Toxic shame is one of the major manifestations of the adult child syndrome.So intense can the feeling become, that it can serve as an invisible, but very powerful barrier between one person and another."Feeling ashamed makes us feel excluded from our own family or group," emphasizes Breggin (op. cit., p. 163). "When severe enough, (it) makes us feel that we are excluded from humanity-that we are fundamentally deficient, and the difference amounts to an irredeemable flaw."The more a person feels exposed for what he misbelieves about himself, the more he hides from others.