Guilt might be one of the most misunderstood emotions in the human experience. We treat it like a houseguest that overstays its welcome, when in reality, guilt is more like a smoke detector—incredibly useful when there's actually a fire, but absolutely maddening when it keeps going off because you burned toast.

Picture this: You're sitting in a therapy session, trying to explain why you feel so disconnected from yourself and others, why you struggle with relationships, or why you can't seem to trust your own emotions. Your therapist asks about your childhood, and you shrug. "It was fine," you say. "Nothing really bad happened. My parents weren't abusive or anything." And that's exactly the problem.

When faced with perceived danger, our nervous system has four primary responses that have kept humans alive for millennia: Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn.