How can guilt affect the brain?

Guilt can be an emotion that has a lot of purposes and is helpful for us to better ourselves, but it can also be somewhat toxic and unhealthy.  Therefore, it can be helpful to think about how guilt impacts the brain.  There are two main types of guilt: healthy guilt and unhealthy guilt.  Healthy guilt is the type of guilt that leads us to better ourselves and learn from our mistakes.  Healthy guilt triggers the brain to take action to make sure we are not tied to the mistakes that we have made.  For example, if I steal something from a friend and am very hurt by that, health guilt should trigger my brain to learn why I stole and what to do differently if I am tempted to steal again.  My brain triggering that action will help the guilt heal and feel as though I am not tied to the mistake I made.  Also, my friend will hopefully feel better about it and show me the energy to see that I have changed.  Overall, healthy guilt has a good purpose and can be a healthy emotion to accept for your brain. 

Unhealthy guilt is the type of guilt that ruminates in the body and does not really see action.  When someone makes a mistake and does not live out the purpose of the guilt after that mistake, it will lead to unhealthy guilt.  This can trigger the brain to lose focus on other important areas of that person’s life because their brain is meant to focus on the mistake.  That focus on the mistake without any action can easily develop into serious issues in the brain, such as severe anxiety and/or severe depression.  An anxious brain will be continually heightened and somewhat in flight or fight mode. A depressed brain will likely feel tired, hopeless and lose interest in things that normally interest the person.  Overall, unhealthy guilt can have various unhealthy impacts on the brain and is important to be really cautious of.