Feelings of guilt - Suggestions welcome please

[Pablo269]

Hello,

First-time poster here

I'm recovering from depression (trying,anyway) and am still getting horrible pangs of excessive guilt over little things.

I had to pour away a bottle of milk that I had let go by its sell-by date today and felt massively guilty about it, wasting something that time and effort and stuff had gone into making.

I can't find any way of challenging this feeling, even though I know intellectually that people make mistakes and in the grand scheme of things, it's tiny.

Does anybody here have any success stories of overcoming this or can offer any advice?

Apologies for seeking a free shoulder to cry on, but I currently have nobody to talk to about this kind of stuff.

Many thanks,
Paul

[Zaf]

Hi Paul

Absolutely no need to apologise, we all need help to fight the symptoms od this horrible illness.

The only way I can get over things that make me feel guilty is to acknowledge what I've done and resolve to avoid doing it again, it does often work for me but everyone has their own method

[nickynoo]

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the forum :)

I get the same guilty feelings, especially about fruit/vegetables/meat, I know it sounds funny but when I have to throw out fruit or veg it makes me feel really bad that I am wasting something that a plant/animal had taken alot of energy/died to make, that a person had taken time and effort to produce it and also that other people in less fortunate circumstances probably would have loved to have had the chance to eat it.....always thought I was a bit weird for thinking this sort of thing and never really associated it with depression.

Depression sure has some strange symptoms eh!! I don't think I have any advice I can give you, but maybe we can feel comfort in just knowing that other people feel the same way too

Nickynoo x

[Raindrops]

Hi Paul, welcome to the forum, I can totally relate to your feelings of guilt..
It's funny that you used food as an example, my family always have big roast dinners on New Year's Day, and today I cleared my plate except for two slices of meat.. Then felt really guilty about it and kept thinking about the poor turkey, starving children in the third world etc, this is the way I think all the time

You said in your post that you know in the grand scheme of things wasting some milk isn't worth feeling guilty over, so you've addressed your feelings of guilt and tried to work past them
I don't think there is a way to remove the guilty feelings completely, I believe guilt is a common part of depression
As long as you are able to notice that your feelings of guilt are excessive, hopefully that should help to ease it a little but short of drinking the dodgy milk there isn't a lot you can do sometimes :) I know how horrible guilt can be sometimes, especially when you start over thinking things, you're definitely not alone in the way you think
And I agree with Zaf about avoiding doing things again, it might even help you in the long run

[Pablo269]

Thanks for the replies, y'all, I appreciate you taking the time.

I've spent a few moments today apologising to a picture of a cow.

I never thought I would type that sentence. It sounds pretty crazy.

Zaf- You're right about learning from mistakes. My problem is that I know mistakes are a normal and healthy part of life, but I end up feeling guilty if I stand on a snail by accident or something. Hey ho.

Nicky- It's reassuring to know someone else goes through this aswell, so thank you.

raindrops- I think you could be right there, maybe we can't eliminate guilt entirely. But I'm determined to try!

Hope you all have a good start to 2012 (as much as possible, anyway).