I have often done many things to try to prove myself worthy of the attention, acceptance and/or affection of others, and being condemning of myself in seeming agreement with others has at times been part of that.

The first thing I have had to learn here is that guilt is never an emotion. The emotion I feel when guilty of a wrong-doing might be remorse, shame or whatever else, but "a sense of guilt", so to speak, is a suspicion I might be guilty of something factual in need of resolution. So then, who am I to presume to "forgive myself" where I have harmed someone else? And while referring back to the above: Who am I to be condemning myself for a mistake I have made whether the harm affected someone else or only myself? Bottom line for me: Stop "playing God" and condemning myself in the first place, then learn from my mistakes while seeking forgiveness from others where I have harmed others.

The more gray our moral thinking becomes, the less we are able to truly deal with any of this. When each man or woman "plays God" in his or her own life, the accumulations of bumps swept under the social rug where we all walk ultimately begin tripping everyone.