The Symptoms of Shame and Their Remedies

A look at the things that eat away from the inside and how we can begin to eradicate the decay and heal.

Shame is a very real thing and it affects us in ways that we might night notice explicitly. I was surprised to find out that I showing a lot of the symptoms of shame and it saddened me how much that shame permeated into other parts of my life. In the moments directly after hearing of the symptoms of shame I was relieved to hear of the remedies that aided in me seeing the hope that was within reach.

These are the symptoms and remedies of shame taken from church notes on 12/7/14 at Christ Community Church in Daytona Beach, FL. I hope you’re able to reflect on this and lead a life of healing from the effects of shame.

Symptoms:

1. Separation/Isolation [Separating yourself from others]
2. Self-protection [Only sharing nice parts of your life]
3. Self-hate [Failure to see what’s good in you]
4. Self-destruction [Addiction/Acceptance of cheap pleasures]
5. Self-preservation [Going from surviving to just existing]
6. Illusion of Self-control [Trying really hard to fix the things about yourself before others find out there’s something wrong with you]

Remedies:

1. Community [Surround yourself with good people]
2. Vulnerability [Letting people know the REAL you by sharing the things that you’re excited for, scared of, struggle with, etc.]
3. Empathy/Self-Compassion [Finding people who will try to understand you and being patient with yourself as you try to understand you]
4. Purposeful Living [Accepting your calling in life]
5. Sacrificial Loving [Going from just surviving to thriving]
6. Call to trust [Confessing the things that are wrong with you and letting God fix them]