Secrets are a fact of life, but can keeping to many actually hurt you?
“PSST... don’t tell anyone, but..." In many cases, keeping secrets can be a little bit thrilling, a little bit burdensome.
And it is no secret (no pun intended) that everyone has some form of deep, dark part of them they keep hidden away.
However, several articles online suggest that holding things in can cause extreme physical distress.
This begs the question - do sealed lips come with a physical toll?
Verdict:
TRUE
Whether it was the innocent pinky swear you made as a child to your best friend, or the hush relationship another friend told you about as an adult, by midlife, we are probably carrying around quite a number of secrets.
According to a 2013 article on Forbes, neuroscientists believe that it is biologically better for us to confess our secrets, or refuse to be party to someone else's.
The reason: holding on to them puts the brain in an awkward, compromised position.
Yes, there is a whole scientific explanation to this, but to keep it short, there is a part of our brain wired to tell the truth which signals other regions of the brain to share information so it can move on to more important functions.
When we keep a secret locked inside, that part of our brain is not performing its natural functions.
It then becomes stressed and the pressure it causes leads our body to ramp up production of stress hormones, triggering the "fight or flight" response, the same response often triggered when we feel anxiety or fear.
Hence, every time we think about a deeply held secret, stress hormones can surge, impacting our memory, blood pressure, gastrointestinal tract and metabolism.
So the next time you hear the words, "Psst, don’t tell anyone, but...," freeze the moment and think of what your brain and body will have to go through to keep that piece of information.
References:
1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/
2. https://
3. https://now.tufts.edu/2022/12/
