Guilt is often recognized as a negative emotion where one feels responsible for something that happened wrong.
This belief of feeling accountable may or may not be true. Survivor’s Guilt is developed by individuals who lived through a traumatic incident in their lives that was life-threatening. When someone survives such an incident, they are grateful and experience relief because they didn’t lose their lives. But at the same time, these individuals also feel sadness and grief for people who lost their lives in that particular incident. They also tend to feel that they are incapable because they could not save the lives of others who died. They feel guilty for having survived an incident and wish they should have died too like others. This may develop in people who have survived any kind of event such as terrorist attacks, genocide, natural calamity, public shootings, car accidents, etc.
Experiencing survivor’s guilt includes symptoms such as having flashbacks of the event, ruminating about the event as to what they could have changed, nightmares, feeling helpless, depression, mood swings, anxiety, sleeplessness, having consistent thoughts about the traumatic event, and even suicidal thoughts, etc.
In the current scenario of the pandemic, the existence of survivor’s guilt has been observed. People who recovered from contracting the virus and the individuals, who were lucky to stay away from it, feel guilt while grieving for others who lost their lives to it. Being unable to help someone in need may also lead to feelings of guilt.
It is important to overcome this guilt to function effectively. In order to do so, the victim must understand how the emotion of guilt is perfectly all right to feel. They can be grateful for having survived and at the same time they can grieve for others. Feelings of helplessness can be overcome by understanding their locus of control. The victims need to accept how it was not them who caused the event, and how they had no control over it. Cognitive behavior therapy, a form of psychotherapy can help victims become more aware of their thoughts and help cope with their feelings of guilt. Joining support groups is always helpful because the purpose of these groups is to effectively convey that, ‘You are not alone.’
Importance of Professional Counseling: A friend or family member may listen to you, but they aren’t professionally, technically qualified or experienced to offer you professional advice. If you wish you can contact us at MindTribe to receive help from our team of expert psychologists.
About MindTribe.in.
MindTribe Founder Dr. Prerna Kohli, India’s eminent psychologist, established the company to leverage the strength of the online to make counseling affordable and accessible to everyone. MindTribe provides counseling, workshops, support groups, forums, and eLearning.
About the Author.
Simran Chahal is a psychologist at MindTribe.in. You can learn more about her by clicking here
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of MindTribe.in, the Founders, or management team.
Acknowledgement: All images used are open source and from Unsplash.