Since i live in a third world country all i can tell you is that i am extremely jealous and envy people born in first world countries.

 

First-World Problems: Feeling bad for having so much. :/

 

I feel exactly as you've written. Everything is the same aside from the fact that I haven't done much volunteer work. I hate talking about my depression/SA because I always feel like, "others have it worse. I don't have the right. There's no reason for me to be depressed, etc."

 

Most of the time, yeah, I feel blessed. I am blessed, and so are my kids.

But when I think of the **** I had to put up with growing up, being abused, having the **** beat out of me almost every day, having only my mom there (but not really there) because my dad was working his *** off twelve, sixteen hours a day. Having to take care of my siblings because my mom was too f-ed up to do it. Having to take care of her. Then locking myself in my room to hide from her.

Yeah, meh....I don't feel so blessed.

 

I feel as though I don't have the right to complain about my problems either. I might say, "It's a war zone in my mind." and someone else might say, "Oh, yeah? Well, I actually LIVE in a war zone!"

 

Yes I share your feelings, though guilt for me is pathological - I would invent a new reason as soon as the old one is dealt with. In regards to material abundance, the guilt is lessened because it is shared by so many. Almost everyone I've ever known has lived in the style of first world country. I don't blame them for falling into it unintentionally, but as a society I feel we have to take stock some day, and realize that it is immoral to consume such a large portion of the world's resources to supply wants and desires, not necessities, that are ever multiplying.

 

I'm very grateful that I was born and raised in a great country like the US but I don't have any guilt over it. I'm just glad that life here is easy for those that seek it because there are no opportunities to take advantage of where my parents are from.

 

I don't feel guilty about being born into "privilege". That's been out of my control since before I was even conceived in thought, so. I'm not even sure I'd go as far as saying being born into privilege should warrant any sort of gratification (don't take those words out of context, though), but I do feel very, very lucky to have been and, obviously, privileged. That's not to say I don't feel rotten sometimes for deliberately detaching myself from the outside world and rejecting opportunities when I'm fully aware that people elsewhere are going through hell and high water just to attain something so elementary as basic human rights.

I guess you could go into detail on whether or not people should have to justify their own emotions... but I'm not sure I like the idea of "owing" the world and I'm equally mehh about the idea of the world owing me anything to begin with. Cynical, maybe. Thoughts like those are convenient and close at hand in the luxury of your own freedom. :stu

 

I feel lucky for having been born into the first world. Do I feel guilty or privileged? No. I may live in the first world but I'm certainly not treated as a first-class citizen here. And if only having access to material posessions could magically fix the chemical imbalance in my brain...I envy anyone in the third world that has someone in their life that loves and cherishes them.

 

Yea, sometimes
The details are embarrassing

 

I feel about as guilty as third-world children do for having friends and a close-knit family.

 

yea this.

apples and oranges, etc.

 

Yes, I feel guilty for being born into a relatively privileged life, but not being able to make anything useful of my life.

 

F*** no. I've been both (relatively) lower class and upper middle class in my life. There's no way I'm ever going back to living around the people I used to live around, being afraid of leaving the house at night for fear of getting stabbed and living surrounded by semi-collapsed buildings. I have nightmares TO THIS DAY about the awful middle school I used to go to. As long as I'm not cheating people or otherwise directly harming them to stay where I am, I won't feel guilty for a second about doing my very best not to end up living like that again.

 

Nah. I'm grateful, but I don't feel guilty. Besides, they'd do the same thing if the shoe were on the other foot.

 

No because it's not my fault they ended up where they are. Do I feel bad for them and want to help them? Definitely but guilty? No.

 

LOL No.

I came from a fairly well off family. We're far from 'the rich' but we do OK.

I have to put up with so much other crap as far as GAD, SAD and Depression go. My mother is a cancer survivor, my dad (now deceased) had GAD, SAD and Depression too. We've been through the ringer. We've "paid our dues" in other ways.

 

I won the birth lottery being raised in a developed country with two parents that did everything possible to provide me with food, shelter and a private education. I know I'm lucky, and am eternally grateful for the sacrifices they made to properly raise me. It shouldn't reflect poorly on my parents for my failure to become a functional, successful, well-balanced adult.

It's hard for me to not feel sympathy for those that are less fortunate. When I'm surrounded by the homeless I do feel guilty because there are some that did not deserve their plight. I reason they would probably have accomplished more in my situation if there was a hypothetical role reversal, so of course I'd extend that to the underprivileged and oppressed living in developing countries. I've expressed this to some family members (because my social circle outside of that is limited), and of course they disapprove of my view. It's not surprising they would respond that I'm a hypocrite for not donating a portion of my monthly salary to charity, but I'm of limited means and don't have a huge income to be a junior philanthropist. I feel guilty as a product of my own self-loathing.

 

I feel like I'm a waste of life. Another person with motivation and passion should be in my place.

I should've never been born, or born somewhere in africa starving to death

 

I lived in a poor and rich country so I have both perspectives. Honestly, you shouldn't feel bad about living a privileged life. Everyone has their trials and problems. You have SA and other stuff while they live SA free but maybe with different kinds of problems. The point is, don't feel bad, because i've been in those third world countries and the people there are happy with not much to live on, so you can too

 

Give some money to me.

 

Why would I feel guilty for not being a peasant?

 

I've never felt guilty about it, no.

 

The first thought coming to my mind while reading your question is "Are you religious?" More in detail: "are you following one of the so called 'religions of the book'?

This is because these kind of religions are usually very much linked to the idea of 'guilt' - you are a sinner, therefore you are guilty.
And, what's curious, is that they tell you you are guilty just because you were born and you are a man. Isn'it it too little to brand you as guilty?

A study in American Behavioral Scientist analyzed interviews with participants from Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant backgrounds. The author reported that most participants "eagerly described an experience of guilt." (http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1985-12077-001)

Guilt can be even linked to OCD symptoms: in a research on the possible connection between Catholicism and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, a study of 165 individuals by the University of Parma found that religious individuals scored higher on measures of control of thoughts and overimportance of thoughts, and that these measures were associated with obsessive-compulsive symptoms only in the religious participants (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005796701001206).

I don't like the self-evident brain wash carried out by those religions, using the idea of 'guilt' in order to make people act as they want to - to control them.

I hope my words are not too harsh, but really, you shouldn't feel guilty as you are not doing any harm to anybody by living a privileged life. You are a good person and surely people around you can perceive that: even the ones owning less than you are not judging you or hating you for that!

 

Ok your all right then. Let's take this website down and replace it with feeling guilty about being born where we are. Let's take away all the support this site offers, no more asking for help because someone's got it worse in some country.

We can talk how guilty we feel all day and that will help us feel morally better inside and any feelings we have, meh just feelings right? Someone in Africa had it worst so let's stop communicating all together unless it's about how guilty we feel for even being born.

 

part of my life

trashed

reversed society

different twisted routes

posh schoolfriends... first black person I met whose dad was ambassador of Euthopia. Good to be introduced to Fresh prince bel air.

others... merchant banker of Hong Kong
any others.. friends of other privileged families - foreign family set you up
My folks put me in public school, desperate from failed hotel business in Cornwall when we moved to a village spurred to restart another deserted coal-mining forest area on back of previous successful pubs. whole 50-year gap matter so clear my brothers had such amazing lives with perfect parents
I was the one when parents couldn't afford that education, who ended in trailer park when I was at university. I'm sure luck is the worldful factor in life. Really painful when huge effort I make, surrounded by failure

I dwell in this root

~raped~ by girls in our student house I moved into 2nd year - sexy Thai girl & a fat one which was my first demoralising experience with SA when offer of threesome got me disturbed, refusing to have my clothes removed - my mistake - for their gain / mockery leading to my aggression

All female boarding houses of my 3 schools terrified me by their make-up, jewellery, dresses and tiara-weilding

Naturally being a bit prone to strange luck should just make the best of life. Compounded trampled on by siblings with wealthy, uneducated siblings houses,
cars, daughters (all posed for marriage with posh(lawyers)), holidays,
my best girlfriends set up as lawyers, getting my public school aid of posh English mentoring, still trampled and walked away, touting with tie round neck naked 'byee!' I was taken to opera - BBC Proms - gifts of gleaming cufflinks from the mummy. Driven by strong, excited parents who motivate. Go dance, Billy Elliott. mid-70s age parents aren't useful. School involved a coach to watch trooping the colour... :clap:crying:

What a rant. Bit of piano-playing glamourous smilers, sport-players who do nothing, just reaping money. Sadly beyond reach of being killed by feisty haters, having their special bodyguards. How did Mr J Lennon get into that mess? Glad he did. Guilded wreaths of the loud-voiced who deserve to be guilty & suffer

people living in muck with sordid carpets, pet hair & poo without hot water, on benefits, don't breed with siblings, producing several-headed children; don't put them in public school. Try to find an intact condom

 

its easy to figure out how the western dream is making millions of humans malfunction. go look up depression, chronic anxiety, social anxiety, body dysmorphia, self harm, bulimia, suicide, unemployment, obesity, diabetes


the only thing you should feel guilty about is not appreciating the good things you do have