If news of George Zimmerman being in trouble with the law feels a little like déjà vu, don’t be alarmed. This week marks the third time since his acquittal in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin that Zimmerman has made headlines for his bizarre behavior.

Zimmerman was formally charged with aggravated assault during a brief court appearance in Sanford, Fla. Tuesday. After the appearance, he was released on $9,000 bond and ordered to wear a monitoring bracelet. His weapons and his passports were all confiscated before his release. According to CNN, he was arrested Monday after his girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, called 911. Scheibe told the dispatcher that Zimmerman broke her sunglasses and put his gun in her face during a heated domestic dispute.

"He's in my house breaking all my s--- because I asked him to leave," Scheibe, 27, said in her 911 call, according to The NY Daily News. "He has his freakin' gun, he's breaking all of my stuff right now!"

Zimmerman’s court-appointed attorney, Jeff Dowdy, is confident that he will be proven not guilty on the charges associated with the dispute.

"I am confident that Mr. Zimmerman will be acquitted in his domestic violence case,” said Dowdy. "Of course he is sorry about what happened but he maintains his innocence.”

But this recent recurrence of bad behavior may be a symptom of a bigger problem. Just think about it. How does anyone ever get over killing someone? And, in a case as public as Zimmerman’s, what is the healthy way to move on?

Zimmerman has never disputed the fact that he killed Martin, an unarmed African American teen, on Feb. 26, 2012. However, he claimed that he did so in self-defense. Under Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows a person to use deadly force to “prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another, or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony,” Zimmerman was acquitted in the murder of Martin.

Even in cases of self-defense, though, it is difficult to move on from knowing that you took a person’s life. An article in Slate, titled “How Do You Get Over Killing A Man?” explored the psychological effects of self-defense killing by consulting two experts, psychologist Thomas P. Cogan and clinical and forensic psychologist Laurence Miller.

Most studies on the subject use police officers who have killed people in the line of duty as participants. In those cases, psychologists find that walking the person through the incident in slow motion, using vivid detail, does help some make progress toward a healthier outlook. Patients who fixate on having killed someone usually have a hard time grappling with the “what ifs” and the possibility that had they acted differently, the person on the receiving end may still be alive.

“At this point, the psychologist reminds the patient not to judge his actions in hindsight, but to think about his state of mind in the split-second in which the decision had to be made,” says the article. “The idea is to stop the patient from obsessing over things he can’t control in his past and focus on the present and future.”

According to the Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia, obsessive thoughts and desiring different outcomes are symptoms of guilt. Guilt can be immobilizing for some, but in others it results in over-sensitivity, inability to make decisions, and irrational beliefs. Guilt, in extreme circumstances, can lead to episodic and unpredictable emotional responses.

Zimmerman may be an example of what happens when, whether through self-defense or not, the guilt of killing a man literally drives someone crazy.