Emotion of disgrace, guilt, or embarrassment for having done wrong or failed to do what one is obligated or expected to do.
- A painful feeling of having lost the respect of others because of delusional views of oneself.

As I look back now, I can see the root of my shame. Shame has lost its power over me as the result of the 12 steps that I have worked on for 2 years. Shame had ruled my life for over 40 years! To me shame is the feeling that something is radically wrong with me. I was weird, ugly and my thoughts were constantly of filthy fantasies. I was scared to let anyone get to know me because they might see how weird I really was. What a horrible way to live. Know wonder I drank and drugged so much! I needed escape from all of that pain inside me.

Alfred Adler, one of Freud's pupils, differed from both Freud and Jung in stressing that the motivating force in human life is the sense of inferiority, which begins as soon as an infant is able to comprehend the existence of other people who are better able to care for themselves and cope with their environment. From the moment the feeling of inferiority is established, the child strives to overcome it. Because inferiority is intolerable, the compensatory mechanisms set up by the mind may get out of hand, resulting in self-centered neurotic attitudes, overcompensations, and a retreat from the real world and its problems.

Henry Ford once made a wise remark to the effect that experience is the thing of supreme value in life. That is true only if one is willing to turn the past to good account. We grow by our willingness to face and rectify errors and convert them into assets. The alcoholic's past thus becomes the principal asset of the family. Cling to the thought that, in God's hands, the dark past is the greatest possession you have - the key to life and happiness for yourself and others!