A guilt complex refers to a persistent belief that you have done something wrong or that you will do something wrong. In addition to constant feelings of guilt and worry, a guilt complex can also lead to feelings of shame and anxiety.
Anxiety Effects Amplify the Guilt of Making Mistakes
This allows us to understand each other and to know if we've wronged someone be it intentionally or unintentionally. It's a natural reaction to feel bad and apologize. This is all good and part of what defines our humanity.
People with False Memory OCD experience frequent doubts about things that have happened to them and may be convinced they've done something wrong despite no evidence of these memories being true (e.g., “Did I accidentally steal and don't remember?”).
If you're feeling guilty for no reason, it can usually be traced back to your past. We all have an “inner critic”, but some of us have a much louder, harsher one than others. What your inner critic sounds like (and the stories it tells) has a lot to do with the kinds of messages you received growing up.
Excessive irrational guilt has been linked to mental illnesses, such as anxiety, depression, dysphoria (feelings of constant dissatisfaction) and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD)2. It can cause sufferers to believe they're a burden to their loved ones and those around them.
Many people with OCD experience extreme guilt. Certain symptoms can trigger this feeling, such as having sexual or violent thoughts or believing that you are responsible for causing harm to others.
Symptoms of guilt
Feeling guilty is a complex emotion that results in many other feelings. People who feel guilty may experience anxiety, stress, sadness, feelings of worthlessness, low self-esteem, regret, loneliness, or critical self-talk.
Toxic guilt is when we feel guilt without actually having done anything wrong. For example, this could be the guilt felt when you decided to pursue a career in welding when your parents thought you should be a lawyer… like them.
Guilt, Fishkin says, is associated with activity in the prefrontal cortex, the logical-thinking part of the brain. Guilt can also trigger activity in the limbic system. (That's why it can feel so anxiety-provoking.)
Talk therapy
The first approach for managing false memory OCD is psychotherapy. In particular, a kind of cognitive behavioral therapy called exposure response prevention (ERP) is particularly effective with OCD. It involves learning to tolerate not engaging in compulsions when you experience your obsessions.
Intrusive thoughts or believing things that aren't actually true can happen if you have anxiety. For example, you may be so fearful or worried about something happening, you start believing it absolutely will happen.
Body and Mind
The positive emotions of gratefulness and togetherness and the negative emotions of guilt and despair all looked remarkably similar, with feelings mapped primarily in the heart, followed by the head and stomach.
Such guilt stimulates thoughts that punishment is deserved and imminent. The fear of punishment, torture, and/or execution defines the paranoid psychosis that consumes these patients' lives. Similarly, psychotic mania can cause delusional grandiosity of ownership of valuable possessions.
Existential guilt arises when one is distracted from or impeded from exerting one's will and responsibility in living up to one's unique potential (never lives up to one's potential).
It has been suggested that people with OCD experience “guilt sensitivity,” meaning they have a higher aversion to feelings of guilt—much like they do with distress and anxiety. They may feel like they cannot tolerate it. Meanwhile, shame can make them feel like something is wrong with them on a core level.
High Anxiety
People with OCD are prone to high levels of anxiety and, in turn, distressing false memories.
False Memory OCD refers to a cluster of OCD presentations wherein the sufferer becomes concerned about a thought that appears to relate to a past event. The event can be something that actually happened (but over which there is some confusion) or it can be something completely fabricated by the mind.
Crazy, odd, bizarre, and irrational thoughts are often symptoms of anxiety disorder, including generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and others.
Depersonalization-derealization disorder occurs when you persistently or repeatedly have the feeling that you're observing yourself from outside your body or you have a sense that things around you aren't real, or both.
Some may have a fight-or-flight type of response, which may include muscle tension, heart pounding and sweating because their body "believes it needs to activate," she explains. Others maybe experience a freeze response, which can look like someone who struggles to move or get out of bed.
Trauma is not physically held in the muscles or bones — instead, the need to protect oneself from perceived threats is stored in the memory and emotional centers of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala. This activates the body whenever a situation reminds the person of the traumatic event(s).
Most people experience guilt. Sometimes it doesn't fully go away. A person who makes a mistake may continue to feel guilt throughout life, even if they apologize, fix the damage, and are forgiven for the harm they caused. Therapy can help address these feelings.