Why does the shame of losing my job still grip me?

You lost a job. That is finished. It sits outside your power now, no matter how long you turn it over. What remains — how you speak of it, what you do next — is entirely yours to choose. The shame tells you a lie: that your worth was measured by that title or that paycheck. It was not. No employer ever held your worth in their hands to give or take away. You are not carrying this alone, and you should stop acting as if you are. Tell the people beside you plainly what happened and what you are doing now. Let them see the work, not the wound.