Guilt Trip Meaning
A guilt trip is a manipulative technique used to control another, and it can be used in many different ways and for various reasons.
The main goal of a guilt trip is to make the other person feel bad about themselves, so they will do what you want them to do.
Guilt trips also happen by someone feels guilty about their actions and wants forgiveness from the person they hurt.
Guilt Trip Definition
A guilt trip is when one person tries to make the other feel bad about committing an act by putting them down, insulting their dignity or status, or telling them that they know something terrible about them.
The phrase “guilt trip” is used in all its meanings—that is, it can be used pejoratively (as an insult) and non-pejoratively (to describe what someone else did).
It typically refers to the guilt resulting from this behavior after the target has performed a specific action.
The term “guilt tripping” was first used in 1965 and had its roots in psychology. The Oxford English Dictionary appeared in an academic publication called Psychiatric Quarterly, published in 1965.
What Is A Guilt Trip
Guilt trips are often very hard to recognize because we don’t traditionally think about ourselves as being manipulated or controlled by others – we’re more likely to see it happening in movies than in our real lives.
However, it’s essential to recognize a guilt trip when you see one because if you don’t realize what’s going on and why the other person is saying or doing these things, they’re likely to have an even more significant effect.
If you look at the first definition of guilt, it says that if you feel guilty about something, then other people will use this feeling to control your behavior.
How To Guilt Trip Someone
Guilt trips are often a punishment tool for not meeting someone else’s expectations, whether a parent/caregiver or a significant other.
In that case, we’re acting out of spite rather than genuine carelessness, which causes the individual who feels hurt by this behavior to become more manipulative to get us back under control.
Related: How To Be Happy
What Does Guilt Trip Mean For You
If you understand what’s going on and why they’re saying or doing these things, it becomes easier for you to avoid falling into the guilt trap to get out of feeling bad about yourself.
You can either choose to apologize (even if your actions weren’t intentional) and promise that this will never happen again – even if it wasn’t a big deal in the first place – or let them know how their words make you feel and ask them politely not use guilt trips.
Guilt Trip Examples
Forcing you to do what they want – the primary function of guilt-tripping is to make sure that you feel compelled to help someone or agree with something and facilitate your behavior in the way they want.
Feeling like you’re responsible for whatever went wrong (the fallacy of responsibility) – people use guilt-tripping not only because it is an effective way to get what they want but also because if you feel responsible, they don’t have to take responsibility themselves.
Feeling sorry for yourself – it’s often easier to guilt-trip someone else into feeling sorry for us than feeling sorry for ourselves and fixing whatever went wrong.
Related: Inspirational Quotes
Guilt Trip Quotes
You can’t change the past, but you can learn from it.The only way to make sure you don’t make mistakes is to never do anything.Be honest about your feelings. If you’re feeling guilty about something, own up to it and explain why. Don’t try to hide your feelings or play them down.Be direct. Don’t beat around the bush or try to sugarcoat things. Tell the person directly why you feel guilty and what you want them to do about it.
Final Thoughts On Guilt Trips
Guilt trips are a form of emotional control. So remember that some problems are too big to fix – especially if someone is trying to use those problems as an excuse.
As we have seen, guilt is the most common emotion to exploit for this purpose. To avoid being taken advantage of by someone trying to manipulate you with a guilt trip, it’s important to recognize when a guilt trip gets deployed on you and how best to react afterward.