If you’ve been involved in harmful sexual behaviour, you may be regretting it.
This could be because:
- you know it’s wrong
- it’s against the law
To find out more about the types of sexual behaviour that hurt other people, visit our page on harmful sexual behaviour.
Find out about what harmful sexual behaviour is and what you can do if this is something you are worried about.
Read moreYou may also be feeling a lot of guilt or shame.
Neither of these feelings is nice. But sometimes guilt can be helpful, because it shows that you know you’ve made a mistake, and you understand that what you’ve done isn’t okay.
Knowing this gives you the chance to make changes and put things right.
On the other hand, shame is not a helpful feeling because it can make you feel like you are the mistake, that you’re bad deep down. But it’s the behaviour and not the person that’s the problem.
If you get stuck in feelings of shame, this can lead to:
- low self-esteem (feeling like you’re not worth much)
- depression
- anxiety
It can stop you from moving forward and making positive changes to the behaviour that’s causing the problem.
