Personal insecurities, secrets, mistakes, and perceived flaws can all trigger shame responses, causing people to become extremely self-conscious, self-critical, and embarrassed. Shame describes feelings of inadequacy created by internalized negative beliefs about oneself. People will regularly think negative thoughts about themselves, and believe them, such as: “I'm unloveable” or “I'm never good enough” It creates terrible feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy. Voices often accompany the terrible feeling, often the voice of the person who forced the toxic shame into the sufferer. Guilt occurs when we feel badly about what we have or haven't done, whereas shame is feeling badly about ourselves as a person. Shame is the opposite of pride and it's very similar to guilt – both involve negative self-judgment. We experience shame when we feel a painful sense of being inadequate, flawed or unworthy.
