The 4 Psychological Effects of Survivor Guilt

A summary of the different forms of psychological impact of survivor guilt.

It is common in cases of terminally ill people to talk about the extent to which we have become accustomed to taking the possibility of continuing to live for granted, as if being able to live for many more decades were something that comes to us by default and is not even worth dwelling on.

Seen in perspective, it makes sense that most people experience their own lives in this way: since the only constant since we are born is the fact that we are alive, this becomes ignored, blurring with the rest of the things we see around us and associate with what is simply there regardless of our existence: the oceans, the mountains, the stars, and so on.

However, there are people who experience a feeling that goes in the opposite direction: they perceive the fact of being alive not only as something that should not be taken for granted, but as a luxury or even a privilege that does not correspond to them, a mistake of the Universe. Something unfair, with which they are unhappy. This phenomenon is what has been called "survivor's guilt", and in this article I will explain.and in this article I will explain briefly what it is.

What is survivor guilt?

Survivor's guilt, sometimes also known as survivor's syndrome, is an emotional disturbance that occurs in people who feel guilty for being alive after having gone through a traumatic experience that, in turn, led to the death of other people.

Technically, it is not an officially recognized psychopathology in the diagnostic manuals of psychiatry or clinical psychology, but is described as part of the symptomatology of post-traumatic stress disorder (i.e., one of the consequences of a particular mental disorder).

There are two main types of survivor guilt. On the one hand there is the variant in which the person feels guilty for, from his or her point of view, not having done what was possible to make one or more people survive in a dangerous situation. in a dangerous situation.

On the other hand, there are cases in which the person feels guilty despite the fact that objectively, he or she could not have done anything to protect the life of other people (in this second type, the feeling of guilt is more diffuse and difficult to express in logical terms, but it does not have to be less intense).

What is the cause of this disturbance?

The cause of survivor guilt is a combination of three psychological elements.

On the one hand, the emotional imprint left on the person by a certain traumatic eventFor example, a traffic accident, a natural disaster with moral casualties, an attack in the context of a war, etc. These types of situations relatively easily generate the disorder that is at the root of the survivor's guilt: post-traumatic stress disorder. The person suffers a strong emotional reaction associated with anxiety and anguish every time these memories are acted upon in his mind, to the point that he experiences intrusive thoughts and "flashbacks" related to these experiences of his past.

On the other hand, also involved in survivor guilt is a cognitive bias called "survivor guilt". a cognitive bias called "just-world theory".The first is a tendency to assume that what happens around us happens or should happen through moral principles; that is, it leads us to presuppose that the world tends to justice, to a balance in which the good compensates for the bad that happens (as if what we consider to be good or bad were integrated into natural laws).

Third, the third psychological element among the causes of survivor's guilt is a maladjustment of self-esteem. Noticing how that traumatic experience draws our attention to her (leading us to evoke those memories again and again in a very intense and painful way) and at the same time detecting that this event was not fair, the person finds it very difficult to see herself in a good light, as she is constantly questioning her value or "the good" she has to offer to the world and to others.

How does this emotional disturbance affect people?

The main effects of survivor guilt are described below.

1. Tendency to constantly examine their past

People who experience this disturbance can only find some relief in recreating their memories and consciously manipulating them, fantasizing about what it would have been like to have been a survivor.They fantasize about what it would have been like to behave in the right way at the decisive moment. But this dynamic leads to even more time spent suffering from reliving those memories from a perspective marked by pessimism and guilt.

2. Tendency to constantly compare oneself

The person is impelled to to think very often if its life or its existence is worthwhile in comparison to other people in their present or past.

3. Self-destructive tendencies

Survivor guilt is one of the psychological elements linked to suicidal ideation and self-injury or "self-punishment". However, self-injury is not usually aimed at suicide, but rather at "punishing" oneself and momentarily quell the discomfort by generating the illusion that justice is being done..

4. Problems in managing personal relationships

Since survivor guilt has to do with personal relationships from the past, it also greatly affects the way in which the greatly affects the way in which the person relates to others in the present.. They have trouble making friends and expressing themselves honestly to loved ones because they feel alienated and unable to connect with others (among other things, because they feel they don't deserve to).

Do you want to have professional psychological assistance?

If you need support from a professional psychologist, I invite you to contact me.

My name is Tomás Santa Cecilia and I specialize in the cognitive-behavioral intervention model: I work helping adults, adolescents and companies or other organizations with needs in the field of emotional well-being and personal relationship management. You can count on my services both in person in Madrid and online via video call.