If you have a parent who employed the much hated and feared “Guilt Trip” it may feel like it’s an expected normal part of your adult world….
It’s not.
Parents, mates, friends, and adult children who use guilt trips are using emotional manipulation and it’s not o.k.
There are healthy ways for people to get heard it have their needs, wants, desires met….guilt trips feel bad, and can produce negative long term damage, and hurt feels.
Guilt trips are not remotely the same thing as someone holding you accountable for behavior…they are manipulations designed to get you feeling badly, to get attention and to get you to do something or feel something as payment or punishment.
Guilt trips, like trying to make someone jealous, aren’t very helpful, healthy, or successful….and they are definitely damaging.
As a shark raised in the guilt trip environment, I am sensitive to the signs and behaviors of those who use them…and it frequently signals depression, deep anxiety, and distress.
It takes a lot of awareness and mindfulness to learn how to navigate guilt trippers.
My empathy to those of you dealing with it now.
I am envious of those of you that have parents that do not do this.
Bruce Shark Swims 