The first night after the failed events of The Quarry, Ryan found Dylan sitting alone by the lake. Dylan, who still had both hands, whose bite was healing, and who remained infected. And he felt guilty for what he'd done. He could never fault Ryan for his moral compass, but only himself, for loosing control.
But Ryan knew he was to blame. It wasn't Dylans fault, after all, he'd told him to cut his hand off. If Ryan had just done it, none of this would have happened. If he’d just listened, they would be alright.. right?
Not that anybody asked, but I think it's important to understand how shame and guilt actually work before you try to use it for good.
It's a necessary emotion. There are reasons we have it. It makes everything so. much. worse. when you use it wrong.
Shame and guilt are DE-motivators. They are meant to stop behavior, not promote it. You cannot, ever, in any meaningful way, guilt someone into doing good. You can only shame them into not doing bad.
Let's say you're a parent and your kid is having issues.
Swearing in class? Shame could work. You want them to stop it. Keep it in proportion*, and it might help. *(KEEP IT IN PROPORTION!!!)
Not doing their homework? NO! STOP! NO NOT DO THAT! EVER! EVER! EVER! You want them to start to do their homework. Shaming them will have to opposite effect! You have demotivated them! They will double down on NOT doing it. Not because they are being oppositional, but because that's what shame does!
You can't guilt people into building better habits, being more successful, or getting more involved. That requires encouragement. You need to motivate for that stuff!
If you want it in a simple phrase:
You can shame someone out of being a bad person, but you can't shame them into being a good person.
Frank Bidart, “The War of Vaslav Nijinsky” | Nicola Samori, Ebbro | The Mountain Goats, “Prowl Great Cain” | Mary Oliver, Upstream | Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Gentle reminder that you don't have to reply to people immediately. You can take your time, especially if you feel overwhelmed by them, their message or anything else going on in your life.
You can tell them something like "I'm sorry I need to stay alone at this moment, I will answer you as soon as I feel better mentally". You don't have to answer them immediately so to not upset them: what about you being upset and maybe even frustrated? What if this feeling made you answer the them rudely or harshly, to lash out on them even if it's not what you wanted to? And it all would make it worse on you and make you feel guilty?
You can avoid all this by simply talking about your needs openly.
Take time for yourself, it's okay. Everyone goes through bad stuff, everyone takes time off from it all. You can do that too.
Be nice with you.
Having a resurgence of insecurity, anxiety, or frustration around something that you forgave or that happened a long time ago is not wrong. Things we have forgiven can upset us, they can come back up and bring insecurity. You are not holding onto something unfairly by still being affected by it. There is a difference between shoving a past mistake in someone's face and saying that it still hurts sometimes to think about it.