Crab Apple vs Pine
Pine is I did something wrong. Crab Apple is there is something wrong with me. Guilt points at an act. Shame points at you.
Crab Apple
Feeling unclean or ashamed of yourself, and fixating on small imperfections
We earn a small commission if you buy through this link, at no extra cost to you. How this works
Why they get muddled
Both are self directed and both sit in the despondency group. Both people are much harder on themselves than they would ever be on anybody else, and both tend to keep it quiet.
The differences
What is at fault
Crab Apple
You are. Something about you feels tainted or not clean.
Pine
Something you did. The act is the problem, not the person.
What you fixate on
Crab Apple
A flaw, a detail, your appearance, a sense of being unclean.
Pine
A specific wrong, an old regret, your share of the blame.
What you do about it
Crab Apple
Wash, tidy, check, fix the detail.
Pine
Apologize, make up for it, work harder.
Scale
Crab Apple
One small thing takes over the whole view.
Pine
Responsibility spreads to cover everything, including things that were not yours.
Which one to pick
Choose Crab Apple if
- One small flaw takes over your whole view of yourself
- You feel unclean and want to wash after difficult days
- You fixate on details other people would not notice
Choose Pine if
- You apologize for things that were never your fault
- You feel you do not really deserve good things when they come
- You feel guilty even when somebody tells you it was fine
What if both sound right?
Guilt and shame sit close together and often arrive as a pair, so taking both is reasonable. If a third feeling in the mix is strictness about your own standards, look at Rock Water as well.
Common questions
Is Crab Apple the cleansing remedy?
That is how the tradition describes it, and people use it for the feeling of being physically or mentally unclean. It is also the one usually reached for when a small imperfection has grown out of all proportion.
What if I am just very particular?
Then this may not be the picture at all. Beech is irritation at other people's habits, and Rock Water is strictness aimed at yourself in the form of rules rather than shame. Crab Apple is specifically about feeling tainted.
Keep narrowing
The pairs closest to this one, if neither of these two turns out to be it.
LarchvsPine
Larch doubts what you can do. Pine blames you for what you did. If the feeling is I would not be able to, that is Larch. If it is I should not have, that is Pine.
Crab ApplevsRock Water
Crab Apple is about how you feel about yourself. Rock Water is about the rules you keep. One wants to be clean and the other wants to be good, and they do not answer to the same remedy.
Still not sure?
Read both profiles in full, or start from the feeling and let the quiz narrow it for you.