What would cause someone to be ashamed of their own humanity?

Question

Is it a disorder? A condition? Common? Uncommon? Tell me all you know about this please?

Answer 1

I can only tell you what a similar problem has been in my life. It's not a disorder I think but trying to alter it can lead to disorders. It is becoming common I think. That is because of the stress nowadays on being an extrovert; confident, competitive, self reliant and, to put it quite bluntly relatively unfeeling. I was raised in a family (a clan actually) where you were taught to never put yourself forward or first. When I went into school I soon discovered I was in the minority and ones "humanity" (as you call it) even politeness was often called into question or considered a weakness by many others.

I became ashamed of my resulting shyness and reticent behavior. I tried compensating for this by being more forward and outspoken but it was "acting"; it wasn't me. I still, inside, felt a strong feeling of empathy for and identified with the so called "losers" and unfortunate That "acting" resulted in some serious psychological problems.

I had a psychiatric nurse tell me once that a persons basic personality and psychological make up was pretty well formed by the age of five and it was extremely difficult to change it after that age. This was what I had been ashamed of and trying to change because of peer pressure. Whether this is the cause of the seeming epidemic of depression and more serious psychological disorders nowadays I can't say but it got to me.