I have this problem with feeling guilt which I've had for many years that I can't seem to make any real progress on reducing. Even right now I feel a tonne of guilt that I'm not really sure what's about or what i can do to relieve it. It's just debilitating beyond belief most of the time.

Recently I've been trying to face the feeling of guilt by just sitting, allowing myself to fully feel it so that maybe my mind can pick up on what it's actually about. Sometimes I seem to make progress and get a good bit of relief but on days like today I could sit all day trying to focus on it and it might only give me an hour's relief. Even when I do get good relief it only lasts a day at best.

The thing is, I think I have a fairly good idea what most of the guilty feelings are about but no matter what insights I feel I gain from focusing on them they just keep coming back. I don't think I deserve the guilt at all but that doesn't seem to make any difference.
I think most of the feelings relate to my parents' expectations of me from when I was a child and teenager - that I forget about whatever I want to do in life and take on the family business. I know I'm not doing anything wrong by resisting this expectation and wanting to live my own life but that doesn't seem to make any difference to the feeling of guilt, and it just keeps coming back again and again.

So basically I don't know what else to do about this. I've tried quite a few self-help books and keeping a journal and various other things but nothing seems to make any real progress. I know going to see a therapist would probably be the obvious answer but I live in a rural area with my parents and would probably need them to drive me there and back (as I've never taken my driving test), which doesn't fill me with enthusiasm. I know I probably sound quite pathetic and dependent, and I pretty much am, but I think it's been the incessant feelings of intense guilt that have prevented me becoming in any way independent or building a life for myself. I just feel if i could just get some relief from the worst of the guilt then maybe I could become independent enough to actually properly deal with the problem, by seeing a therapist or whatever.

So I suppose the purpose of my very long post (sorry about that) is to just see if anybody here has any similar problems to me or any advice or suggestions about what I could do.

Thanks for reading and any answers.