What does guilt do to the brain?

Guilt can be a purposeful feeling but can easily turn into a toxic one as well.  If you can live out the purpose of the guilt you are feeling, that can lead to a healthy and growing brain.  When we live out the purpose of our guilt, we are essentially learning lessons from our mistakes.  Therefore, when we are learning, we are keeping our brains active and helping them to grow.  If we can get in the habit of making guilt purposeful and taking action on those purposes, it will hopefully help to nurture a healthy brain. 

On the contrary, if you are not living out the purpose of your guilt, it can be quite frustrating for the brain.  The brain wants you to take action, and when we do not do what the brain wants, it can eventually train the brain to do the opposite.  This can easily lead to a bad habit with the brain and the response to guilt.  Guilt essentially triggers fear in our brains, and fear is meant to be lived out for it to be processed.  For example, if I have hurt a friend by doing something mean to them, the guilt should also signal a fear that I will lose the friendship. That fear is purposeful and meant to help me to learn not to hurt my friend again. 

Like with any emotion, if we get in the habit of training our brains negatively by not processing through our emotions, that can lead to possible mental health issues.  Depression, anxiety, and even psychosis are possible long-term effects that not living out the purpose of guilt can have on the brain.  If we can actively process through the purpose of our guilt, it can hopefully avoid this.  It is also important to accept guilt as a natural emotion to experience from time to time because no one human is perfect.  If we can validate guilt as a necessary emotion, that can hopefully help us to process it when it happens and thus nurture our brains.