Editor's Note: People who have suffered the trauma of childhood sexual abuse very often feel shame throughout their lives. Author Dietrich Desmarais writes about shame and how a person can turn it around for good.

Shame can be a helpful emotion. There is a distinction between toxic and helpful developmental feelings of shame that are necessary for maturity.

Bad shame comes from false beliefs that drive us to hide, feel shameful and worthless. This shame causes us to retreat into a shell and makes us want to disappear. It is the feeling that "someone will not want to be with us". Shame makes us...