as my guilt used to consume me and was almost debilitating! I still have a sheet of paper on my bedroom wall with my action plan in order to tackle it. I’d love to share how I got a handle on my guilt after it overtook my life. You may (or may not) find it helpful, but it has done wonders for me. Keep in mind, this was a note/list I made to myself based on my own philosophy and understanding of what I was “personally” suffering from, so it may not be helpful to everyone. I’ll copy and paste it below:

  1. Although it is important to acknowledge a mistake and feel remorse for your actions, the guilt you feel needs to be nipped in the bud. Holding on to a certain amount of guilt is allowable, but only for the sake of acknowledging the mistake and learning from it. Remember that NO ONE is perfect, and EVERYONE ON THE PLANET has screwed up and made “major” mistakes…and more often than not, those mistakes have also impacted other people’s lives.

  2. Making mistakes is actually a critical part of human development. Believe it or not, we benefit significantly from our mistakes. Sure, mistakes can have a major negative impact on our lives at time…especially right after we make them. But the long term effects and benefits of how they can shape and develop us going forward is of huge benefit to us.

  3. Learning from mistakes is VERY important. Making a mistake, no matter how severe, isn’t really the relevent part as we all make them and no one is excluded from that. But learning from them where we allow our own (sometimes dreadful) experience of it to sink in and kind of create its own “defense mechanism”, so-to-speak. It basically helps prevent us from making the same mistake twice.

  4. In the event you do make the same mistake twice, don’t let it consume you. It happens!! Come up with an action plan that can help you avoid a 3rd time.

  5. Don’t focus on what HAS already been done, as we can’t change anything that has already happened. This is what people mainly get caught up in, and the guilt consumes them. THE PAST DOESN’T MATTER!! Only the future does! It is what we do going forward. Sometimes mistakes can be fixed, and sometimes they can’t. But you have to remember it’s not about what you’ve done, it’s now about what you do going forward, knowing that there will always be more mistakes to be made. You wouldn’t be human without them.

  6. Never let another person, along with their forgivess (or lack thereof) dictate your level of guilt or how you feel about your self worth. Some people are just unable to forgive. Those people are the ones holding onto to something that is basically an inevitable part of life. We’ve all been done wrong by someone in our life (usually plural)…and we’ve all done wrong to someone else. LET IT GO!!

IN CONCLUSION… You are making yourself suffer needlessly! You need to condition your mind to be more resiliant by changing your thought process. It will take some time, but it is essential in order to keep your guilt from consuming you! Plus…If we could expose every single mistake of every person you know, you’d realize there is absolutely no reason at all we should hold on to guilt. We all have our own stories, but at the end of the day, they are simply different versions of the same thing!

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