Have you ever been depressed and felt shame at the same? Are you able to differentiate between both feelings and how they both feel at the same?
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One would wonder why shame has to be associated with depression or depression with shame.
Shame and depression may or may not be felt together based on what an individual feels at a particular time.
This article would give you an insight into shame and depression and how they work psychologically, emotionally, socially, and physically.
Table of Contents
Is Shame A Form Of Depression? Shame And Depression.
Shame comes as a result of a reaction to other emotions. Shame causes an individual to have negative feelings and emotions.
Depression comes as a result of feeling sad about something or having the feeling of losing something.
A lot of people get confused about what they feel at a particular time. They contemplate if what they feel is shame or depression or shame.
It is obvious that shame and depression sometimes move together.
Shame can make an individual feel depressed and anxious while depression can also make an individual feel shame depending on the emotional situation of the individual.
Shame comes from a negative assessment of oneself while depression comes as a result of experiencing or going through bad experiences that make you feel negatively sad about one’s situation.
The two are a result of negativity which shows that shame comes after depression and or depression comes after shame.
An instance is feeling ashamed about your body shape. This can cause you to think about how you can look presentable in public even with your type of body shape.
If this is not achieved it can go a long way by making you feel depressed and sad about your “negativity”.
Shame can also be a feeling where an individual feels he or she is wrong whereas depression is when you are socked in your negativity or bad behavior such that you find it difficult to live a normal life.
Given this, shame is a toxic feeling that makes a depressed person feel too useless to find a purpose. It makes an individual believe that change is impossible.
How Does Shame Affect The Brain?
Feeling shame makes the brain react as if it is a great risk and this feeling triggers the need to disappear into thin air to escape from the feeling of being shameful.
Shame causes more negative results than positive results. Shame also comes as a result of feeling you have damaged your reputation.
The positive ones are mostly rare to recognize or feel. Shame largely works on the brain more than any part of the human body.
Shame makes an individual think foolishly about themselves.
This resets the mind and brain in a way that the mind operates with the feeling that you are foolish and this may go a long way to work on the physical body and thereby showing in one’s actions.
Shame can lead to feeling guilt and looking down on yourself. Feeling shame which leads to guilt can cause anxiety, which is fear.
This can affect the brain greatly in the sense that most human emotions are triggered by the brain, how we feel and think.
So putting that much pressure on the brain could make it weak and this may lead to depression and some mental illnesses.
Shame being a bad thing, can also help positively by alerting us about some bad behaviors and change for the better.
Consequences Of Shame
- Withdrawal: The feeling to be alone or escape the fear of facing others.
- Anger: shame can make you angrier often than before to calm yourself.
- Low self-esteem: It can make you lose your self-worth and think low of yourself
What Are The Symptoms Of Shame?
- Being more sensitive to little things that happen around you.
- Feeling unappreciated
- Feeling scared
- Depression
- Feeling worthless What
Type Of Anxiety Is Associated With Shame And Guilt?
Guilt and shame lead to depression as well as assuring us to make amends to become better.
Shame and guilt can make us become good people in society. Being a negative feeling doesn’t limit humans to negative results.
Guilt is mostly what one feels about something without anyone knowing and shame focuses on someone else noticing your misdeed. Unlike guilt, shame can lead to more transgressions.
The type of anxiety that is associated with shame and guilt is social anxiety disorder. This is characterized by fear of being scrutinized by others.
How To Deal With Same And Anxiety
- Show more confidence when you feel ashamed in some situations. When you act less ashamed you will also feel less ashamed.
- Do not allow certain things to get to you. You need to agree with your brain and emotions that no matter what may, you shall not take certain things personally.
- Learn to appreciate yourself. When you start to appreciate and love yourself, everyone around you will automatically love you for who you are and may not find a cause to make you feel shame.
- Forgive yourself for a wrong or bad reaction or experience.
- Self-compassion
- Patience with yourself
- Give yourself time to improve.
In Summary
Shame and depression intertwine with each other. Shame can bring the feeling of depression and vice versa.
Shame also creates anxiety where shame and anxiety have common features but have some differences as well. What you need to know is that feeling shame or depressed is normal.
There comes a time in the life of humans when you feel bad or sad about something and this is normal.
Shame can help make things better and not always create a bad impression. No matter what you should always look at it on the bright side.
