One of the most difficult things facing today’s young people is when to tell a potential boyfriend or girlfriend their most intimate and well-kept secrets, knowing that the secret could be the very thing that scares them away. They always hope that if they wait until they have been in a relationship for a while, it will be easier to tell and that the receiver will be more open to the news.
It can be very difficult to talk about your financial mistakes, religious beliefs, skeletons hiding in the closet, failed past relationships, strange quirks and qualms, inherited diseases or strange sexual experiences. These little tidbits of information are a delicate matter for the secret keeper, making them feel like the receiver of information will be critical of them or just be put off.
It is human nature to tell potential partners almost immediately upon meeting about the positive aspects of our personalities, personal lives and talents, because they believe these things will make them more inviting to the other person. But history tells us that once a partner has grown to love the secret-keeper, most of the time they are quickly forgiven or they find that the secret wasn’t as big an issue to their partner as they thought it would be.
An important thing to note here is that any information that could potentially hurt a partner should be disclosed as soon as possible. Trust is at risk of being lost once the harmful information is uncovered by another source and may never be found again. Most people would prefer to know the harmful secrets up front than to find out the truth after it is too late to do anything about it.
Everyone has their own embarrassing baggage to carry around, and waiting too long to let go of it can cause irreversible damage.