what would be a good example of anxiety that is not shame?

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

My baby daughter is not eating enough and losing weight, causing anxiety.

hmm. Okay that's certainly a cause for concern and attention, but perhaps there is a sense of shame about your parenting abilities that then causes the anxiety?

I had some old school religious ideas installed in my head at a young age. Many things but certainly the idea that illness is symptom of sinfulness. someone is sick because they are bad. for me this caused quite a lot of anxiety around my own health but also the health and wellbeing of my children. When they were unwell I interpreted that as evidence of my own sinfulness. I was taking on responsibility for things that I could not actually control out of a sense of shame and that caused massive anxiety.

Now, when I manage to accept appropriate responsibility... responsibility for paying attention and responding to illness, and I don't take on responsibility for the illness having existed in the first place, I experience dramatically less anxiety when myself or others are sick.