topic Re: Left alcohol in public - struggling with guilt in Depression

Left alcohol in public - struggling with guilt

Fiz — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 03:06:05 GMT

Hi, folks.

I went shopping one Friday and absent-mindedly left a small bottle of vodka at the bus shop when going home. I only realised once I was home. By the time I got back there, it was gone.

I'm struggling with feelings of shame/guilt, as I'm worried that a teen may have taken it and drunk the lot. My mind's been racing with worst-case scenarios. It's been over a week and I can't stop beating myself up. The worst part is I'll never know what would've happened.

Can anyone help me; or can you share similar experiences? Thanks.

Re: Left alcohol in public - struggling with guilt

therising — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 21:37:46 GMT

Hi Fiz

I think it can make life really tough when no one teaches us, when we're kids, how the imagination works and how it can make life feel like hell on earth at times. We're led to imagine it's a simple thing, the stuff of children and daydreams.

With you clearly imagining the worst, I'll consider you to be a seer (someone who can clearly see in your mind). With you being a seer, can you see or imagine someone finding that bottle of vodka and dropping it in a bin close by, so that no young person picks it up? Can you perhaps see or imagine someone who thought just a short time beforehand 'I wish I could afford to buy my friend their favourite type of vodka as a birthday present' and there is was for them to find. Wish granted. Perhaps if a young person did pick it up and shared it with their 3 friends, such a small bottle would not have had such a great impact on a group of people. Lot's of possibilities to see and feel. That's one of the powerful things about the imagination, we can feel through it. Not always easy to do but if you flip it and try picking the feeling first, the image or vision will follow to match the feeling. Hope that makes sense. If you want to feel nothing but relief, an image of a person throwing it in the bin may come to mind. Taking it a step further...

The imagination can have a tendency to get out of control if not reigned in. Reigning it in can be done with constructive mediation. If you want to feel nothing but relief, focus or meditate on the bin scenario. See nothing but a person throwing it in the bin. See the person, what they look like. Now, look in the bin (through your imagination). What does it look like? How does it smell? Is the bottle buried half way down or did it fall to the bottom? While the image of a young person taking the bottle may continue to come to mind amongst such a meditation, pull it back to the bin. Shift it back to the bin scenario until you become fully convinced the bottle's in the bin. The truth is while you can't manage what happened to the bottle, you can manage what you imagined happened to it. I know, it's all easier said than done. I'm a gal with a vivid imagination myself, so I know how impossible it can feel at times to shift it from one thing to another.

As I say, the imagination can be an incredibly powerful thing. It can impact our beliefs, our nervous system, our chemistry (ramping up cortisol), our inner dialogue and more. It's a massive challenge to master it, that's for sure. The path to such mastery can have have the imagination eventually feeling more like a gift than a curse. So much can be achieved through it. ❤️

Re: Left alcohol in public - struggling with guilt

Ggrand — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 00:16:14 GMT

Hello Dear Fiz….🤗,

A warm welcome to our forums…

It’s okay Fiz, we are humans and we all make mistakes…Please find it in your heart to forgive yourself…

You went back as quickly as you could when you realised that you left it at the bus stop…that is awesome that you done that….many wouldn’t….Okay, someone found it, no one will never know who found it except for the finder…

We learn from our mistakes Fiz…but we should also learn to forgive ourselves as well…You sound like a very caring and empathetic person, worrying about who found it and what they done with it….Please don’t let that guilt you feel eat at you..guilt is very powerful and can destroy us mentally…no one can change our past, but we learn from it….as hard as it is for you dear Fiz….try hard to not dwell on it…you didn’t leave it there on purpose…

My kindest thoughts with care…

Grandy..