The guilt/shame spiral

I was raised Catholic myself, so I’m well familiar with the guilt/shame spiral that causes adherents to cherry-pick which “sins” they commit – Catholic guilt certainly doesn’t stop people from engaging in premarital sex, but it does sometimes prevent them from seeking proper birth control, because only a “loose” woman would be so brazen as to go that far. So then they are more likely to get pregnant, compounding their sense of shame… and perhaps will even go so far as to get an abortion rather than bear the public ignominy of being a “fallen” woman. Saw this happen with friends and relatives. It’s a weird, counterproductive mindset that causes a lot of misery that could be avoided if they weren’t taught by the Church to be so hung up about natural urges.