In my previous post I talked about the five different types of guilt. Today, I would like to talk more about one of the types. This type is guilt that you get when you feel like you hadn’t done enough. There are a lot of examples in this type of guilt that I didn’t really go over in the previous post. Also, I didn’t explain how this guilt affect you, or the person that you are trying to help.
As stated in the other post, I talked about how this guilt comes up. That is when you are helping someone who is really sick, or helping someone who may had lost something, such as a house. You feel as if you need to help that person out. But, while you are helping this person, you may run into a period of time where you can no longer help this person out.
If you let this guilt catch up to you, it can affect both you, and the person that you are helping. This guilt can give affect you emotionally. You start to feel sad, and worthless because you are not doing enough. Not only does it affect you, but it can also affect the person you are trying to help. By helping with guilt, you are not as much of an efficient helper than you would be when you are not helping with guilt. When you are not an efficient helper, the person you are trying to help can get worst, if they are sick, or it would take longer for them to “get back on their feet” if they lost a house, or a important thing to them.
Whitbourne, Susan K., Ph.D. “The Definitive Guide to Guilt.” Web log post. Psychology Today: Here to Help. Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D., 11 Aug. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
How does guilt affect a person? 