Keeping secrets from loved ones can be hard. It can ruin relationships between people and it can mentally destroy your mind. Secrets can also affect your physical health in many ways but there are also ways to help stop yourself from ruining relationships with other people.

In the article, “How Your Secrets Can Damage and Maybe Even Kill You” by Ruben Castaneda, it is first said that feeling fraudulent can be one of the first things you feel once you hear a secret. It may cause you to feel inauthentic which can result in an emotional distance between the person with a secret and their loved ones.

Secrets can also affect job performance. Keeping secrets can cause someone to shift their focus from the task at hand to their secret or secrets which will cause insufficient work which will result in the person being fired or demoted from their job.

There are many health implications to keeping secrets. Dr. Anne Gilbert, a psychiatrist at the Behavioral Health Care Center, has found that along with the feeling of inauthenticness, people may develop anxiety, stress, and depression. Harboring secrets may also lead to a spike in blood sugar levels, a quickened heart rate, and a contribution to gastrointestinal distress.

There are also many ways to help minimize the negative effects of keeping secrets. The first is to not act impulsively. This means that people should plan ahead instead of doing an action right on the spot.

Second, people have to admit their transgressions. Telling someone a secret can help get rid of all negative emotions that have been bottled up inside. Doing this allows the person to move forward after they’ve let go of the bad emotions. But we have to be careful with who we tell because there can be a chance that the secret gets out or that the person might be conflicted with your secret.