You ever have like...I'm trying to think of a better way to phrase it than "leftover guilt"?

Where you had a thing you had to do but were putting off

and you felt bad about putting it off

and then finally you just buckle down and DO it

but your brain is still like "ERIC YOU NEED TO DO THE THING"

for a few days

because you're used to living with that low key background stress and you can't just get rid of it overnight

remorse?

like, overflow i guess

No I did the thing

and it was a thing I needed to do

It was not a bad thing

I've been in a constant state of this since college, so I think at some point your brain just gets in the habit of feeling this particular emotion and doesn't stop doing it when the stimulus causing it stops.

opening the tap does start to spill out all of the accumulated guilt, but it's not instant

Oh yeah, I've had that sometimes.