>Your brain has some unhelpful ideas of its own on how to feel good. If you’re experiencing guilt or shame, it may be because your brain’s trying — ineffectively — to activate its reward center..., "Despite their differences, pride, shame, and guilt all activate similar neural circuits, including the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, insula, and the nucleus accumbens. This explains why it can be so appealing to heap guilt and shame on ourselves — they're activating the brain's reward center." -[Source](https://bigthink.com/robby-berman/4-things-you-can-do-to-cheer-up-according-to-neuroscience) Does this make self-pity a subconscious form of emotion self-gratification in some cases? Sometimes when I'm bored I start dredging up sad memories. That's pretty weird.