The Atlantic

Childhood Guilt, Adult Depression?

New research shows differences in the brains of kids who show excessive guilty behavior, which may put them at risk for a host of mood disorders later in life.
Source: Russell Boyce / Reuters

Nicholas Thomas remembers a coat rack. "We were at a family gathering," Thomas said. "I think it was Christmas or something, and we were playing hide-and-go-seek. I knocked over a coat rack and I felt like I had done something terribly wrong." That was when he was 12. Thomas, who was diagnosed with depression at 22 years old, said that he finds himself continually reminding himself of everything that he thought he'd done wrong over

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