Continuing on with my thoughts on some of the behaviors and attitudes so common to those who suffer from the Disease…Guilt and ShameI have an old friend who likes to say when someone tries to make you feel guilty, imagine they’re serving you a shit sandwich—all you have to do is say, “No thanks, I’m not hungry.”Not too long ago, I got a new sponsor and started another round of the steps. I’m currently in Step 4, and there are some good questions in there about guilt. My favorite part about them is how they distinguish between earned guilt (which comes from things we ourselves have done) and unearned guilt (where we feel guilty about things other people have done/said/felt/etc.)For the longest time, I carried around a lot of unearned guilt. Thanks to my working the program (and a lot of additional outside therapy), I’m able to recognize the source of it now: not being accepted or loved for who I was, just as I was, by the other people in my life when I was growing up. I remember once, when I was around ten years old, some bullies taped a sign to my back. It read ‘sorry I was born!’

read more: Still Thinkin', Part 3